100 Years of The Athena: Mary Pickford’s Cinderella — One Day Only, Wednesday, June 3

Director: James Kirkwood
Writer(s): Charles Perrault (story)
Cast: Mary Pickford, Owen Moore and Isabel Vernon

Based on the fairy tale: Cinderella is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, but is able to go to the royal ball through the help of the Fairy Godmother.

On June 3, 1915, the Athena Cinema’s first-ever showing was Mary Pickford as Cinderella in this silent film. One hundred years from that day, the Athena will show Cinderella once again in what is sure to be a night to remember, complete with music, food, and history.

6:00 – 7:00: Join us at the Athena for an open house where there will be complimentary cake from bakeries all around Athens as well as champagne.

7:00 – 7:45: We’ll all head to the college green to enjoy a very special music presentation. Under the Elms Concert: Athena Cinema at 100: a Musical Celebration!

8:00 – 9:00: We’ll head back to the theater for a showing of the silent film that started it all, Mary Pickford in Cinderella, complete with live musical accompaniment from Derek DiCenzo.

A review from The Moving Picture World, January 2, 1915:

The Christmas release of the Famous Players Film Co. presents Mary Pickford in a charming version of the century-old classic, “Cinderella.” This idyllic story might have been written to order for “Little Mary,” so amazingly does the role of the ragged but beautiful cinder-girl fit her. Tender and pretty as is the old story itself, it has been so enriched in the film version, so many new features have been artistically blended with the old, in which the natural and the super-natural, the eerie and the human, mingle, and the romance of the handsome and courageous prince with the little maid of the cinders is so originally and exquisitely portrayed, that the picture promises to be as great a treat with the grown-ups as with the children.

“Little Mary,” whether as the poor, reviled little cinder girl, or the pretty, jewelled and ermined princess, is equally effective, and every passing phase of the sympathetic character is appealingly intensified by the beauty and grace of the wonderful little star.