An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films : 1895-1930

doi:10.4324/9781315785929

Book

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films

ABSTRACT

Examine women’s contributions to film—in front of the camera and behind it!

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 is an A-to-Z reference guide (illustrated with over 150 hard-to-find photographs!) that dispels the myth that men dominated the film industry during its formative years. Denise Lowe, author of Women and American Television: An Encyclopedia, presents a rich collection that profiles many of the women who were crucial to the development of cinema as an industry—and as an art form. Whether working behind the scenes as producers or publicists, behind the cameras as writers, directors, or editors, or in front of the lens as flappers, vamps, or serial queens, hundreds of women made profound and lasting contributions to the evolution of the motion picture production.

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 gives you immediate access to the histories of many of the women who pioneered the early days of cinema—on screen and off. The book chronicles the well-known figures of the era, such as Alice Guy, Mary Pickford, and Francis Marion but gives equal billing to those who worked in anonymity as the industry moved from the silent era into the age of sound. Their individual stories of professional success and failure, artistic struggle and strife, and personal triumph and tragedy fill in the plot points missing from the complete saga of Hollywood’s beginnings.

Pioneers of the motion picture business found in An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films include:

Dorothy Arnzer, the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America and the only female director to make a successful transition from silent films to sound
Jane Murfin, playwright and screenwriter who became supervisor of motion pictures at RKO Studios
Gene Gauntier, the actress and scenarist whose adaptation of Ben Hur for the Kalem Film Company led to a landmark copyright infringement case
Theda Bara, whose on-screen popularity virtually built Fox Studios before typecasting and overexposure destroyed her career
Madame Sul-Te-Wan, née Nellie Conley, the first African-American actor or actress to sign a film contract and be a featured performer
Dorothy Davenport, who parlayed the publicity surrounding her actor-husband’s drug-related death into a career as a producer of social reform melodramas
Lois Weber, a street-corner evangelist who became one of the best-known and highest-paid directors in Hollywood
Lina Basquette, the “Screen Tragedy Girl” who married and divorced studio mogul Sam Warner, led The Hollywood Aristocrats Orchestra, claimed to have been a spy for the American Office of Strategic Services during World War II, and became a renowned dog expert in her later years
and many more!

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 also includes comprehensive appendices of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, the silent stars remembered in the Graumann Chinese Theater Forecourt of the Stars and those immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Stars. The book is invaluable as a resource for researchers, librarians, academics working in film, popular culture, and women’s history, and to anyone interested either professionally or casually in the early days of Hollywood and the motion picture industry.

An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

chapter 1|586 pages

The Dictionary

letter |25 pages

A

entry |1 pages

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927)

entry |3 pages

Adams, Stella (1883 Sherman, TX-1961 Woodland Hills, CA)

entry |2 pages

Adoree, Renee (1898 Lille, France-1933 Tujunga, CA)

entry |2 pages

Adventures of Kathlyn (1913)

entry |2 pages

Akins, Zoe (1886 Humanville, MO-1958 Los Angeles, CA)

entry |2 pages

Alden, Mary (1883 New York City-1946 Woodland Hills, CA)

entry |2 pages

Allen, Phyllis (1861 Staten Island, NY-1938 Los Angeles, CA)

entry |2 pages

Allison, May (1890 Rising Fawn, GA-1989 Bratenahl, OH)

entry |2 pages

Anderson, Mignon (1892 Baltimore, MD-1983 Burbank, CA)

entry |2 pages

Aoki, Tsuru (1892 Tokyo, Japan-1961 Tokyo, Japan)

entry |3 pages

Arthur, Jean (1900 Plattsburgh, NY-1991 Carmel, CA)

entry |3 pages

Arvidson, Linda (1884 San Francisco, CA-1949 New York City)

entry |3 pages

Arzner, Dorothy (1900 San Francisco, CA-1979 La Quinta, CA)

entry |1 pages

Asian Actors

entry |4 pages

Astor, Gertrude (1887 Lakewood, OH-1977 Woodland Hills, CA)

entry |4 pages

Astor, Mary (1906 Quincy, IL-1987 Woodland Hills, CA)

entry |2 pages

Ayres, Agnes (1898 Carbondale, IL-1940 Los Angeles, CA)

letter |78 pages

B

entry |3 pages

Baclanova, Olga (1896 Moscow, Russia-1974 Vesey, Switzerland)

entry |4 pages

Baird, Leah (1883 Chicago, IL-1971 Hollywood, CA)

entry |2 pages

Baker, Josephine (1906 St. Louis, MO-1975 Paris, France)

entry |1 pages

Baldwin, Ruth Ann (unknown)

entry |2 pages

Ballin, Mabel (1885 Philadelphia, PA-1958 Santa Monica, CA)

entry |2 pages

Bankhead, Tallulah (1902 Huntsville, AL-1968 New York City)

entry |1 pages

Banky, Vilma (1898 Nagyrodog, Hungary-1991 Los Angeles, CA)

entry |2 pages

Bara, Theda (1885 Cincinnati, OH-1955 Los Angeles, CA)

entry |2 pages

Barriscale, Bessie (1884 Hoboken, NJ-1965 Kentfield, CA)

entry |2 pages

Barrymore, Ethel (1879 Philadelphia, PA-1959 Beverly Hills, CA)

entry |2 pages

Basquette, Lina (1907 San Mateo, CA-1994 Wheeling, WV)

entry |3 pages

Bauchens, Anne (1882 St. Louis, MO-1967 Woodland Hills, CA)

entry |3 pages

Bayne, Beverly (1894 Minneapolis, MN-1982 Scottsdale, AZ)

entry |3 pages

Beavers, Louise (1902 Cincinnati, OH-1962 Hollywood, CA)

entry |3 pages

Bellamy, Madge (1899 Hillsboro, Texas-1990 Upland, CA)

entry |2 pages

Bennett, Belle (1891 Milcoon Rapids, IA-1932 Los Angeles, CA)

entry |2 pages

Bennett, Enid (1893 York, Australia-1969 Malibu, CA)

entry |3 pages

Beranger, Clara (1886 Baltimore, MD-1956 Hollywood, CA)

entry |2 pages