Actress Mary Pickford couldn't decide the subject matter for her next movie. Her previous two, both adult-themed films, 1923's "Rosita" and 1924's 'Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall,' weren't exactly barnburners in the theaters. Interviewed in Photoplay Magazine, she asked the public what type of role her fans would like to see her play in her next film. Hands down the majority of the 20,000 letters she received said to play a little girl (again). The 33-year-old Pickford then set her sights on yet another adolescent character, but she dismissed such popular literary suggestions as Anne of Green Gables, Heidi and Alice in Wonderland.
Her friend Mabel Normand suggested her next movie should contain an Irish title, and wrap a story around the Irish character. Selecting a late-1890's music hall song, 'Little Annie Rooney,' Pickford set her story in an inner-city, gang-ridden neighborhood while her character would be a daughter of a city policeman (naturally). Screenwriters expanded her barebones tale, showing a tough urban precinct at the nexus of a mixing pot of first-generation immigrants. What emerged was one of Pickford's most financially-successful movies she had ever produced, October 1925's "Little Annie Rooney." The motion picture became the eighth top-grossing film of the year and retained the Pickford empire as one of Hollywood's most lucrative in the industry.
Constructing a look-alike New York City crowded, run-down neighborhood on her United Artist studio grounds, Pickford assumed the character of a tomboy who's involved in gangland brick-throwing brawls, where nobody miraculously gets injured.
Movie fans embraced her role once again as a spunky girl who doesn't take gruff from both the tough boys as well as the condescending adults. One standout actor is Gordon Griffith, who plays her much older brother Tim Rooney. The 11-year-old actor who appeared in cinema's first Tarzan movie in 1918 had grown up to be an 18-year-old adult who's bent on revenge for the person responsible for the killing of his police officer dad. In addition, William Haines, whose star-power was rising after his appearance in 1924's "Wine of Youth," receives a hefty part as a good-guy leader of a group called the Kelly's gang.
Despite limiting her movie productions to a mere one a year, Pickford's popularity continued to sustain itself throughout the mid-1920's. She showed no signs of letting up in her film productions since her popularity was still at an all-time high.
Her friend Mabel Normand suggested her next movie should contain an Irish title, and wrap a story around the Irish character. Selecting a late-1890's music hall song, 'Little Annie Rooney,' Pickford set her story in an inner-city, gang-ridden neighborhood while her character would be a daughter of a city policeman (naturally). Screenwriters expanded her barebones tale, showing a tough urban precinct at the nexus of a mixing pot of first-generation immigrants. What emerged was one of Pickford's most financially-successful movies she had ever produced, October 1925's "Little Annie Rooney." The motion picture became the eighth top-grossing film of the year and retained the Pickford empire as one of Hollywood's most lucrative in the industry.
Constructing a look-alike New York City crowded, run-down neighborhood on her United Artist studio grounds, Pickford assumed the character of a tomboy who's involved in gangland brick-throwing brawls, where nobody miraculously gets injured.
Movie fans embraced her role once again as a spunky girl who doesn't take gruff from both the tough boys as well as the condescending adults. One standout actor is Gordon Griffith, who plays her much older brother Tim Rooney. The 11-year-old actor who appeared in cinema's first Tarzan movie in 1918 had grown up to be an 18-year-old adult who's bent on revenge for the person responsible for the killing of his police officer dad. In addition, William Haines, whose star-power was rising after his appearance in 1924's "Wine of Youth," receives a hefty part as a good-guy leader of a group called the Kelly's gang.
Despite limiting her movie productions to a mere one a year, Pickford's popularity continued to sustain itself throughout the mid-1920's. She showed no signs of letting up in her film productions since her popularity was still at an all-time high.