ABSTRACT
Mary Pickford was a Canadian citizen and a subject of the British Empire. As a Canadian immigrant of Anglo-Irish descent, she passed as Anglo-American. She was first promoted as America's Sweetheart for Tess of the Storm Country, the nickname did not stick: she was still popularly known as "Little Mary" and "Our Mary." Pickford's first and most important war propaganda film was The Little American. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, it was shot shortly before the United States entered First World War and released in August 1917, just after the United States joined the Allied war effort. She would also appear in Johanna Enlists, her other feature-length war propaganda film, as well as two shorts, War Relief and One Hundred Percent American. With Stella Maris, widely considered to be one of Pickford's finest films and performances, she succeeded in creating genuinely popular and mature art.
