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September 16, 2012

During this year’s Toronto International Film Festival there were (and perhaps still are) dozens of celebrities from the wonderful world of motion pictures visiting many of the numerous restaurants and theatres our fair city has to offer. Now, as the film fest winds down for another year and rave reviews proliferate, it’s high time to take notice of the person who is universally accepted as being the very first of these motion picture celebrities. In fact, most experts regard this person as the first to be given the title “movie star.” And what’s more, this star was born right here in Toronto.

While this person would eventually become known to the world by the name Mary Pickford, to the few Torontonians of the 1890s who knew the youngster, she was just the little girl who lived in the small two-storey house at 175 University Avenue, an inconspicuous place on the edge of the infamous Ward part of town. To them, she was simply Gladys Smith.

Just how little Gladys went from playing on the dusty streets of Toronto to playing on playhouse stages across America and eventually onto silent movie theatre screens around the world as Mary Pickford, a stage name she herself chose from her family tree, are fascinating stories. However, suffice it to say that neither of these things would have happened, nor would we now be celebrating this famous Canadian, had it not been for her father’s misfortune.

University Avenue looking north to College Street as the street looked about the time Gladys was born in a small house just out of view to the right.