Canadian Pioneers in Early Hollywood - Canadian Scene in Hollywood

Canadian Scene in Hollywood

In his book Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood, Charles Foster recounted his experiences meeting some of these Canadians while on leave from the Royal Air Force during World War II. Foster visited Hollywood where he was introduced to Canadian and silent movie director Sidney Olcott. Through Olcott he learned of Hollywood's Canadian community. Although total strangers, young Foster was welcomed with open arms. This social gathering of "Canucks" also included Walter Pidgeon, Deanna Durbin, Fifi D'Orsay, and others who worked in the movie business.

Several of these Canadian pioneers achieved enormous wealth and worldwide fame, such as Louis B. Mayer and Mary Pickford who were, in their day, two of the most powerful personalities in Hollywood. From the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Canadian female actresses were amongst the greatest box office draws. The Academy Award for Best Actress was won by Canadian women three years in a row:

• 1929 - Mary Pickford in Coquette
• 1930 - Norma Shearer in The Divorcee
• 1931 - Marie Dressler in Min and Bill

Foster recounts the feelings and deep loyalty of Louis B. Mayer. Although he had become a naturalized American citizen, Mayer was known to hire Canadian compatriots on the spot, as Saint John, New Brunswick native Walter Pidgeon later recalled:

Several Canadian expatriates met with tragedy. Florence Lawrence, the "first real movie star", the Biograph Girl in Hollywood history, who appeared in more than 270 movies, committed suicide and for nearly 50 years was forgotten in an unmarked grave in the Hollywood Cemetery. Tragic too, is the story of the decline of silent movie star Marie Prevost who succumbed to severe alcoholism and malnutrition at the age of 38. Then, the beautiful Florence La Badie, purported mistress to Woodrow Wilson and allegedly the mother of his child, who died in a car accident after her brakes had been tampered with. Notorious too, was Jack Pickford's alcohol and drug-filled womanizing existence. One of his wives, actress Olive Thomas, died of poisoning under very suspicious circumstances and his own life was cut short at age 36 from what was rumoured to be syphilis.