10 Virginia Woolf and Orlando from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (48 seconds)

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The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

10 Virginia Woolf and Orlando from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction - Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (48 seconds)

 



This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne

Transcript:

This lady is Virginia Woolf. Most people think of Virginia Woolf as writing those sort of lovey-dovey, Jane Austen-y kind of things or some you know a little mystery kind of stuff but she in fact wrote a novel we consider a piece of science fiction. It’s Orlando, which is not the biography of Orlando Bloom but in fact the story of a man born during the first Queen Elizabeth’s reign who regenerates into a woman and lives for 300 years which sounds a lot to be like Doctor Who which is my other big favorite thing in the world. So there’s Virginia Woolf right but she’s already known and so she can dabble in this other genre and it’s okay because people have paid more money for her other stuff. That’s all drawing-room stuff. So we’re moving through the world but not as many women as I’d like to see.



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12 Alice Guy Blaché from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (58 Seconds)

Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

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12 Alice Guy Blaché from

 

Transcript:

This lady is someone who’s just now getting more known in film histories. Alice Guy Blaché. She was the Secretary to the Lumiere brothers in France. So we’re moving away from America and moving back to France right? They were filming dudes walking out of a factory. They were filming guys standing on a train platform smoking. Whatever they felt like. Reality basically. They weren’t fictionalizing. They weren’t looking at film as a place to tell stories and she was their secretary and she said you know I’d like to do something else with the cameras and they said “Oh, on your lunch break you can do whatever you want. Just make sure you’re back at your desk on time to type the things we need typed” right? So she started making silent films obviously in 1896. Her first film, which you can find on YouTube, is called “The Cabbage Fairy.” It’s literally just her picking babies out of a field behind cabbages right in the fictionalization of how do we find children — how are children brought into the world. Very short but that’s what we were doing in that era.

Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses the women in her new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which covers female screenwriters from the Silents through the early 1940s when women wrote over 50% of films and Frances Marion was the highest paid screenwriter (male or female) and the first to win 2 Oscars.  Yet, she fails to appear in film history books, which continue to regurgitate the myth that male directors did it all – even though it’s been proven that the only profitable movies Cecil B. de Mille ever directed were all written by Jeannie Macpherson film ever won for Best Picture was written by Robert E. Sherwood (who people have heard of, mostly due to his connection to Dorothy Parker) and Joan Harrison.


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09 Mary Shelley, Her Life, And Fiction from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (47 seconds)

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The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

09 Mary Shelley, Her Life, And Fiction from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction - Dr. Rosanne Welch

 

This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne

Transcript:

…and the sad thing is — so she invented a whole genre. A whole genre. She invents it. We’re not going to see another female writer of science fiction for a while. Right? We’re not going to see that. Now a lot of what she came through — this is her mother — Mary Wollenstonecraft — and her mother was a famous feminist in England at this time. Right? So a lot of her ideas are coming from her mother’s writing. She didn’t know her mother because her mother died when she was very, very young. So she never had an actual relationship, but she wanted so desperately to live up to this famous women and how often did that happen back in the day. Usually, it’s men who have to live up to their rich and famous fathers. Here’s a woman who had to live up to something that her mother had accomplished. Right? So she’s got a lot of those themes again running through that. Right? And likewise, this is a picture of her mother. Which is just kind of fun from back in the day.



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Susan Koppelman Award Certificate for “When Women Wrote Hollywood”

At first I was puzzled by the certificate-sized envelope that appeared in the mail the other day. It came from the alma mater of my first college degree – Bowling Green State University. I couldn’t imagine what they had to send me after all these years.  Then my son opened it and said, “It’s an award for something.” 

Turns out it is the certificate commemorating the previously announced fact that When Women Wrote Hollywood was this year’s runner up for the Susan Koppelman Award, “given to the best anthology, multi-authored, or edited book in feminist studies in popular and American culture” by The Popular Culture Association.  And then I remembered that my alma mater is the home of The Popular Culture Association.  🙂  What a nice surprise on all counts.

Koppleman award


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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood – 36 in a series – Unknown Marion Fairfax

Do you know about these women screenwriters? Many don’t. Learn more about them today! 

Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood - 36 in a series - Unknown Marion Fairfax

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Marion Fairfax, while almost entirely unknown today, is an everywoman example of the plight of female screenwriters of the silent era. From the origins of her career through her mysterious disappearance from the Hollywood scene after the advent of talkies, there is little information available on her work as an actress, playwright and screenwriter and the information that is available is not consistently correct.

Silent Screenwriter, Producer and Director: Marion Fairfax
by Sarah Phillips


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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

More On The Monkees: Financial Times Quiz, The Monkees and Truman Capote

This Financial Times quiz has a Monkees question right up against a Truman Capote question, illustrating the fact that they assume most folks should be able to answer both – and both are equally important to their era. — Rosanne

More On The Monkees: Financial Times Quiz, The Monkees and Truman Capote

All the answers here are linked in some way. Once you’ve spotted the link, any you didn’t know the first time around should become easier.

FT Weekend Quiz: Alex Ferguson, The Monkees and Truman Capote


Want to learn more about The Monkees? Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

 

 

A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy.

 

Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.

 

This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

 

Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.

 

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

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Quote from “America’s Forgotten Founding Father” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 63 in a series – Mazzei In Later Life

Learn more about the American Revolution through the eyes of an important, Italian Immigrant, Filippo Mazzei. Read his story today!

Quote from

“Still interested in philosophy, Filippo and his family actively involved themselves with new ideas in horticulture all his life. He was able to afford the upkeep of his homes due to a pension from Tsar Alexander of Russia who took over all Poland’s debts when it was dissolved in 1802. Though he never returned to his beloved Colle, he continued corresponding with his friends in the United States all his life, with Jefferson being the most proficient writer.”

From America’s Forgotten Founding Father — Get Your Copy Today!


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From America’s Forgotten Founding Father — Get Your Copy Today!

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Want to use this book in your classroom? Contact the Mentoris Project!

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11 Women Writers You Don’t Know from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (35 seconds)

Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

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11 Women Writers You Don't Know from

 

Transcript:

These are some ladies you probably don’t know. Does anybody recognize any of them? She’s the most likely one for anyone to know because she’s also an actress. If you saw Harold and Maude, Rosemary’s Baby? That’s Ruth Gordon. Ruth Gordon was a four-time oscar-nominated screenwriter as well as winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary’s Baby. So we’re gonna talk about these ladies and who they are.

Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses the women in her new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which covers female screenwriters from the Silents through the early 1940s when women wrote over 50% of films and Frances Marion was the highest paid screenwriter (male or female) and the first to win 2 Oscars.  Yet, she fails to appear in film history books, which continue to regurgitate the myth that male directors did it all – even though it’s been proven that the only profitable movies Cecil B. de Mille ever directed were all written by Jeannie Macpherson film ever won for Best Picture was written by Robert E. Sherwood (who people have heard of, mostly due to his connection to Dorothy Parker) and Joan Harrison.


Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

…or via Amazon…

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood – 35 in a series – The Best Revenge Is Outliving Them All

Do you know about these women screenwriters? Many don’t. Learn more about them today! 

Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood - 34 in a series - The Best Revenge Is Outliving Them All

Get “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Today!

Frederica Sagor Maas was a screenwriter whose career spanned decades and was full of imagination, hard work and disillusionment. Taking a decade to write her memoir, which she finally published at the ripe age of 99, Maas expressed her feelings for the Hollywood industry and how her husband Ernest and she saw their ideas stolen and turned to trash before eventually being accused of communism and being blacklisted.

The Best Revenge Is Outliving Them All: The life and heartbreak of Frederica Sagor Maas 
by Mikayla Daniels


Buy a signed copy of when Women Write Hollywood or Buy the Book on Amazon

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

More On The Monkees: Monkeemania in Australia

Look what my friend Derham Groves sent me! Booklets from his exhibition on the Monkees in Australia!

Now I can feel as if I’ve actually been there – and we all still have time since the exhibit runs through the end of the year! What better reason to visit Australia?

More On The Monkees: Monkeesmania in Australia

Want to learn more about The Monkees? Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

 

A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy.

Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.

This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?

Order Examination Copies, Library and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland

McFarland Company logo