Mary Pickford’s mugshot: early Hollywood celebrities and San Quentin Prison

Abstract

ABSTRACT On a 1924 tour of San Quentin Prison, film star Mary Pickford sat to have her photograph taken in the studio of imprisoned photographer Sid Kepford, who was responsible for taking the prison’s mugshots. Pickford was far from the only motion picture celebrity to pass through the institution, however, and this article exposes the extent to which San Quentin was a destination for Hollywood’s actors and directors, who moved about the prison with great freedom due to the permission granted to them by star-struck wardens. This article places the Pickford photograph in a history of carceral images, outlines a history of film spectatorship at San Quentin, and reveals just how inviting the prison was to its panoply of Hollywood guests.