Mary Pickford Prepares Marilyn Miller For Her First Screen Test
Mary Helps Marilynn Primp Up For Her First Screen Appearance
Mary Pickford, the world’s sweetheart, is here seen assisting Marilynn Miller, her sister-in-law to put the final touches to her hair before taking her first screen test. Marilynn was recently given a test at the Pickford-Fairbanks studio, and it proved highly satisfactory. photo: Kadel & Herbert News Photos, October 1923
Marilyn Miller (born Mary Ellen Reynolds, September 1, 1898) was a Ziegfeld Follies headliner before she was 20-years-old.
By 1924, Marilyn (sometimes spelled Marilynn) was one of Broadway’s biggest stars. A phenomenal dancer and excellent mimic and singer, Marilyn became the sister-in-law of film superstar Mary Pickford by marrying Jack Pickford in 1922.
Though Marilyn Miller made a screen test in 1923, she would appear in only three films, the first being Sally (1929) a reprise of her leading role in the 1920 Broadway smash.
Here is a clip of Miller from Sally, one of the first two strip Technicolor films.
Marilyn’s first husband Frank Carter died in an automobile accident in 1920 just shy of their first wedding anniversary.
Marrying Jack Pickford, would be a huge mistake.
Pickford, an alcoholic and drug addict had previously been married to another Ziegfeld Follies beauty and film star, Olive Thomas.
Thomas mysteriously died in 1920 after ingesting mercury bichloride (a treatment for syphilis) at a Paris hotel either accidentally, intentionally, or by force.
Though Pickford was in the the room when Thomas went to the bathroom and drank the potion, he claimed she did so accidentally and did not know how or why she drank it. Thomas died after five days of agony in a hospital, never regaining her voice to explain what happened.
Pickford and Miller divorced after five stormy years of marriage. Marilyn next married Jack Donohue in a 1928 marriage lasting less than a year. After divorcing Donohue married Chet O’Brien in 1934.
Marilyn would later have her own alcohol addiction issues and died April 7, 1936 at the age 37 after sinus surgery.
