Ashley Anne StrobridgeWomen in American HistoryDr. Sue Jean ChoResearch Paper on Women in Film4/27/11

The Forgotten Women Leaders Who Founded the Film Industry: Their Story and How They Were Written Out of HIStory

Little known in today’s society is the fact that from the 1890s through the 1920s, women were the driving force in the art of filmmaking across the U.S. Women were the primary screen-writers, as well as the most prominent and successful directors and producers of the films that came out of Hollywood from before the turn of the 20th century into the early 1920s. Through the first two decades of the last century, women called the shots in Hollywood, but by the 1930s, big business had taken over Hollywood, and because business and the large sums of money that the film industry was now generating (thanks to these women) were considered a man’s arena, women were no longer encouraged to, and were in many cases barred from, entering a filmmaking career. So why from the 1890s through the 1920s were there so many powerful women behind the camera in Hollywood, and what other factors made all that abruptly end for the majority of women in the 1930s? Where do women stand in the film industry today? And why is it that the mothers of Hollywood, the real founders, are little heard of in today’s history books and film classes? These questions must be answered to properly record the tale of how the founders of the film industry were erased from popular memory, and shunted into the dusty corners of history. Through this recording and others like it, the memory of their achievements can be restored, and their proper place of honor in history remembered.

When telling a story, one should always start from the beginning. Well, the story of Hollywood

began with a woman. In her book, When Women Call the Shots: The Developing Power and Influence of

Women in Television and Film, Linda Seger explains that Alice Guy Blanche, a secretary in a photographic

studio in Paris in 1895, was inspired by the possibilities of filmmaking after seeing a non-fiction film with

her boss. She requested permission from him, in 1896, to film a short fictional piece she had written

called La Fee aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy), which she proceeded to film, direct, and produce with help

from her friends who played the characters and built the set. Her boss was so impressed by the final

product that he set up a studio for her, and over the course of the next ten years, she produced,

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directed, and wrote almost four hundred films. She pioneered the special effects in filming such as

moving the camera to follow its subjects, close-ups, fade-outs, double exposures, color filming, and

location filming, and was the very first person to create a fictional film. Before her, only non-fiction films

had been made, and fiction wasn’t even considered a relevant or appropriate topic for filmmaking.

After becoming a successful head of her own production company in Paris, Alice Guy Blanche then

conquered the United States, creating the studio Solax Company in New Jersey in 1910, which “became

a model for the modern film studios that were to follow,” (Seger 5-7). Because of her efforts, she

should be considered the mother of modern cinema, as the film industry is built on the money made

from fictional films. To this day she remains almost completely hidden in the obscure pages of history.

Alice Guy Blanche is only one example of unsung female heroes in film. There are many, many

more. In this year’s Academy Awards it was mentioned that last year, 2010, was the first year that a

woman had ever won an Oscar for directing a film. This is an astounding fact when one considers that a

woman was actually the first person to ever conceive of a fictional movie and proceed to film it. The

fictional film business has made the U.S. a fortune, but little credit is attributed to the plethora of female

theater owners, managers, scenario writers, producers, editors, actresses and directors in the early days

that helped build the film industry from the ground up. Lois Weber, Director, Producer, Writer and

Mother of the “Uplift Movement” (see page 4 for definition); Cleo Madison, whose female heroes were

groundbreaking in their strength (Cooper 47); Frances Marion, actress, director, and above all Academy

Award winning scenario writer; Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart throughout the silent era, film star

and head of the United Artist studio with Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Douglas Fairbanks. All of

these women were pioneers, and according to film historian Anthony Slide, “During the silent era,

women can be said to have dominated the industry. Women writers were considered the best of this

era….many of these screenwriters were considered the top screenwriters of this period, and the women

directors were considered equal to, if not better than, their male colleagues,” (Slide). Yet in histories

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today, we hear nearly nothing of any female film pioneers other than Mary Pickford, while men such as

D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. de Mille have household names for doing things that Alice Guy Blanche did a

decade earlier than they did.

To delve further into the topic of women in early Hollywood, we must first understand why

women were so accepted into filmmaking in the first place. There are many aspects behind this

development in the early 20th century. One reason mentioned in Karen Ward Mahar’s book Women

Filmmakers in Early Hollywood was that filmmaking, like photography, was thought to be an art form

“requiring the feminine traits of abnegation and devotion and a delicate touch,” (Mahar 16). This

argument was first made for photography in the late nineteenth century, but would later be taken up by

the first women filmmakers. Also according to Mahar, “the photograph trade set the precedent of using

women to process film” (Mahar 20). With female editors having processed photographic film since the

1840s, it was not a leap to allow women to become moving picture film editors.

Between 1910 and the end of WWI women made up the largest section of movie audiences,

(Mahar 3), which influenced studio heads to actively seek out women to join the film industry because

they thought women would know what other women wanted to see on film. This was not the only

aspect of the relationship between those within the feminine sex that made it possible for women to be

accepted into filmmaking, it was also their fierce loyalty to one another that played a huge role. Women

who were already in the business of filmmaking encouraged other women to join them there, and so

their numbers in the film industry grew rapidly in the early days.

Between 1908 and 1916 there was a spike in demand for moving pictures that left studio heads

scrambling to produce films fast enough for the voracious appetite of the American cinema audience.

They ended up needing to hire more and more writers, directors, producers and actors, which led to

more open hiring practices, which led to more women being hired to fill these positions.

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One of the most influential reasons why women were welcomed into the film industry was that

when the nickelodeons became thought of as “too dangerous for impressionables, assumptions of

female moral superiority encouraged the industry to embrace and promote women in their midst,”

(Mahar 3). This idea came about during the time when women were still thought of as guides to society

concerning moral issues. According to Sara Evans’ book Born for Liberty, in 1900 there were nearly a

hundred settlement houses which were founded by the New Women of that period to serve the poor

and provide them with moral guidance, as well as provide society with needed social reform (Evans 148-

149). This was around the same time that women were helping to found the film industry, and it was

indeed thought the realm of the women to keep the film industry clean along with society. This was

called the Uplift Movement, which began in 1909, and it fell upon the shoulders of women to make the

nickelodeons respectable, which was a tough job when one realizes how nickelodeons were thought by

some observers to be a menace. It was at this point that “women became the most celebrated

exhibitors and filmmakers in American cinema,” (Mahar 78). This powerful statement rings true when

compared to other evidence that women were a strong force in the birth of the art of filmmaking in

America.

The final variable one must consider when deciding why it was that women were so accepted

into the film industry, which certainly cannot be overlooked, is these women’s immense talent. Women

in the late 1800s and early 1900s were the most educated in American History. According to Evans,

women in 1880 made up 32% of all students in higher education (Evans 147). With very few fields open

to women, after graduation they flocked to those fields which were, these included nursing, teaching,

social work, and as we have seen, the social work of refining the movies. One must not overlook,

however, those talented artists and pioneers that joined the filmmaking trade not to reform it, but to

build it and to be creative in a realm where they were actually welcomed and could even make money.

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In fact, most of the women in Hollywood were there expressly for that purpose, not to reform; for many

that was only their foot in the door.

As we can see, many factors converged between 1896, when the first fictional film was made

(by a woman), and the late 1920s that allowed for women’s acceptance into the movie business. But it

went farther than that. In Ally Acker’s book Reel Women, Pioneers of the Cinema 1896 to the Present,

Marc Wanamaker is quoted in saying, “more women worked in decision-making positions in film before

1920 than at any other time in history,” (Acker xviii). So what propelled women to the forefront and

towards such great success in the field of filmmaking?

As I have mentioned previously, women were an extremely talented, newly tapped resource for

the movie business during its formative years. Women had always been accepted as artists, but never

before as bread-winning artists in a business. Within this new freedom women flourished. Lois Weber

was the first women to direct, star, coauthor, and produce a major motion picture, and had a fruitful

career. Ida May Park “was one of several prominent women directors at Universal Studios in the late

1910s, and certainly one of the most prolific,” (Acker 17). Though Women enjoyed great success at

Universal during it’s inception, Park and two others, including Weber, were the only truly powerful

women at Universal Studios after WWI, when Universal’s encouragement of women seemed to take a

turn downwards. On the other hand, many women achieved success as scenario writers (screenwriters),

in the teens and continued to succeed through the sound era and beyond. According to the St. James

Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia, one of these women, “Bess Meredyth, was one of the solid core of

first-class screenwriters, the majority of whom were women, who began their careers in the silent era

and continued to enjoy success on into the coming of sound,”(Unterberger 287). Meredyth was actually

penning scripts into the ‘40s. Female writers in filmmaking achieved particular success because writing

had long been acknowledged as somewhat suited to a “woman’s sensibilities,” with one of the

pioneering feminine writers being Jane Austen, whose first book was published in 1813, (Austen).

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Another reason for women’s great success in filmmaking in the early years was, also mentioned

earlier, a feminine teamwork. Women created a strong network of female colleagues within which to

exchange favors and back each other up in times of trouble. According to a quote by Frances Marion in

Marsha McCreadie’s book The Women Who Write the Movies there was an abundance of female writers

who were tied in friendship to many of the female stars of early Hollywood, (McCreadie 28). And many

of these stars would have no other writer create scenarios for them than their own friends. In Cari

Beauchamp’s book Without Lying Down, Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood,

Mary Pickford and others close to her attributed much of Pickford’s success to her teamwork with

scenario writer Frances Marion, who knew exactly what the audiences wanted to see Mary up to on the

silver screen. Marion also protected Pickford from scandal during Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks’ torrid

affair while both were married to other spouses. Marion helped to shield them from public scrutiny

until both could divorce their spouses by non-scandalous means, and wed each other. Pickford,

Fairbanks, Marion, and her then husband Fred Thompson even honeymooned together in Europe,

(Beauchamp).

Early Hollywood was developing during the days of the New Woman, when possibilities were

opening up everywhere for women, and more women felt like being adventurous, so the trappings of

the silver screen called to many women. Those who truly were adventurous were the most successful.

Early Hollywood gave women an opportunity to champion their fellow female.

Slide wrote in Early Women Directors, “During the silent era, women might have been said to

have virtually controlled the film industry.” So why over 100 years ago, before women even had the

vote, were there more women behind the scenes in positions of power making films than during the 30s

and beyond? It all comes down to money. Acker states in Reel Women that as Hollywood became more

centralized, “Hollywood…..was mirroring changes taking place in US industry in general…..So as film

began to be a big business and only secondarily an art form, women were promptly shown the door,”

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(Acker xxiv). So how did all this occur? According to Seger’s When Women Call the Shots, it began with

the birth of the studio system in 1924; “studios were run by men, and men hired men,” (Seger 13). With

this development, women who had been championed a decade earlier were now no longer seen as

valuable; their artistic virtues could no longer hold up against the art of making money. Seger states,

“No longer could anyone take a camera, shoot a good film, and sell it. All the means of production were

being consolidated into one large system…”(Seger 12), and this system was controlled by men.

So why was the new studio system loathe to hire women? According to Evans, during the Great

Depression “both the prospect and the reality of strong and resourceful women were profoundly

frightening,” (Evans 197). Women who were successful in the early years of Hollywood were both these

things, leading one to believe that during the Depression at least a portion of society just couldn’t

handle having a strong woman running the show and being breadwinners when many men couldn’t find

a job. Evans states, “Hostility toward working women generally ignored the fact that women were not

holding traditionally male jobs, but it probably strengthened the resistance to opening such

opportunities to the growing number of women desperate to work,” (Evans 202). The reaction to

women holding important positions in the movie business before the Depression, was to eliminate them

from the field once the 30s came in order to create jobs for men. Seger articulates that, “Although

women had made successful films, their contributions were not recognized, and they were bypassed in

the development of the studio system…by the 1930s, the only women on the set were the wardrobe

women” (Seger 13). To add insult to injury, not only were women barred from most positions behind

the camera, but also their achievements were virtually forgotten. When does modern mainstream

America ever hear of the powerful female figures I have mentioned earlier? It is a very rare occurrence.

There were scores more successful and powerful women in Hollywood in the early days than

the few I mentioned above, but only two female directors made it past the 1930s and the invention of

the studio system, and they were Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino. Lupino operated outside the period

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scope of this paper, but Seger emphasizes that, “In Hollywood, the only woman directing for a studio

during the period 1927 to 1943 was Dorothy Arzner,” (Seger 14). Arzner was gifted at editing as well,

but is also known for her ability to create multilayered women and her “insight into how women talk

and relate to each other and view the world,” (Seger 14). It is a comfort to know that there was at least

one person creating realistic portrayals of women on screen during this period. However, my research

revealed that though there were only two women directing major feature films between 1927 and 1971

(Seger 15), women editors and scriptwriters, though not plentiful, were present. This is evidence that

the more detail oriented and artistic jobs were still viewed as acceptable positions for women, but that

any position that held authority, except in rare cases, was deemed inappropriate for women.

In Reel Women, Acker states, “Between 1913 and 1923, at least twenty-six women directors

have been counted in Hollywood,” (Acker xxiii). This statistic doesn’t even count the women who

directed before 1913, or women in other powerful positions like studio head such as Alice Guy Blanche,

Nell Shipman, Mary Pickford, and many others. It also leaves out the other strong women in positions of

power such as producer, stage manager, production manager, or distributer. Many women were great

filmmakers in the early part of the 20th century but they remain mostly forgotten. In Reel Women, Acker

describes how generations of historians have ignored the achievements of these women, saying

“Andrew Sarris once dismissed the contributions of women filmmakers as “little more than a ladies

auxiliary”-a statement he was later to revise and retract,” (Acker xviii). With historians like these

keeping people informed, it is little wonder women filmmakers have been lost in our country’s history.

Reel Women quotes art historian H.W. Janson, author of one of the most widely read art history books

in the world, The History of Art, as saying in 1977, “There is not a single woman artist, so far as I know, in

my book…there are hundreds of women artists from the fifteenth century on…But none of them has had

enough of an impact or development on the history of art…women artists have often done very

interesting variations on themes that ultimately go back to somebody else that turns out to be a man.

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One has to be extremely selective.” This is an outrageous statement when one considered the work of

Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, and the many others who made great strides in the art world before 1963

(when his book was published). Janson’s statements make one wonder how many truly unique male

artists he can have in his book when he disregards anyone who does variations on themes. It is truly

rare to find anyone who can do unique art that is not in some way informed by another’s work, yet he

discriminates against women in particular because they apparently cannot do anything original. But

according to Acker ,“He who has access to major publishers gets to make history,” (Acker xix), and who

would have taken a woman artist seriously enough to publish her works and record them before the

first wave of feminism? Clearly, it is even difficult for men to take women artists seriously post second

wave feminism. It seems as though many film historians feel the same way about the history of film, for

according to Acker , “From the films deemed important enough to archive and pass on (not to be

confused with the hundreds of films made by women and lost by archival neglect), this interpretive eye

has most often been the eye of a man,” (Acker xix). The interpretive eye mentioned here is the eye of

the archivalist who, in most cases, is a man. So not only have historians overlooked the works of

women, those works have been literally discarded.

It is a sad fate for the works of these strong and fine women of early Hollywood to be lost to

male neglect and derision. The works of women artists must be preserved for future generations to look

back and know that women can accomplish great things, and have made great changes in the art if

filmmaking. According to Debra Zimmerman in the autumn 2004 publication of Signs, “Women still

represent only 10 percent of the Directors Guild of America. And that includes women directors, first

and second assistant directors, stage mangers as well as other positions like unit production manager”

(Zimmerman 1457). And in McCreadie’s book, she cites a statistic that states that there are only a

handful of female writers listed in the Film Writer’s Guide, with over 1,500 listed today, and only 33

women, (McCreadie 3 & 4) We must go to those big studios, and demand that women be included in

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the art in which they once flourished before being flung out of the business for simply being a woman

and having a different point of view than their male colleagues.

Perhaps with the world’s enhanced social network such as facebook and twitter we can attempt

a new way to get the word out about the historical and contemporary female filmmakers of America. If

we remember the achievements of women in the past, and show the men in power where they went

wrong, it will be easier for women to get a foothold in the big business of filmmaking today. If we use

this new social network, we would even be echoing the efforts of women from early Hollywood who

knew how to get the word out about each other’s accomplishments. Another avenue may be to make

filmmaking less about profit and more about art like it once was. However we do it, it is important to

make that effort, or all of the efforts of women like Frances Marion, Alice Guy Blanche, and Lois Weber

really could be lost in time.

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