Film – Page 63 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood – 30 – in a series – We survived!

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

In the memoir, Love, Laughter, and Tears: My Hollywood Story, Adela Rogers St. Johns writes, “Once, when Joan Crawford and I were doing a tea-talk television show, our hostess, I think it was Virginia Graham, was stressing our enduring success in our chosen fields and Joan leaned over and put her hand on my arm and said, “You know what’s remarkable about Adela and me? We survived.” We did indeed.”

Adela Rogers St. Johns: Survival of the Feisty
by Sarah Whorton

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

Stephens College at Denver Pop Culture Con via Instagram

Stephens College at Denver Pop Culture Con

One of the fun-nest things about many fun things at the Denver PopCon was the chance to see Stephens College film professor (and MFA alum) Chase Thompson debut his film Tampsen Air. He shared fascinating stories about the concept and the production work in the film with the audience- and the various other Screenwriting MFA alums who came out to show their support.

Learn more about the Stephens College Master of Fine Arts in TV and Screenwriting

05 Who Tells Your Story? from “When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State Fullerton [Video] (1 minute)

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

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

It’s important to recognize what Lin-Manuel Miranda did so well in his show — who tells your story, tells people whether or not you will be remembered and we’re gonna find that sadly in a lot of film history, the women are who got left behind by the men writing the history right? I don’t want to rag on men. I like men. I’m married to one. I have a son. They’re very cool people but sometimes they forget to mention the ladies right? So we’re gonna think about that. Some examples, quickly, on how easily writers and this isn’t a female writer it’s a male writer. This is the obituary for Doris Bowden. She was an actress who was in The Grapes of Wrath. It says in her obituary “she married the film’s screenwriter”. We name the movie John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. The man who she married isn’t mentioned in her own obituary because he’s just the writer. How ridiculous is that? I don’t care about John Ford. He never knew her after she’s finished the film, but he gets a name out – a name call on that right?

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Dr. Rosanne Welch and writers from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” at the Denver Pop Culture Con bias Instagram

Dr. Rosanne Welch and writers from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” at the Denver Pop Culture Con

Editor/Writer Dr. Rosanne Welch and a few of her fellow writers ((l-r) Sydney Haven, Mikayla Daniels, Kelley Zinge and Amy Banks) 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

Dr. Rosanne Welch and writers from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” at the Denver Pop Culture Con via Instagram

Dr. Rosanne Welch and writers from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” at the Denver Pop Culture Con

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

04 Women Writers Matter from “When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State Fullerton [Video] (1 minute)

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

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

This is my philosophy. Writers matter, Women matter and women writers matter. That should be kind of obvious and these are all women you may or may not recognize but by the time I’m done today you will recognize them and hopefully be interested in going to see some of their work — much of which is available online or in Netflix somewhere. I think it’s really important to think about the messages of women writers put out in the world. I love this Twitter that came across just after Rey became the famous new Jedi. But it’s quite true, right? It makes a difference. There was a great story once where the last Shuttle pilot had been a female and the next one was going to be a female and it’s always the last pilot who speaks on Comm to the person taking off and it was two women talking to each other for the first time in NASA history and a woman who worked at NASA had asked her son who was about seven , ” Do you want to be an astronaut you grow up?” and he said, Oh no Mom. That’s a girl’s job.” Because that’s what he saw right? So it’s important what we see. Representation matters. So I think that’s really cool.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

“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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

†

* 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