Cal Poly Pomona Golden Leaves Presentation to Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier

Cal Poly Pomona Golden Leaves Presentation to Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier

Celebrating my 2017 Award-Winning Books 

Here my co-editor (and the funnest office mate ever) Dr. Peg Lamphier are smiling besideLibrary Dean Dr. Ray Wang at the Cal Poly Pomona Golden Leaves Award ceremony celebrating professors who have published in the past year.  

For us it was our 3-years-in-the-making “Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia” – then I earned a second award for my 2-years-in-the-making Monkees book “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture”.   

Nice Library Journal review of Women in American History, Edited by Rosanne Welch and Peg Lamphier

Lj review wah encyc

Today we received a nice review from the Library Journal that calls our 4-volume encyclopedia set  — Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia —  “thorough,” “enlightening,” and “recommended.”

We share these compliments with all of who contributed to the project and hope you find copies in your local library to enjoy!

Wamh cover 1 Wamh cover 2 Wah encyc cover 3 Wah encyc 4

Please share this set with your local librarian!

Which women writers do you read? — International Women’s Day 2017

Which women writers do you read?

Thinking about International Women’s Day and thinking about how whenever I ask female writers which writers they admired in their youth they often go straight to the boys – F. Scott and Ernest.

Sure, we read all of those boys (because that’s what school gave us) – and we’re welcome to have liked them – but really, WHAT were we reading on our own?

In asking that question, I realized I learned more from Mary Shelley and Margaret Mitchell and Eve Bunting and S.E. Hinton and Agatha Christie and Toni Morrison and Emily Neville and Elizabeth George Speare and Betty Cavanna.  

Which women did you read then?

Which women do you read now?

Rosanne quoted in Titan: The Magazine of California State University, Fullerton, Winter/Spring 2017

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“FOR SCREENWRITER Rosanne Welch, the ripple effect of being the woman in the room begins like this: “The doctor walks in …” All I have to do is write She says… and they have to hire a female. That’s how power-ful it is to have a female voice in a room,” says the lecturer of cinema and television arts. Female leaders are trending — on TV. And, much like in real life, it’s taken decades to rewrite the script, says Welch. We need more women writers in the room and more female role models at the helm, at the corporate table, in the judge’s chair, in political office — and not just on TV, she says. “We do know that it’s highly influential,” she says of TV. “We need to kind of know something’s real and then we highlight those  existences in TV, and the public sees it more often, and then it becomes more real.”

Read the entire article

From The Research Vault: I Make the Monkees Clothes, 16 Magazine, Ashman, Gene. (1967, October)

Ashman, Gene. (1967, October). I Make the Monkees Clothes. 16 Magazine, 6-8.
Online on Monkees Live Alamanc

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(1 additional page on the linked site. Click through for large images) 

(Partial digitally converted text/. Some errors may occur)

I MAKE THE MONKEES CLOTHES BY GENE ASHMAN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gene Ashman was born in Los Angeles. At the age of ten he moved to New York City, where he studied classical piano for Eye years. At 15, he returned to LA, and while studying history at the University of Southern California he became interested in designing costumes. Since then Gene has become one of the most sought after costume designers in the movie and television industry. His credits include The Eddie Bodin Story, The Harder They Fall, Who Was That lady?, Circus Boy (yes. Gene designed the outfit Micky wore on the show), Bewitched and The Monkets. Currently, Gene is designing the costumes for Funny Girl.

WHEN I was designing costumes for Bewitched. Bert Schneider called me in for an interview. One of the first things he asked was, “How do you feel about young people?’ I thought for a minute and then I said. “The kids of today are very interesting and exciting and. clothe…wise arc into something quite different from anything that has ever been done before.” Mr. Schneider seemed pleased with my response and told Mt all about his upcoming TV pilot, The Afonkeer. After describ-ing the wonderful and zany idea to rne, he told me he would make arrangements for me to meet Davy /ones. Micky [Mena. Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith—the four boys whom he and his partner, Bob Rakhon. had chosen to be the Monkees. To tell the truth. when I first met the boys I was shocked by their long hair and uninhibited mannerisms. but as I sat and talked with them I soon saw their separate personalities emerg-ing. Here. in a nutshell. is what I saw then: Davy—young: energetic: fantastic ideas. Afike—a little reticent: serious-minded: artistic. Afkky (whom I had known from CIMIT Boyl—totally inven-tive; no one can know how great he will be—even himself—until he channels his energies. Poser—very sensitive: great humanitarian qualities: excellent singer and guitarist.

FIRST MEETING

My first meeting with the Monkees was at night, after they had spent all day rehearsing for the show. We sat around and discussed their likes and dislikes. We decided that we definitely wanted the Monkee: clothes to reflect their individual taste. style and personalities. We wanted to avoid the Camaby Street look. the “Mod” look, or any other wellsestablished look. Ultis 6 stately. I decided that although all of the Monkees’ clothes would he derived from basically the same design. their afore-mentioned personalities were to emerge through their clothes. All of Mike’s things would have a definite Weller”, flavor. For instance. he would have terrinch tide vents on all his jackets, like the Western gamblers used to wear. Micky’s jackets would be a oncsbutton, doublesbreasted, rolled collar cut—reflecting his casualness. Peter’s jackets would be a very slim. twabutton, double-breasted cut—form-fining with lots of freedom of move-ment. And Day (who was the most style-conscious of all the boys) would have two-button. double-breasted jackets with a slight English flavor.

Now, all I had to do was find a shop to give me the inspiration and basic design patterns that I needed. Firm. I went all over L.A. and. believe me. that’s a great big city. I was shocked to find nothing that was right for the Monkees. I headed for San Francisco. and after several days of searching through the wens’ shops there I came hack to the studio tired and dejected. I don’t believe in Fate. but I really think she way watching over me at this moment. I was almost ready to give up when—on the way to grab a sandwich at the Copper Skillet. a block from the studio-il passed a little more which sold vets’ hip clothing for mien. I looked at the sign. It said: 1.enny’s Boot Parlor.

I thought—hhor o sooner nome for o store—and I wandered inside. The first thing I discovered was that Lennyi was nor just a hoot parlor. It was one of the grooviest men’s stores I’d ever been in. I was fascinated by everything I saw—shirts of endless design and pattern, pants in every fabric and cut imaginable—plus an array of the most beautiful boots ever.

“Hi, a friendly voice greeted me. “I’m Lenny Able. Can I help your

“You sure Can.” I said, and I sat down and told Lenny my story. He. like me, became fascinated by the idea of creating clothes for the Monkem. He could share my enthusiasm. dig-ging the whole idea as the grooviest chalknge ever. “What’s the budget”‘ he asked at one point. “$700.” I said sheepishly, and he looked at me as though I were crazy and didn’t say a word. He just went right on raving about the clothes that could he created for the Monkees. (Usu-ally. “wardrobe” for a TV pilot is scaled at about $2,000. The entire production cost for the Monkees’ pilot was originally scaled at $100.000 and ended up at 5300,000, but 1 exceeded my wardrobe budget by only a few hundred dollars—quite a feat.)

THE MONKEE LOOK The first innovation I came up with was a plasterion; in cos-tuming tern, that means patch. This technique was used on what in now known as the Monkee shin. I didn’t want to design lregular double-breasted shirt, and though the Monkee shins ook as though they’re double-breasted. actually they’re not. As you know, there are two rows of four buttons down the

[…]


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

Order Your Copy Now!

Previously in Out of Research Vault:

2016 – A Publication Packed Year!

Dr. Rosanne Welch with Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees

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My book on The Monkees — Why The Monkees Matter — brought great joy into my life this year – allowing me to host a few book signings, attend a few concerts, meet a few of the more fabulous members of the Zilch Podcast Nation and even resulted in my being invited into the (marvelous and mind-blowing to my inner nine-year-old) St. Louis concert VIP photo op line where I had this lovely photo taken with Micky and Peter (and saw to it that they both had copies of the book).

Listen to my Zilch Podcast Interview about Why The Monkees Matter

Order your copy today 

Wow!  Isn’t that enough for one year?  

But I don’t want to slight the other, shorter works I published this year which included:

How Television Writers Transmit Cultures Transnationally via the Parent Characters Created for Police Procedurals
New Review of Film and Television Studies edited by Paolo Russo & Lindsay Steenberg

Read It Now!

Rfts20 v014 i04 cover

How William Shatner’s Chest Inspired one (or more) Female Television Writers to Succeed in the Boys Club of Hollywood
covering the episode:This Side of Paradise
Outside In Boldly Goes…: 117 Unique Perspectives on 117 Original Star Trek Stories by 117 Writers”
ATB Publishing.

Order Your Copy Today

In 2017 I’m looking forward to seeing these projects published:

PERFORM: Succeeding as a Creative Professional.
Chapter 5 Essay. Starting Over: “Everything I Need To Know About A Career In Hollywood I Learned From Writing Scripts” 
Editor: Anna Weinstein.  January 2017

Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color
Chapter: “Hidden Behind Hoopskirts: The Many Women of Hollywood’s Civil War Sagas”, “
Doug Brode, editor, 2018. 

Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection
ABC-CLIO Publishing, January 2017 (a full 4 volume collection)

Share this encyclopedia with your your local librarian 

And my co-editor Peg Lamphier and I are already in production on our 2018 release:

Technical Innovation in American History: An Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. ABC-CLIO Publishing, Spring 2018. 

Technical Innovation in American History: An Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

From The Research Vault: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart on The Dinah Shore Show 1976

On this 1976 episode of The Dinah Shore Show Micky and Davy introduce their new group – Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart. They begin by singing a medley of Monkees tunes with Dinah, then move to the couch and chat about Micky and Davy’s participation in a recent charity tennis tournament in Africa where they played tennis with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Dean Paul (Dino) Martin Jr.  Finally the guests participate in an impromptu spelling bee in honor of the other young guest on the show who had won that year’s spelling bee. 

The conversation is vintage Hollywood celebrity of the 1970s. It wraps up with DJB&H admittedly lip synching to their new song – so that sound quality is low since the onstage microphones could not pick up the music that was piping in to the audience.  It’s interesting to see that the more impromptu singing of the earlier medley – with Micky playing guitar for Pleasant Valley Sunday – was live and the full song at the end was not. Micky makes several jokes about how Hollywood works, again representing the fact that he was a child of the town moreso than any of the others.

From The Research Vault: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart on The Dinah Shore Show 1976


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

Order Your Copy Now!

Previously in Out of Research Vault:

To Sir, with Love – A great teacher memoir to revisit

Okay – so I’m odd. I read the obituaries – because I figure if you make it in the obituaries you had to have done something interesting in your life and I ought to know about you. But it also tends to serve as a sad reminder of writers we have lost and books I need to have read. So when I read the obituary for E.R. Braithwaite, author or “To Sir, With Love” (which most people only recognize as a Sidney Poitier movie) I thought – hey, I just graded a bunch of student work. I need a good book to read for a day and I’ve always liked the “teacher” genre of books, so why not? 

So I just finished the book (borrowed from my local library as an ebook to my Kindle) and very much enjoyed it. The story of the Guyanese gentleman leaving World War II military service and becoming a teacher to low income children in London’s East End — teaching them to respect him in order to learn to respect themselves — was quite beautiful. He also discusses his mixed race romance (which later becomes a marriage) with another teacher in a frank and honest manner. But mostly he talks about the students and what they lack, what they need, how to reach them — and teach them — and eventually befriend them – always by keeping respect at the front of every encounter.

The book reminded me of all the teacher genre books I’ve enjoyed over the years – from the later Anne of Green Gables books (by Lucy Maude Montgomery) to Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman (which I both performed in in high school theatre and directed when I taught high school drama) to My Posse Don’t Do Homework (by LouAnne Johnson) to ‘Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt. What I find funny reading them nowadays is how obvious successful teaching is and yet how few can actually do it well. 

Sadly, I remember the film never mentioned his romance as mixed race relationships were taboo by the Hays Code  — yet Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, also from 1967 (and also starring Sidney Poitier) made it the focal point of their film. Perhaps if they had waited to make To Sir a few years later, it could have been included.  That, of course, proves the point I tried to instill in my son years ago – always read the book that goes to a film because that is the only way to get the full story.

From Amazon.com…

With opportunities for black men limited in post–World War II London, Rick Braithwaite, a former Royal Air Force pilot and Cambridge-educated engineer, accepts a teaching position that puts him in charge of a class of angry, unmotivated, bigoted white teenagers whom the system has mostly abandoned. When his efforts to reach these troubled students are met with threats, suspicion, and derision, Braithwaite takes a radical new approach. He will treat his students as people poised to enter the adult world. He will teach them to respect themselves and to call him “Sir.” He will open up vistas before them that they never knew existed. And over the course of a remarkable year, he will touch the lives of his students in extraordinary ways, even as they in turn, unexpectedly and profoundly, touch his.

Look what arrived today! My essay – “How William Shatner’s Chest Inspired one (or more) Female Television Writers to Succeed in the Boys Club of Hollywood” is in Outside In: Boldly Goes

 Look what arrived today! My essay -

Look what arrived today! My essay -

Order your copy of Outside In: Boldly Goes Today

Look what arrived today! My essay – “How William Shatner’s Chest Inspired one (or more) Female Television Writers to Succeed in the Boys Club ofHollywood” is in Outside In: Boldly Goes – http://tinyurl.com/outside-in-boldly #book #essay #writing #startrek #sciencefiction #writer #writing #screenwriting

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Event: Dr. Rosanne Welch Moderates “Women Write Now: Breaking Barriers In Film, Tv And The Web” – Tue, November 29, 2016 – Writers Guild

From Rosanne…

I’ll be moderating this panel at the Writers Guild. Hope to see you there!


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Women Write Now: Breaking Barriers In Film, Tv And The Web

As the landscape of storytelling on film, television and the web evolves and changes, more women are leading the charge in breaking down gender walls in the industry. Each has her own story and a perspective about the challenges that women face as writers and creators in the field.

The Writers Guild Foundation and Stage 32 are partnering on this special event, which invites writers to discuss their careers and their experiences working as a woman in the industry, from where they started and how they got their material noticed to what the future for women in media looks like and what inspires them to write every day.

Panelists:

  • Lauren Schuker Blum (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK) 
  • Jessica Mecklenburg (STRANGER THINGS, BEING MARY JANE)
  • Deborah Schoeneman (HAND OF GOD, GIRLS, THE NEWSROOM)
  • Kirsten Smith (10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, LEGALLY BLONDE)
  • More panelists to be announced. Stay tuned!

Doors open at 7pm. Event starts at 7:30pm. A networking reception will follow directly after the panel from 9pm to 10pm.

Stage 32 is dedicated to educating and empowering creatives from all walks of life, and as a continued commitment, we will provide every attendee with a free Stage 32 Next Level webinar (a $49 value), to help sharpen your skills and pave your trail in the industry.

About Stage 32:

“Stage 32 is LinkedIn meets Lynda for film and TV creatives” – Forbes Magazine

Stage 32 is the online platform connecting and educating film and TV creatives worldwide. Stage 32 provides over 1,000 hours of online education taught by some of the industry’s most prominent development, executives, managers, agents and producers.

All events advertised on our “Events” page are open to anyone who wants to buy a ticket – not just WGA members!

Proceeds benefit the Foundation’s library and archive and other outreach programs