When Adolph Zukor and Jessy Lasky merged their movie production companies into one, the Famous Players-Lasky, they eyed their partner in its Paramount Pictures distribution branch, William Hodkinson, to squeeze him out with an involuntary buyout. Once they did in the summer of 1916, Zukor and Lasky dropped their Famous Players' name and called their combined production and distribution company Paramount Pictures.
Zukor believed in signing the top movie stars in the business. One of his first contracts was with Hollywood's most popular actress, Mary Pickford. Her signature on the dotted line on June 24, 1916, was the first million dollar pact for an female performer. Zukor was willing to pay her $10,000 a week and to give her half the profits for each film she made. He guaranteed over one million dollars (about $20 million in today's inflationary dollars) for the year with her full control of each of her film's production, an unprecedented contract at that time.
Pickford's third film in 1917 in which she played a little girl was a Francis Marion script, this one adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905's novel, "The Little Princess." The actress again reverts to childhood-mode, playing a rich British officer's daughter who is placed in a boarding school in England after relocating from India. The school's adults are jealous of her wealth while her school chums, initially picking on her, become intrigued with her exotic imagination. Her fortunes turn when her father dies in battle, leaving her with no inheritance.
Pickford's Sara Crewe is forced by the school's matrons to work as a "slave" with actress SaZu Pitts. The pair's existence is pure misery, given little food and working long hours. But SaZu, who excels in the 1924 memorable "Greed," will prove to be a comfort and friend to Sarah, who discovers a surprise in the twist ending.
During the mid-1930's, 20th Century-Fox president Darryl F. Zanuck took these three movies and cast his child star Shirley Temple to play the Pickford lead. Zanuck appreciated Pickford's persona playing young girls, and he transferred some of the silent movie star's traits onto Temple in preparation for these films.
