The story goes that Walter Price built Casa Del Rio in 1935 following a visit to Beverly Hills. Price was a baker, responsible for introducing sliced bread into the UK from the US. During Prices’ tour of the US he visited Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford at their home Pickfair.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the most famous silent movie stars of their day and an invitation to their house was much sought after. Price was so impressed by their home that on his return to England he resolved to build a new house in a magnificent setting modelled on what he had seen in the US. Casa Del Rio is the little Hollywood glamour Price brought back to South Devon.

No woman in the history of the movies has ever experienced the popularity or power Mary Pickford enjoyed during the movies silent era. Her face was known throughout the world when the silence of movies produced a universal language.

Mary's fame and fortune grew and she also aquired her nickname "America's Sweetheart" (she was the first woman to make $1,000,000 a year) by 1917 she was famous enough to go on tour alongside Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Chaplin, selling liberty bonds in aid of the war effort.

In 1919, together with Chaplin and Griffith, Mary and Doug formed United Artists which gave the four most important people in the movie industry complete licence over their own productions. Mary and Doug were now treated like Hollywood royalty, they drew famous names from home and abroad to their house named "Pickfair"by the press.