Education – Page 101 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

“When Women Wrote Hollywood” In The News! – Righting history: Book by Stephens students elevates women screenwriters via Columbia Daily Tribune

When I learned that our humble little book about female screenwriters from Hollywood’s golden era, When Women Wrote Hollywood, had been named runner-up for the Susan Koppelman Award (an honor bestowed upon the “best anthology, multi-authored, or edited book in feminist studies in popular and American culture” by the Popular Culture Association of America) I immediately “Alerted the Media!”

Happily, Aarik Danielsen, Arts and Music Editor for the Columbia Tribune responded, interviewed a couple of our contributors and produced a great article that you can now read. Then, as they say, you can “Buy That Book!” by clicking here and learn more about the many female screenwriters of Hollywood’s golden era!

Thanks Aarik – and thanks to all the contributors scattered across America.

Righting history: Book by Stephens students elevates women screenwriters

On a smash hit from 2011, pop luminary Beyonce engages in a subversive act of call-and-response.

“Who run the world?” she asks. The chant comes back, time and again: “Girls!”

Who wrote the films that entrenched Hollywood as a cultural force? A book written by Stephens College students creates its own antiphony, calling back with a confident answer: women.

“When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry” elevates an important moment in cinema history. Despite the complicated, often exasperating, treatment of women in Hollywood, the collection reminds us that prior to World War II, women were a prominent creative force, penning some of the era’s most memorable films.

Released last summer, “When Women Wrote Hollywood” recently was named runner-up for the Susan Koppelman Award, an honor bestowed upon the “best anthology, multi-authored, or edited book in feminist studies in popular and American culture.”

Read the entire article

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There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American Television: From Freelancing to Writers Rooms – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (52 Minutes)

There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American Television: From Freelancing to Writers Rooms – Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Thanks to meeting my friend and colleague Dr. Paolo Russo at our annual Screenwriting Research Network conferences, I was invited to spend a week at his university – Oxford Brookes – lecturing on the History of American Writers Rooms and giving notes on screenplay treatments written by his MFA candidates.

It was a wonderful experience to share ideas cross-culturally since I’ve studied and watched programming from the UK for years and their students have watched lots of American television programs.

We had the chance to compare development strategies from both countries and I met the other folks in Paolo’s film department who came from as far away as Canada and as near as Italy. And having been a lifelong viewer of Morse and Lewis, I enjoyed finally having time to walk through Oxford and see everything from the pubs where the Harry Potter actors hung out during filming and the quaint churchyard where C.S. Lewis is buried. I can’t wait to go back again for the 2020 SRN conference!

Remembering Screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson on her birthday – When Women Wrote Hollywood

“The resounding mythology around the start of Macpherson’s film career is that she, with immeasurable pluck, simply walked into D.W. Griffith’s office and waited for him for days on end. Finally, the assistant asked about her. “I told him my stage experience. He ignored it, scorned it. ‘We want to know what you can do before a camera,’ he said.”

Jeanie Macpherson: A Life Unknown by Amelia Phillips

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Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood – 29 – in a series – Frances Marion

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

Get “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Today!

For over twenty years, no writer was more sought after than Frances Marion. With her versatile pen and a caustic wit, she was a leading participant in one of the most creative eras for women in American history. She is credited with writing more than 300 scripts covering every conceivable genre and she also directed and produced half a dozen films.

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

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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

Elena Ferrante: A Power of Our Own via The New York Times

Excellent opinion piece by Elena Ferrante (a pseudonym for an Italian novelist, author of the four Neapolitan novels beginning with ‘My Brilliant Friend’ that have been turned into an HBO series).

It covers the power of storytelling and the way the world needs to adapt to the way women wield power.

Elena Ferrante: A Power of Our Own
Power is a story told by women. For centuries, men have colonized storytelling. That era is over.

Power, although hard to handle, is greatly desired. There is no person or group or sect or party or mob that doesn’t want power, convinced that it would know how to use it as no one ever has before.

I’m no different. And yet I’ve always been afraid of having authority assigned to me. Whether it was at school or at work, men were in the majority in any governing body and the women adopted male ways. I never felt at ease, so I stayed on the sidelines. I was sure that I didn’t have the strength to sustain conflicts with men, and that I would betray myself by adapting my views to theirs. For millenniums, every expression of power has been conditioned by male attitudes toward the world. To women, then, it seems that power can be used only in the ways that men have traditionally used it.

Read the entire article – Elena Ferrante: A Power of Our Own

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Quote: “I was a fan from the beginning at the age of six when the show debuted on NBC” from “Why The Monkees Matter” Book Signing – 9 in a series

“I was a fan from the beginning at the age of six when the show debuted on NBC and caused what I often teased was the first great choice of a childhood lived without benefit of DVR. Should I watch The Monkees or Gilligan’s Island? Both aired at the same non Bat-Time on the same non Bat-Channel. I used that question as the thesis to an essa when, many years later I applied to film school and I’m amazed at how it still resonates with others of my generation.

from How It All Began from Why The Monkees Matter Book Signing, Book Soup, Hollywood

Watch this clip

Watch this entire presentation – “Why The Monkees Matter” Book Signing

Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

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

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

02 Science Fiction As A Place For Discussion from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1 minute)

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

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:

I think what’s interesting about science fiction is it’s a place where writers go and where audiences go to discuss the issues of our current world in sort of a safer place because we’re having trouble discussing them maybe in the present. So if we think about the future and how we hope it’s gonna look and how we hope we’re gonna behave to each other that’s a place we can have those debates and then sort of bring them back into our regular life and that’s true of most writing. We sort of work out the world in writing so that’s why reading is so good for our brains because it relaxes us teaches us empathy. It makes us think about more complex thoughts then you know a quick Reddit post. Which is a nice piece of news very quickly but it’s not all the information that you need to have right? So that’s the goal for today. It’s just a look at some interesting writers. Summer is coming up. Perhaps you all might want to have a summer book to read right or perhaps a movie that you’re like “Wow I should know that movie. That’s really iconic and people reference it. it’s a popular culture sort of moment. I should know about that.” So hopefully, in the summer you have some time to pay attention. So I’ll give you some stuff to pay attention to.

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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

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Latest Project from Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier – “The Civil War On Film” — Coming in 2020

Here’s the project for my summer — finishing my chapters in Peg and my next effort for ABC-Clio: The Civil War on Film — part of their Hollywood History series.

I’ll be covering Gone With the Wind, Friendly Persuasion, Gettysburg, and Gangs of New York.

Look for it in 2020!

Additional Books I Have Written and Edited for ABC-CLIO

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

Pioneer Screenwriter Lois Weber’s Birthplace Honored With Pennsylvania Historical Marker

It has taken too long but finally many of the female screenwriters that appear in our collection are being recognized – and often honored. Such is the case with Lois Weber who birthplace has now been given a historical marker. She deserves it.

Read more about her in Chase Thompson’s chapter on Weber in When Women Wrote Hollywood. — Rosanne

Senator Costa Announces New Historical Marker in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pa. − March 29, 2018 − Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Jr. today announced the addition of an official Pennsylvania Historical Marker in Pittsburgh: film director Lois Weber.

Lois Weber was the first American woman film director and a pioneer in early film making.

In the era of silent films, she mastered superimposition, double exposures, and split screens to convey thoughts and ideas rather than words on title cards. She also used the nude female figure in the 1915 film Hypocrites and took on progressive and provocative topics, inciting both censorship and artistic praise.

“Lois Weber was a trailblazer for women and all filmmakers in the early 20th century,” said Senator Costa. “She is a worthy addition to this exclusive list.”

Her historical marker will be placed at 1230 Federal Street in Pittsburgh, in front of the new Carnegie Free Library Allegheny. She was born three blocks south of the spot and her childhood home was one block east.

The new markers, selected from 51 applications, will be added to the nearly 2,300 familiar blue-with-gold-lettering signs along roads and streets throughout Pennsylvania.

Read Senator Costa Announces New Historical Marker in Pittsburgh

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

03 Women Writers Get Lost In History from “When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State Fullerton

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

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Transcript:

We’re gonna talk a little bit about why women get lost behind in history and see if we can think about fixing that in our own work — our own writing — our own conversations. I’m also the book editor for The Journal of Screenwriting. So I do book reviews — I hire book review people for that. So that’s always something I’m interested in getting folks who want to do and I’m on the editorial staff of Written By magazine which is the magazine the Writers Guild so we decide who gets interviewed and every month it’s either a famous TV writer or a film writer and I think it’s a wonderful way to stay involved because if you have those people come into your class and the guest speaker so that’s all the stuff I do.

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

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

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