Liberating Hollywood examines the professional experiences and creative output of women filmmakers during a unique moment in history when the social justice movements that defined the 1960s and 1970s challenged the enduring culture of sexism and racism in the U.S. film industry. Throughout the 1970s feminist reform efforts resulted in a noticeable rise in the number of women directors, yet at the same time the institutionalized sexism of Hollywood continued to create obstacles to closing the gender gap. Maya Montañez Smukler reveals that during this era there were an estimated sixteen women making independent and studio films: Penny Allen, Karen Arthur, Anne Bancroft, Joan Darling, Lee Grant, Barbara Loden, Elaine May, Barbara Peeters, Joan Rivers, Stephanie Rothman, Beverly Sebastian, Joan Micklin Silver, Joan Tewkesbury, Jane Wagner, Nancy Walker, and Claudia Weill. Drawing on interviews conducted by the author, Liberating Hollywood is the first study of women directors within the intersection of second wave feminism, civil rights legislation, and Hollywood to investigate the remarkable careers of these filmmakers during one of the most mythologized periods in American film history.

"Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood" explores when, how, and why women were accepted as filmmakers in the 1910s and why, by the 1920s, those opportunities had disappeared. In looking at the early film industry as an "industry--"a place of work--Mahar not only unravels the mystery of the disappearing female filmmaker but untangles the complicated relationship among gender, work culture, and business within modern industrial organizations. In the early 1910s, the film industry followed a theatrical model, fostering an egalitarian work culture in which everyone--male and female--helped behind the scenes in a variety of jobs. In this culture women thrived in powerful, creative roles, especially as writers, directors, and producers. By the end of that decade, however, mushrooming star salaries and skyrocketing movie budgets prompted the creation of the studio system. As the movie industry remade itself in the image of a modern American business, the masculinization of filmmaking took root. Mahar's study integrates feminist methodologies of examining the gendering of work with thorough historical scholarship of American industry and business culture. Tracing the transformation of the film industry into a legitimate "big business" of the 1920s, and explaining the fate of the female filmmaker during the silent era, Mahar demonstrates how industrial growth and change can unexpectedly open--and close--opportunities for women.

The technological, economic and social landscape of the consumer society was formed between the 1880s and 1920s. The author of this study shows how cinema played a key role in changing the urban landscape, using Chicago as a model and linking cinema theory with women's studies.

The American Film Institute Catalog has won great praise for its comprehensiveness, reliability, and utility. These volumes are an essential purchase for every library, and individual researchers will also find them indispensable. This newest AFI volume contains over 4,300 entries for feature-length films produced in the United States in the 1940s. The decade was an important and transitional one for filmmakers. Societal changes from the war years were reflected in films, and in the late 1940s the rise of television, the Hollywood blacklist, and the breakup of studio-owned theater chains greatly affected the number and types of films produced.

"Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost three decades. She was the first woman to twice win an Academy Award for screenwriting. From 1916 to 1946 she wrote over two hundred scripts covering every conceivable genre for stars such as Mary Pickford, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies, Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, Marion Davies, Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, and Marie Dressler. Irving Thalberg "adored her and trusted her completely," William Randolph Hearst named her for the head of west coast production for his Cosmopolitan studios, and in 1928, Sam Goldwyn raised her salary to an unparalleled $3,000 a week." "Her stories were directed by George Cukor, John Ford, Alan Dwan, and King Vidor, and she went on to direct and produce a dozen films on her own. On top of all this, she painted, sculpted, spoke several languages fluently, and played "concert caliber" piano." "Though she married four times, had two sons, and a dozen lovers, Frances's life story is mostly the story of her female friendships. As talented, successful, and prolific as Frances Marion was, these relationships were as legendary as her scripts." "Without Lying Down is an eminently readable and meticulously documented portrait of a previously hidden era that was arguably one of the most creative and supportive for women in American history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Nearly everyone is familiar with Lucille Ball's work on screen, but few realize her influence behind the scenes. Fewer still are aware that Judith Waller developed television's first all-education children's show, Ding Dong School.Since its beginnings television has been heavily influenced by women, but their contributions are often overlooked in histories of the medium. In this work, the lives and careers of 15 women pioneers in television broadcasting (Mildred Freed Alberg, Ball, Gertrude Berg, Peggy Charren, Joan Ganz Cooney, Faye Emerson, Pauline Frederick, Dorothy Fuldheim, Betty Furness, Frieda Hennock, Lucy Jarvis, Ida Lupino, Irna Phillips, Waller, and Betty White) are covered. The focus is on their work in the medium, but there is also discussion of the obstacles they were forced to overcome to reach positions of influence in the industry.

Many performers have found their most challenging and award-winning roles playing prostitutes on camera, from Helen Hayes (The Sin of Madelon Claudet) to Richard Gere (American Gigolo). This comprehensive filmography with mini-essays, a la James Robert Parish, spans eight decades. Each entry includes full cast and credits, production information, reviews, and an analysis of the movie and its stars, with an essay blending critical commentary and a synopsis of the film.

This is a topical resource that provides a comprehensive look at the most influential women in Hollywood cinema across a wide-range of occupations rarely found together in a single volume. This volume provides the reader with an invaluable, complete, and easy-to-understand view of film history and filmmaking while simultaneously highlighting the most important women, making the subject of Hollywood and film more transparent as a whole; enables a fuller understanding of the many complicated challenges women have faced historically and currently in Hollywood filmmaking; offers a unique blend of film history and industry information, cohesively presenting them both in one place; reaches beyond the more commonly discussed categories of women who have had important roles throughout Hollywood film history, such as directors and actresses, although they too are included; and examines women's visibility and representation in Hollywood in the context of the history of the film industry for students.

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 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. 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.