Douglas Fairbanks

Silent film superstars Mary Pickford, with the long golden curls, and dashing Douglas Fairbanks were the primary Hollywood royalty. They were the Brad and Angelina of our day, wildly famous the world over. Their legendary home was called Pickfair, a joining of their last names.

Pickfair started as a hunting lodge built in 1911. Douglas found the property while riding in the wild Hollywood Hills. Married in 1920, Doug and Mary renovated the snug lodge on Summit Drive. Prominent architect Wallace Neff expanded it to an L-shaped, 22-room Tudor mansion with a copper roof and green gables.

Furnishings were department-store French ageold reproductions. Through gifts and their travels, Doug and Mary assembled fine art and antiques, creating a warm yet graceful place to entertain.

And entertain they did! Pickfair was the center of Hollywood society. Everyone wanted an invitation, not only actors and actresses, but likewise scientists, athletes, political figures and royalty from all over the world.

Doug did not drink and so some guests at Pickfair were astonished (and dismayed) to find no wine at the dinner table. After dinner and a movie, Ovaltine was served!

Because of the popularity of the King and Queen of Hollywood, others in the film industry built mansions nearby, creating the luxurious Beverly Hills we know today.

But things changed. Talkies arrived in 1929 and Doug and Mary saw their careers foundering. They were older, movie tastes had changed, Doug was restless, and they divorced in 1936.

Mary kept Pickfair, marrying handsome actor Charles “Buddy” Rogers the following year. She and Buddy raised a family and opened their home to charity events. But as the years went by and life at Pickfair quieted, Mary became more and more reclusive, spending all her time upstairs in her bedroom.

Mary Pickford passed from physical life in 1979. Buddy sold Pickfair to Jerry Buss, proprietor of the Los Angeles Lakers, who in turn sold it in 1988 to businessman Meshulam Riklis and wife actress Pia Zadora.

In 1989, Riklis and Zadora said that Pickfair was so riddled with termites that it was beyond fix and they had it torn down.

Preservationists were aghast. The house had been a symbol of Old Hollywood. Riklis and Zadora built an enormous Venetian mansion on the property. Completed in 1991, only a few initial features of Pickfair were saved. They sold the property to a corporation in 2005.

Although still called “Pickfair,” this is not the house that saw the beginnings of the business of making movies, the meetings resulting in the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the scores of famous humans who visited and the romance of the firstborn Hollywood super couple. That house is gone and with it the mystique.

Douglas Fairbanks

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS COLLECTION 6PK – DVD Movie

Most helpful client reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderful collection, but numerous technical issues with DVDs
By Liberty Rocks!
I can’t say sufficient good things in regards to this box set, and the restorations done by Kino. Unfortunately, the “Zorro” DVD seems to have a great deal of kind of factory defect. It will not play at all. I’ve tried the DVD on various dissimilar players, and all of them reject it right away with a “DISC ERROR” message.

I returned my initial order of this DVD box for an exchange, hoping that a fresh “Zorro” DVD would not have this problem. But it does, and it’s factory sealed, so I have to assume it is a problem on Kino’s end.

It doesn’t sound like other users here had disturb with their “Zorro” DVD (but there is only one other review posted, so hard to tell if this has happened to other customers), but I’m so frustrated because this is the 2nd copy I’ve purchased and STILL can’t watch the “Mark of Zorro/Don Q – Son of Zorro” double-feature. This is the only DVD in the box that is a “dual-layer disc” – perchance the dual-layer technology is the trouble (?), as all the other “single-layer” discs in the set play just fine.

While this box is not a waste of money, you are going to take a loss if you buy the box and one of the 5 discs won’t play. so rather of paying $90 for the set, you’re in all likelihood better off to buy each of the Kino DVD editions separately, and refrain from the “Zorro” one totally until they get this technical issue worked out.

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Action – adventure – romance
By Gagewyn
OK I confess it, I haven’t seen all of these movies. But here is the data on what I have seen:

The Thief of Bagdad – A very nice adventure movie. Fairbanks plays the thief, in love with the princess. He will have to infiltrate the palace and impress her more with a bit of magic and trickery. Out to stop him is a young May Wong, who wants her Chinese countryman to marry the princess. This is a in truth cool particular effects movie. It has a genie, a flying carpet, lots of bogus smoke and exotic costumes. (I saw the Kino VHS and picture quality was good.)

The Mark of Zorro – Fairbanks made this movie around 1920 when he was just starting out. He did all his own stunts, and knowing this made it that much cooler looking at him go go go. This has the blend of action and humor that you will be intimate with from more innovative Zorro movies. It is very watchable now and the stunts were ordinary and impressive.

Robin Hood – A extremely pleasing swashbuckler. The sets for this were big and very costly – they built a middeval castle right in the middle of then unexploited Hollywood. At one point Fairbanks slides down a two story curtain in a long fantastic sword fight. This is good action and stunt filled adventure movie and similar to The Thief of Bagdad in terms of who will like it.

The Black Pirate – This is the oldest surviving three color film. That is film the stuff in the camera I am talking about. So the reason it gets published now is for historical interest in film methods. The story is OK, but the effigy quality is not so hot. This isn’t Kino’s fault – the film was in poor condition with galore scratches. Fairbanks and crew of pirates do nifty stunts, including an underwater attack on a ship. However this movie is improbable to appeal to most. Watch it for historical value or pass on it.

I haven’t seen the other films included in this set. I think all of these are silent movies, just so you know. All except The Black Pirate have strong appeal today and are easy to watch. Silent movies that I have watched from Kino have color tinting and toning. (This is not colorization and these films could have had these colors when in the first place released. Silent film scripts provide notes on how to tint a scene for effect.) Kino does a great occupation with the silent movies so this is a safe investment.

Fans of Fairbanks must like this. University libraries must consider it also. Kino does consistent restorations of older films and at least three of these films are the sort of thing film students might want to have access to.

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