Florence Lawrence was America's first big movie star--but no one knew her name. During the first decade of the twentieth century, movie companies did not publicize their actors' names in order to keep their salaries down. Florence Lawrence made dozens of films for D.W. Griffith's Biograph Company and became the studio's most noteworthy star. Nevertheless she remained anonymous. Known to her fans only as 'the Biograph girl,' she was earning just $25 per week. When she left Biograph in 1910 to join the newly formed IMP company, her new studio started a false rumor that she had been killed in a streetcar accident in St. Louis. It then announced that 'the Biograph girl' was Florence Lawrence. She was alive and well and about to star in a new film for IMP. This was likely the first Hollywood publicity stunt.