Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
* 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
To highlight the wonderful yet largely forgotten work of a collection of female screenwriters from the early years of Hollywood (and as a companion to the book, When Women Wrote Hollywood) we will be posting quick bits about the many films they wrote along with links to further information and clips from their works which are still accessible online. Take a few moments once or twice a week to become familiar with their names and their stories. I think you’ll be surprised at how much bold material these writers tackled at the birth of this new medium. — Rosanne Welch
Gene Gauntier (May 17, 1885 – December 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter and actress who was one of the pioneers of the motion picture industry. A writer, director and actress in films from mid 1906 to 1920, she wrote screenplays for 31 films. She performed in 28 films and is credited as the director of The Grandmother (1909).
In 1912, Gene Gauntier married actor Jack J. Clark. They were divorced in 1918, and after writing forty-two screenplays and performing in eighty-seven films, in 1920 at age thirty-five, Gauntier walked away from the business. She had a brother, Richard Gauntier Liggett and a sister, Marguerite Gauntier Liggett. Marguerite married wealthy Swedish industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren in 1909.
The tomb of Gene Gauntier at Häringe Slot, Sweden Gauntier had sailed to Europe frequently where her sister Marguerite was an opera singer who had trained and worked in Germany, and found herself stranded there when World War I broke out. After leaving filmmaking, she returned to live in Europe where she remained for a number of years while writing her autobiography, Blazing the Trail. The work was serialized in 1928–29 in the American magazine, Woman’s Home Companion, and the manuscript is on display in the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Gauntier also penned two novels, Cabbages and Harlequins in 1929 and Sporting Lady in 1933.
* 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
Before breakfast, and before Filippo had the chance to meet the lady of the house, Martha Jefferson, the two men set out on foot across leaf-strewn paths to see what Jefferson had built. Walking up and down the mountain was made easier by the level roundabouts and rising connecting roads Jefferson had designed.
Many thanks to Jake Flynn, Communications Director for Bob Blumenfield, for arranging the presentation of this Certificate full of beautiful hand done calligraphy. (We learned during the presentation that the city of Los Angeles has 2 full-time calligraphers on staff!)
It’s for all the work we do with the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting bringing more female voices and female-centric stories into the marketplace, which is already a pleasure. So this was truly some icing for the cake.
For her 5th Doctor Who lecture to the CPP community, Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses how society – and the show’s writing staff – prepared the audience for a major change in this 50-year franchise – the creation of the first Lady Doctor!
Transcript:
Then we have Rose who came into the new Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston and stayed threw David and Rose is a interesting character because she looks like she’s not that smart — she’s a shop girl, she really can’t keep a job etc — but she always steps up to the plate when necessary. She’s always able to take care of The Doctor when he can’t and that’s a pretty powerful job if you want. And then we come to Martha — who some people think The Doctor didn’t treat very nicely because she was the girl after the girl he loved because he fell in love with Rose and then the new girlfriend shows up. But she’s not meant to be a girlfriend. Right? She’s meant to be a companion. Except that then she fell for him, which is always a bad thing. Don’t fall for a guy after the last relationship, but I think you can find that that shows us strength too. First of all, one of the best storylines was for a whole year she walked the Earth to tell people about The Doctor in order to save his life. It is a pretty cool episode, right? So that’s one thing, She essentially saves his life. That’s a strength.
Rosanne Welch PhD teaches the History of Screenwriting and One-Hour Drama for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting.
Writing/producing credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences, ABCNEWS: Nightline and Touched by an Angel. In 2016 she published the book Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop; co-edited Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia; and placed “Transmitting Culture Transnationally Via the Characterization of Parents in Police Procedurals” in the New Review of Film and Television Studies. Essays appear in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television and Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology. Welch serves as Book Reviews editor for Journal of Screenwriting and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Written By magazine, the magazine of the Writers Guild.
Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
* 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
These 23 essays cover a range of female screenwriters from the early years of film through the 1940s, women whose work helped create the unforgettable stories and characters beloved generations of audiences but whose names have been left out of most film histories. Not this one. This collection is dedicated to those women and written by a group of women grateful to stand on the shoulders of those who came before – as a beacon to those who will come after.
Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
* 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
Karen Loop, Director of the Columbia College in Chicago Semester in LA Program took the time out of her busy schedule to help me celebrate the launch of When Women Wrote Hollywood at the book signing we held on the Henson soundstage Saturday the 11th.
Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
* 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
![25 Rose and Martha Jones from Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse [Video] (0:57)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gender-dw-25-rose-martha.jpeg)
![“When Women Wrote Hollywood” Book Launch Event [Video] (31:40)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/wwwh-cover-large-1.jpg)
