Thanks to Kris Zoleta for inviting me to give yet another library lecture last week.
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.
Thank you so much for being here. I hope that you find what I have to tell you enlightening and interesting. We’re going to unearth the names of some women who have written some things that either began ideas and tropes that went on and on through Hollywood or are people that you already know their work but you never realize that those pieces were written by women. That’s my personal interest. Before we get to that though I’ll give you a couple rounds of where I come from. I was a screenwriter and a television writer and my first second career I’m not sure sometimes which one it was. So I was on Touched By An Angel, Picket Fences. I’ve worked for ABC News Nightline and I’m kind of ending today with my first job which was on 90210 because, of course, we’re all very sad to have heard that Luke Perry died the other day at 52, which is to just way too young. He was one of the nicest men on the show. It’s very sad but it was a wonderful show to work on and obviously very iconic in America and I’m going to credit that not to a female writer — they didn’t have one in charge — a male writer named Chuck Rosen. He really deserves the credit for why that show worked.
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.
* 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
Thanks to another invite from Kris Zoleta and the wonderful staff at the CPP Library I presented another lunchtime lecture yesterday.
This talk was on famous female writers of science fiction both in books (from Mary Shelley to Octavia Butler) and on television with a side tangent on important and influential female characters of science fiction (from Lt. Nyota Uhura to Dana Scully).
The audience responded well, many asking me for recommendations for summer reading) and the nicest compliment I received came from an engineering student who came up to me afterward to say she was either going to do homework or come to my talk during her lunch break and she was ever so happy she had chosen to come to the talk.
* 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 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.
* 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 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.
* 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
Since 1986, the Golden Leaves program has celebrated those members of the Cal Poly Pomona campus community (faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees) who have authored or edited a book* in the preceding year. The Golden Leaves program is funded by the University Library.
Each year, books published by Cal Poly Pomona authors are on display in the Library during the month of April. The Golden Leaves program is celebrated annually at the University Library in conjunction with National Library Week.
*A book is defined (per UNESCO) as “a non-periodical printed publication of at least forty-nine pages, exclusive of cover pages.”
* 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
“What if I interview all the writers of The Monkees? All the people who are in their 80’s who once wrote for The Monkees who are still alive. So I met with the writers of the show and it was fascinating. They had also written for many other things — Get Smart, Laugh-In. They’d won Emmys for The Mary Tyler Moore Show later in their career. They were all very accomplished people.
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.
* 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
Luckily we’re in Los Angeles, so we do the research hands-on of the Margaret Herrick Library. These are in the database the screen archivist has created so that you can find the digital things for your own students and much is being scanned and put online for us these days. This is the Writers Guild of America. We have an archive as well of original scripts which is a great test to bring students to read. We don’t have enough writers who give their stuff to the Guild. They give it to the Herrick because that’s fancier and more cool. So we’re trying to give their own personal correspondence to the Writers Guild. Anyway, All of this and my first couple of years led me to realize that when I had started having them do essays — research essays — 20-page research papers, they were all so good in the first year the students were so excited by what they were discovering that I wrote my publisher — emailed my publisher — and said I have twenty really good essays on early women’s screenwriters in Hollywood from Dorothy Parker to Frances Hackett to Ruth Gordon and would you want to publish them? And they said “Yes” and so I was able to give my students their first publications through this course and one of them is here Jackie Perez has an essay in the book. She’s come to the conference for the first time. So this was an amazing thing for me to be able to create through the use of these students. This is that first class who are all published in that book. Even though we’re a women’s college in higher learning you have to accept men so there three men in that class also represented in the book. Men have become interested in our mission which is to provide more female-focused stories and more female writers into the business so it was a really good class. We love them all and that’s what I have to say.
* 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
If you’ll be in Los Angeles on Sunday May 5th and want to see the architecture of the Helms Bakery – come to the Launch party for the 3rd book in the Paperback LA anthology – the editor, Susan LaTempa, reprinted my article about the writers of The Monkees TV show since that is so iconic LA. — Rosanne
Join us for a reception and brief readings to celebrate the launch of Paperback L.A. Book 3 A Casual Anthology: Secrets. SigAlerts. Ravines. Records.
This is the third volume of the acclaimed new-school trilogy the creates a freewheeling mosaic of the city in words and photographs.
Join contributors including Lisa See, Alexandra Hedison, River Garza, Ann Elliott Cutting, Lou Mathews, Rosanne Welch, RJ Smith and Warren Hill for brief readings and views of photos. Culver City Councilmembers Meghan Sahli-Wells and Daniel Lee will welcome attendees.
Free and open to the public.
The book launch is at the Helms Design Center event space, 8745 Washington Blvd., Culver City CA. 90232.
Parking is available at complimentary parking lots located at the Helms Bakery entrance on the south side of Venice Boulevard at Helms Avenue (in front of Rejuvenation and across from Father’s Office) for your visit.
Additional lots are located on the northeast and northwest corners of Helms Avenue and Venice Boulevard.
They also all do a research paper — as anyone should do in a master’s class. A gain through the network I’ve been able to provide them with books they can think about. Nunnally’s there. Emma’s there because of female screenwriters. That’s a lovely book –where she has the script and then she discusses filming and being on set as a writer and how difficult it was to do both and and of course it’s one of the movies I have them watch, so that’s lovely. There’s a million books they can use. These are some examples. I like, while it’s John Gregory Dunn’s book, it’s the story of he and his wife Joan Didion, who were creating a film for Disney and this is the entire eight years it took them from the day they were offered the job until the day the movie was made and how — the difficulty. So to teach students the process and how hard the process is I think is very important. So that’s very handy book. It’s also very thin. So students like to read it. They also are the writers of the third — the second remake of “A Star IS Born.” The one with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand. So interesting to hear their perspective before the new Lady GaGa version comes out.
* 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
![01 Introduction from “When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State Fullerton [Video] (1 minute, 6 secs)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/csuf-rmw-w3h-2019-01.png)
![Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks at the Golden Leaves Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona University Library [Video] (6 minutes, 8 seconds)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gl-website-title.jpg){kind=small}
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![16 Conclusion from Why (and How) I Created a History of Screenwriting Course [Video] (2 minutes)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/srn-rmw-2018-16.jpeg)
![Join me at the Paperback L.A. #3 Anthology Launch Party, May 5, 2019 [Event]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/pbla-event.png)
![15 Research Papers and Books from Why (and How) I Created a History of Screenwriting Course [Video] (1 minute)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/srn-rmw-2018-15.jpeg)