On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Writing, Film, Television and More!
Chatting with fellow Monkees fans
At my presentation on “How The Monkees Changed Television” at Cal Fullerton Lunchtime Lectures
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Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
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“The Red Kimono” – Story by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Directed and Starring Dorothy Davenport
A clip from The Red Kimono
Original Poster Art
The Red Kimono is a 1925 American silent film drama about prostitution produced by Dorothy Davenport (billed as Mrs. Wallace Reid) and starring Priscilla Bonner.
The film is notable today for being one of the few independent productions produced and written by women. This is the third of Davenport’s “social conscience” releases, preceded by Human Wreckage (1923) on the topic of drug addiction (released five months after Wallace Reid‘s death from morphine), and Broken Laws (1924) about excessive mother-love.
The film is based on a real case of prostitution that took place in New Orleans in 1917. This film, billing itself as a true story, used the real name of the woman played by Priscilla Bonner who as a consequence sued producer Dorothy Davenport for a hefty sum in court and won.[1] The case, Melvin v Reid has been cited recently in the emerging “right to be forgotten” cases around the world as an early example of one’s right to leave a past one wishes to forget. In the ruling of the California Appellate Court (Melvin v. Reid, 112 Cal.App. 285, 297 P. 91 (1931)) the Court stated, “any person living a life of rectitude has that right to happiness which includes a freedom from unnecessary attacks on his character, social standing or reputation.”[citation needed]
As with Davenport’s earlier Human Wreckage in 1924, this film was banned in the United Kingdom by the British Board of Film Censors in 1926.[2] In the 1920s, the film was also banned in the city of Chicago[3][4]. — Wikipedia
More information on Red Kimono
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Chatting with fellow Monkees fans
At my presentation on “How The Monkees Changed Television” at Cal Fullerton Lunchtime Lectures
Watch the complete presentation
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?
Order Examination Copies and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland
Watch the complete presentation
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?
Order Examination Copies and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland
Watch the complete presentation
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?
Order Examination Copies and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland
Complete video of this presentation is now available.
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?
Order Examination Copies and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland
When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry
I’m so excited to see that we’re now publishing on this collection of essays written by the original cohort of students in our first Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting which I edited and for which author Cari Beauchamp wrote a wonderful forward covering the life and influence of Frances Marion.
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.
Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition
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Table Of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Finding Frances Marion
Cari Beauchamp
Introduction
Rosanne Welch 5
Adela Rogers St. Johns: Survival Of The Feisty
Sarah Amble Whorton
Jeanie Macpherson: A Life Unknown
Amelia Phillips
Anita Loos: A Girl Like Her
Toni Anita Hull
The Nature And Genius Of Alice Guy Blaché
Khanisha Foster
“You’d Better Learn To Hold Your Liquor”: Bess Meredyth And A Career In Early Hollywood
Sydney Haven
The Best Revenge Is Outliving Them All: The Life And Heartbreak Of Frederica Sagor Maas
Mikayla Daniels
Silent Screenwriter, Producer And Director: Marion Fairfax
Sarah Phillips
Smart Girl In Charge: Eve Unsell
Laura Kirk
The Glorious Ms. Glyn
Amy L. Banks
Fearless And Fierce: June Mathis
Lauren Elizabeth Smith
Writing Around Lois Weber
Chase Thompson
Gene Gauntier: Ascending By Drowning
Yasser Omar Shahin
Lorna Moon: A Woman Of A Certain Influence
Elizabeth Dwyer Sandlin
Clara Beranger: The Unseen Laborer
Amanda R. Stockwell
Ida May Park: Prolific Pioneer
Jackie Perez
Frances Goodrich And Albert Hackett: The Most Beloved Couple In Hollywood
Julie Berkobien
In Defense Of Lillian Hellman
Kelley C. Zinge
The Intimately Unknowable Dorothy Parker: A Study Of Her Life And Art
Elizabeth Dwyer Sandlin
Joan Harrison: Redefining Femininity In Film Noir And Hollywood
Chelsea Andes
The Six Degrees Of Sarah Y. Mason And Victor Heerman
Pamela L. Scott
Zoë Akins: A Quiet Rebellion
Sarah Amble Whorton
Marriage Of Words: Bella And Sam Spewack
Laura Kirk
The Forgettable Ms. Murfin
Amy L. Banks
A Team In Passionate Action: Ruth Gordon And Garson Kanin
Rosanne Welch
About The Contributors
Before my presentation on “How The Monkees Changed Television” at Cal Fullerton Lunchtime Lectures
Complete video of this presentation is now available at RosanneWelch.com
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Monkees Research Materials and Memorabilia
“How The Monkees Changed Television” at Cal Fullerton Lunchtime Lectures
See all the photos from this presentation
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
I usually use Google Alerts to find mentions of The Monkees but this weekend something interesting happened. Google Alerts found my name in an essay on the JSTOR Daily about the new BBC miniseries version of Little Women, adapted by Heidi Thomas of “Call the Midwife”) from a novel by a female writer (Louisa May Alcott, as if you didn’t know) and directed by a woman (Vanessa Caswill).
My Summer of Watching Little Women by Benjamin Winterhalter
The writer of the essay was a male, JSTOR Daily’s features editor Benjamin Winterhalter and he was reminiscing about a summer in his elementary years when his mother and friends dissected all the filmed adaptations of the novel in preparation for writing an article — “A Feminist Romance: Adapting Little Women to the Screen” for Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature.
Winterhalter’s article came up because along his research way he came across an Op-Ed I had written for the Los Angeles Times, “What ‘Little Women’ Is Really About” about the 1995 Robin Schiff adaptation (starring Winona Ryder) which I had framed as both a more deeply feminist interpretation but, more importantly, accessible to all as the story of a writer finding their voice.
How fun to be reminded of that Op-Ed and to see how accessible my earlier work can be with archives going digital. It’s also good timing as I often recommend to screenwriting students that they write for various local publications in order to get their names out there and to fill out their writing CVs. Here’s an example of a piece I wrote when I had a passionate idea ( the one about how this is more the story of a writer finding their voice than merely a bunch of sisters surviving the Civil War). Since I did not see that idea represented in the mainstream press, I brought it to their attention and they noticed it and presented it to their readers.
