History – Page 92 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

I was among 5 writers highlighted in the Paperpback LA 3 Issue Trilogy and did a reading from my article “Hey, Hey, They Wrote The Monkees!” which was reprinted in Paperback LA #3

It was a great night, with great writing and reading and with a full house of people.

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 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

Presenting “When Women Write Horror” Talk

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Presenting “When Women Write Horror” Talk

Cal Poly Pomona University Library

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

12 Women And The Monkees from “Why The Monkees Matter: Even 50 Years Later [Video] (1 minute 3 seconds)

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From Denver Pop Culture Con 2019.

Wherever you go, you find Monkees fans and the Denver Popular Culture Con was no different. Amid rooms full of caped crusaders and cosplay creations, I was initially not sure how many folks would attend a talk on a TV show from the 1960s – but happily I was met by a nice, engaged audience for my talk on Why the Monkees Matter – and afterward they bought books! What more could an author ask for?

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Transcript

So let’s think about after 1966. How these people affected the world. The messages they put in the show shocked me in some ways. I recognized the politics. I kind of expected it. I vaguely remembered it. I was afraid going back to study the show being someone who studies feminist things it was going to be really annoying when it comes to girls and I’d be really embarrassed and I wouldn’t want to like the show anymore and then I noticed that every single female that they ever dated in 58 episodes was a woman of substance. Now granted she’s the Princess of Harmonica so we can giggle at that but a moment in the episode Davey says “Can’t you stay here with me?” — the dream of every American girl — and she says “No. I have to return to my country. I have responsibilities. I have a job to do.” I can’t just fall for a cute boy and quit which is a huge statement for a little 6 & 7 year old girl to be listening to. You mean I should be about something? But I really think that a lot of the seeds certainly of my feminism came from this period.

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 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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When Women Write Horror with Dr. Rosanne Welch (Complete) – Cal Poly Pomona University Library [Video] (36 minutes)

Watch this entire presentation

Watch this entire presentation — When Women Write Horror with Dr. Rosanne Welch (Complete) – Cal Poly Pomona University Library

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In honor of Halloween – and in service to my teaching philosophy —

“Words Matter. Writers Matter. Women Writers Matter.”

I presented this holiday lecture “When Women Write Horror” on Tuesday, October 29th, 2019. Researching the many, many women who have written horror stories – in novels, films and television – brought new names to my attention who I am excited to start reading. I hope you will be, too!

* 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!

Paperback LA Reading at Stories Books and Cafe, Echo Park via Instagram

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Paperback LA Reading at Stories Books and Cafe, Echo Park

I was among 5 writers highlighted in the Paperpback LA 3 Issue Trilogy and did a reading from my article “Hey, Hey, They Wrote The Monkees!” which was reprinted in Paperback LA #3

It was a great night, with great writing and reading and with a full house of people.

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 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

From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood Archives: ‘Movie Plots Pushed into Prose’: The Extra Girl, Will Hays, and the Novel of Silent Hollywood by Justin Gautreau

Months of research when into the creation of the essays in “When Women Wrote Hollywood.” Here are some of the resources used to enlighten today’s film lovers to the female pioneers who helped create it.

Read ‘Movie Plots Pushed into Prose’: The Extra Girl, Will Hays, and the Novel of Silent Hollywood by Justin Gautreau

Buy “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Today!

†

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

24 Octavia Butler’s Kindred from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1 minute 25 seconds)

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

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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:

The other thing that’s cool about her — well she’s written many books — but Kindred is my favorite. A little chat about that from last week. She wanted to talk about race and she wanted to figure out a way to do that. So she chose the time-travel story and she took a modern-day African-American woman who without explanation — sort of like Narnia where they stumble into a wardrobe and bam they’re in a kingdom — we don’t need to know the machinations of how the time travel works. We don’t need to put dials in a car and drive the DeLorean down the street. We just walk into a room and oh my god now we’re in pre Civil War south and she’s a woman of African descent and she’s got to deal with now I’m in a place where they’re slaves and now she ends up being on the plantation where her ancestors were held in slavery and she comes up with you know drama. You want the big choice, the big question. She discovers that the way she could get back to her own future is she has to save the life of the plantation owner who owns her family on time for him to rape her great-great grandmother or she won’t exist yeah. There’s there’s a moral decision you gotta make in your lives right? But that’s a really fascinating and of course it allows her to have a discussion about what we don’t talk about in classrooms about the reality of slavery right? So this is a really fascinating book. It’s a one-off book. That’s good. She’s got a lot of you know series books so you can get involved in her writing and be busy for a while. That’s a great book to start with though. So I think Octavia Butler is of good attention for us.

* 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!

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26 Dorothy Parker and A Star Is Born from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (55 seconds)

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

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Transcript:

Dorothy and her husband Alan Campbell wrote A Star Is Born which if you know obviously the story is about a marriage where the woman is far more famous than the man. His career is going while hers is rising. That’s Dorothy Parker and her husband’s story. That’s exactly the emotion she was experiencing. She just put it on an actor and actress. It became such a classic it was remade in the 50s with Julia my brain just went dead. Thank you. Judy Garland. I was saying Julianne and that was wrong. Judy Garland. Thank you and it was written this was adapted by Moss Hart who’s a famous name from Broadway. He wrote it himself however he credited several scenes from the original movie he’d just cut and pasted them out of the first script and put them in his and admitted that when he was doing it. So whenever he got notes from the studio that they wanted to change something he would say “No no no. That’s how Parker had it the first time. It’s good enough. We’re not fixing it.” So essentially it’s Moss Hart and Dorothy Parker together 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

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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

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Mentoris Project Podcast: Dreams of Discovery: A Novel Based on the Life of John Cabot with Author, Jule Selbo [Audio]

The latest podcast is about the explorer, John Cabot and is now available on the Mentoris Web Site. Give it a listen and Subscribe for More! — Rosanne

Read Leonardo’s Secret: Dreams of Discovery: A Novel Based on the Life of John Cabot

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A determined man with a dream whose mentors and friendships supported him through his difficult life’s journey.

John Cabot was born Giovanni Caboto in Genoa, Italy. As a child, he dreamed of captaining a ship across a mysterious, uncharted ocean, from Europe to the riches of China. There was another boy in Genoa at the same time, with the same dream: Christopher Columbus.

The Turks, in the fifteenth century, had a stranglehold on the trade routes to the Far East. Europe’s race to find an alternative passage was heating up. But an explorer needed patrons, funds, ships—and a vision. Whereas Columbus had taken a south and west route from Spain, Cabot was convinced a more northern route from England would lead directly to China.

Cabot remained convinced, even on his deathbed, that he’d reached China—not realizing he’d claimed much of North America for his patron, the King of England, and made an amazing contribution to the fabric of America.

About the Author

Jule Selbo is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. She has written feature films, and has written and produced television series for major studios and networks. Credits include George Lucas’s Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, HBO’s Women Behind Bars—Prison Stories, and the feature Hard Promises, starring Sissy Spacek.

Her Disney credits include the animated features Hunchback of Notre Dame Part Deux, Cinderella II, and Ariel’s Beginning. Her plays Boxes and Isolate have won regional theater awards. Her novels include Piazza Carousel (2018) and Pilgrim Girl (2005, co-written with Laura Peters). In addition, she is a professor of film and television at California State University, Fullerton, and has written books on screenwriting and film history, including Screenplay: Building Story Through Character (2015), Film Genre for the Screenwriter (2015), and Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (2016, edited with Jill Nelmes).

Selbo has contributed to Journal of Screenwriting as well as anthologies on film writing. She holds a PhD in film from the University of Exeter in England and holds seminars on writing in the U.S. and internationally.

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Also from the Mentoris Project

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11 Who Made The Monkees from “Why The Monkees Matter: Even 50 Years Later [Video] (1 minute 4 seconds)

Enjoy This Clip? Watch this entire presentation and Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

From Denver Pop Culture Con 2019.

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Transcript

The thing about TV is it comes into everybody’s house for free. Granted now we pay for cable but back then it was free. To see a movie with a new idea you had to pay money and not everybody could do that certainly not younger children. So these ideas are coming into homes where they can affect more people and I think Peter was very right about that. I love this. This is a shot of the entire cast and crew. So you can see the guys sitting in several places in front and then the gentleman to the left of the camera by two, holding the coffee cup, that’s James Frawley. He’s gonna win an Emmy for Best Directing in this first season. So this is an Emmy winning show not just Emmy nominated. It won as best comedy of the year and it won for Best Directing. James Frawley will grow up to direct The Muppet Movie and many many of the things. So he’s been involved in the business for a long time and this was his first directing job. So again quality people putting together a quality show. I think if the show had stayed on longer and we’d gotten more understanding of it, we’d be looking at — essentially this is The Big Bang Theory except they’re not for nerds they’re for rock and roll kids right but that’s what it’s all about.

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 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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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