mkmkmkmkmkmkmk — 17 years ago(August 08, 2008 12:32 PM)

It's actually a funny story. Mary Pickford was the star of Biograph and Mae Marsh allready played bit parts there. Pickford always fought with the star director of the studio, D.W. Griffith. She allready left the studio in 1911 because of him, but was re-hired a year later. Now, in 1912 Griffith was fed up with her because she started to feel superior (and even openly looked down on stage queen Billie Burke! How must she hated Pickford!). Griffith decided to put her ego down on the ground by firing her from the cast of "The Sands of Dee" and replacing her by the unknown and unexperienced Mae Marsh. "How could Griffith?! Replacing ME, the great Mary Pickford, by this nobody!"
Anyways, after seeing her performance, Pickford admitted she thought Marsh gave an excellent performance and doubted herself, because this inexperienced little girl gave a just as good of a performance as she did (Pickford started acting as a little child, beginning in 1900. She allready worked for the great David Belasco, the most prestigious and highest Broadway director) Griffith keeped on annoying her, by letting her and best friend Lillian Gish (almost literally) fight for a role in "Lena and the Geese".
I thought it was pretty funny. If you think about it, Marsh "only" became famous because of the Pickford-Griffith feud. What if they never fought? Would Marsh still had been as famous?
(My source was Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood)