It's 1917, Who's Your Favorite Film Star?
I recently purchased the February 1917 issue of Motion Picture Magazine and was pleasantly surprised to find detailed results of a popularity fan poll inside. Motion Picture Magazine claims over a million fans voted, and I don't doubt that they did. These fan polls were popular in the early days, but these results seem very detailed and judging by the number of voters this appears to have been quite a serious poll.
It's not mentioned in the issue, but looking at the results I would guess that the fans voted for more than just their single favorite star, maybe a top five or ten instead, with points rewarded based on rankings. I say this for a few reasons, one of which is every vote total is a multiple of five. Also, if it were one-voter/one-vote, I'd expect the top few selections to have several more votes (I'm talking in the hundreds of thousands). Plus can you really see 66,000-plus people taking Fannie Ward with their one and only choice, or even 34,000-plus going with Hobart Henley? No way.
Also, the poll looks biased against both comedians and Biograph stars, who perhaps didn't have the fame of some of their counterparts yet due to their later billing. This is just a guess, but for Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish to rank as low as they do so recently after The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance seems strange to me. I'm sure there are other biases to take into account as well, some obvious, some less obvious. For example, I'm sure whoever was on the cover of the issue containing the ballot or announcement saw a little boost just due to that presence. This is definitely not perfect, but it's certainly a great way to get an idea of the general popularity of the stars during this particular instance in time, say late 1916 due to publication lead time, and how the hardcore fans who read and subscribed to the fan magazines felt about them.
To the top two winners Motion Picture Magazine awarded paintings of themselves by Leo Sielke, Jr (the same illustrator responsible for the Wallace Reid cover from this issue), which the magazine also announced would be future covers as soon as they were ready to go. To the rest of the top ten went "a handsomely engraved and engrossed certificate," while the bottom ninety also will receive engraved certificates. All I can say is, "Poor Richard Stanton and Louise Glaum." Uh, that will make more sense when you reach the bottom of the list.
Here are the top 100 (well, 102) popular stars of 1917 along with their vote totals. Any linked name leads to a profile of that star found elsewhere on this site. Enjoy:
1. Mary Pickford |
462,190 |
 #1 Pickford  #2 Bushman  #16 Roland  #62 Gish  Poor #102 |
52. Edward Coxen |
86,165 |
Another feature on this site takes a look at the 53 Most Popular Movie Stars as reported in the January 1936 issue of The American Magazine.
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