Mary Pickford and the Coquette contest winners

A film featuring the 25 "Coquette girls", winners of a contest conducted as a sales promotion for Mary Pickford's first sound film, Coquette. Newspapers such as the Washington evening star, the New Haven register, and the Louisville courier-journal held a contest in January, 1929. The contestents appear to have been chosen on the basis of "letters of nomination" written by, or for, the girls. The letters were judged by a "contest editor". The prize was a trip to Hollywood as the guests of Miss Pickford, chaperoned by journalists from the newspapers that ran the contest. The film shows the winners spending time with Mary Pickford, being treated to sight-seeing trips, shopping trips, and visits to film studios to meet the stars. They take a boat trip to Catalina Island, ride the Great Incline funicular of the Mount Lowe Railway, visit the set of Coquette to meet the cast and crew, and are treated to lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. One news article referred to the journalists accompanying the winners as "newspaper chatter writers", probably journalists who covered Hollywood and the entertainment industry.
Title derived from newspaper stories about the contest.
Appearing: Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Fred Niblo.
Film selected as part of the Silent Film Project sponsored by the National Film Preservation Board.
Sources used: The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), January 24, 1929, p. 15, viewed online August 27, 2018 via Newspapers.com; The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), February 19, 1929, p. 4, viewed online August 27, 2018 via Newspapers.com; Variety, February 20, 1929, p. 26, viewed online August 27, 2018 via the Internet Archive; Evening Star (Washington (DC), District of Columbia), May 26, 1929, p. 47, viewed online August 27, 2018 via America's historical newspapers.