Read From Silent Murder Mysteries to Andy Hardy’s Americana, Agnes Christine Johnston Wrote it All
Read about more women from early Hollywood
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Tag: movies
Save 35% on McFarland Books – One of My Publishers is offering a 35% Discount on Their Catalog This Week!
Save 35% on McFarland Books – One of My Publishers is offering a 35% Discount on Their Catalog This Week!
Along with your other holiday shopping over this Thanksgiving weekend, I’m happy to pass along this lovely discount from McFarland Publishing, the fine folks who published two of my favorite books:
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
AND
When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry
Direct from the McFarland site, From now through December 2, they are offering a full 35% off ALL of their titles with coupon code HOLIDAY24 at checkout.
See the entire McFarland Catalog
You can buy one of my books — or any other cool pop culture book you find — for yourself or anyone else on your gift list this year.
Happy Holidays!
Celebrate the Daring Dialogue of Women Writers with Dr. Rosanne Welch – Screenwriting Research Network Conference 2004, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czechia
With the conference theme “A Conversation Beyond Script,” I decided to use my presentation time to “Celebrate the Daring Dialogue of Women Writers,” which allowed me to introduce the audience to the work of famous female screenwriters, from Anita Loos to Mae West to Lillian Hellman.
Then I delved into some names lesser-known to our international SRN members because they came from the TV world before the great sharing that streaming has offered us. From Gertrude Berg of The Goldbergs in the 1950s to Susan Harris (Soap, Golden Girls) and Linda Bloodworth Thomason (Designing Women) we covered the progressive (and often controversial) topics they brought to mainstream Americans.
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She Co-Wrote ‘The Maltese Falcon’ But You’ve Never Heard Her Name – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, October 2024
“Writing Females in Leadership Roles” WGA Panel Now Online [Video]
![“Writing Females in Leadership Roles” WGA Panel Now Online [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wgaf-female-characters-1.jpg)
Since there’s been so much talk this week about mothers being proud of their highly accomplished children it’s a wonderful week to share the link to the latest Writers Guild Foundation panel co-sponsored by the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting covering the topic of “Writing Females in Leadership Roles”.
Moderated by our Executive Director Dr. Rosanne Welch the panel includes three writers from shows that celebrate female leaders from the real-life 23-year-old Miep Gies who hid Anne Frank’s family to real-life First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, and Betty Ford to the fictional female leaders of Station 19. Many thanks to Joan Rater (A Small Light), Zora Bikangaga (The First Lady), and especially to our Stephens College MFA alum Alexandra Fernandez (Station 19) for joining us to discuss everything from our childhood role models of female leadership (mostly moms and aunties) to the traits we expect to see in our leaders, to the nuts and bolts of working in a television writers room.
Serial Queen Ruth Ann Baldwin Knew How to Craft a Cliffhanger – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, August 2024
Our Book, “Civil War on Film” Now As An Affordable Paperback! – Pre-now for August 22, 2024 Release
One of the benefits of the merger between our first publisher – ABC-Clio – and Bloomsbury Publishing is that Bloomsbury is a larger, more international company with more reach. What that means for my co-writer, Peg Lamphier and me is that our book, The Civil War on Film, will be available in paperback with a $26.95 price tag (much more accessible than the hardback version that is $63) on August 22, 2024.
So if you’ve always wanted to read what Peg and I have to say about which Civil War films are the most honestly historical (spoiler alert – it’s Glory) now’s your time to buy a copy! We were so pleased to include chapters on such great films as Friendly Persuasion (1957); Gettysburg (1993); Gangs of New York (2002); Lincoln (2012); and Free State of Jones (2016)
As they move forward they plan to release American Women’s History on Film in paperback as well so stay tuned!
Adapting Classic Novels Not the Only Tool in her Kit: Silent Screenwriter Dorothy Farnum – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, July 2024
Where’s Her Museum? Betty Burbage – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, June 2024
Recognizing Female Genius by Dr. Rosanne Welch
I was doing editor rewrites on a chapter titled “Dorothy Parker: The Creative Genius Behind Film Franchise A STAR IS BORN.” To the note asking me to consider a “less hagiographic title,” I said “No”.
A quick check showed me that many, many, many male writers are called geniuses – but few women.
For instance, this article, Genius – still a country for white, middle class, heterosexual men*, notes:
“Try a quick google search of the terms “literary genius”. The same names keep appearing: William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Henry James, William Chaucer, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, and so on.”
But I would object to J.D. Salinger. Catcher in the Rye did not move me at all – but S. E. 
(Susan Elizabeth) Hinton’s The Outsiders moved me and all the generations from mine through my son’s Millennial group and into the folks watching the musical on Broadway right now – while teaching us all to love the poetry of another male genius – Robert Frost. See, I’m willing to use the adjective on men when they deserve it.
So the lesson of the day is that if any writer deserves to be called genius, it’s Dorothy Parker.
Own your genius. And use it to describe other female creatives. And maybe refrain from using it on less men for once.
* Genius – still a country for white, middle class, heterosexual men, Natalie Kon-yu, The Conversation