Category: Speaking

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

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Transcript:

If you ever watched 90210 because he was the son of a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, so he grew up in Beverly Hills and he treated those characters like real people, not like stick figures and I think that’s what really came out. It doesn’t matter how rich you are if your mother’s on drugs. That’s a problem that many other kids could have a universal connection to so writing is all about that it’s about making universal connections. It’s about pulling out some raw emotions and I think that’s what real writers do. So that’s where I came from into a lot of writing as John said now. These are a bunch of books I have chapters in. I’m very into Doctor Who. I’ve gone to some conventions and some some conferences on that. I’ve got a piece in the American Civil War on film and TV on how women were portrayed in films taking place during the Civil War and then I have the books I have with me today. The Monkees, who I talked about last year. Again, sadly, the passing of Peter Tork last week makes a whole new interest in that subject and the book that I’m talking about today “When Women Wrote Hollywood” — which is a series of chapters on famous women from the silence into about the 40’s who wrote movies that we all kind of know and we should know their names.

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

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

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

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.

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

I’ve taken part in the Pollak Library Faculty Noon Time Talks for the last couple of years.  This year I had a great time delivering this lecture built around all the wonderful female screenwriters included in my book When Women Wrote Hollywood. 

Thanks to subject librarian John Hickok for organizing these events – and for the nice introduction.

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

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