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First Women of Hollywood
Female Pioneers in the Early Motion Picture Business
by Mary Mallory
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Book Presentation:
Largely created by immigrants, the film industry evolved over its first few decades thanks to the work of people outside the traditional ruling class—
immigrants, people of color, women—partly as a result of elites denigrating the fledgling field. As the moving picture industry transitioned from neophyte to powerhouse, young and ambitious rebels energized its output.
Mostly written out of history, women provided an important component for popularizing silent film and making it a financial success. Women were integral in producing entertaining films to keep up with exploding demand. Men often resented their power and success, and as the studio system took hold, women found themselves out of favor and replaced.
First Women of Hollywood explores the invaluable contributions of these mostly forgotten and unacknowledged pioneers.
About the Author:
Mary Mallory is a motion picture historian. She is the author of Hollywoodland, Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays, Hollywood at Play, A Little Barn Started It All: The History of Hollywood Heritage’s Lasky DeMille Barn, and Living with Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess. She is also a blogger on Los Angeles and motion picture history for the LA Daily Mirror. She lives in Studio City, California.
Press Reviews:
"Mary Mallory has taken our ongoing study of early women filmmakers to a new height, and a new level of scholarship, with The First Women of Hollywood. Acknowledging the prominent place that women played as actors, directors, and screenwriters, she turns her attention to the work of Hollywood’s female community in all manner of roles, including studio founder, stunt person, projectionist, costume designer, makeup artist, hairdresser, and animator. She identifies the first ethnic women in film and the women whose influence was crucial to the success of the new medium as critics, trade paper editors, fan magazine editors, and even archivists. The accompanying essays here are examples of scholarship at its best, readable and well documented. The First Women of Hollywood will stand the test of time as a leading reference source—and I might add as a good read." -- Anthony Slide, author of The Silent Feminists: America’s First Women Directors and editor of The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché
"Mary Mallory has written a meticulously researched, compelling history of unsung pioneering women in Hollywood. Mallory introduces us to the likes of the first set dresser and Hattie Wilson Tabourne, a black hairdresser who coiffed such stars as Valentino and Gloria Swanson. Mallory’s work is eye-opening." -- Susan King, writer and film historian
"An impressive work of film history that puts a well-deserved spotlight on neglected talents, adding to our knowledge of how women artisans shaped and contributed to cinema throughout the silent period and well beyond." -- Farran Smith Nehme, film critic
(Praise for the author's previous book Hollywood at Play)
"It's a nostalgic trip down memory lane that is well worth taking!" -- Rex Reed, New York Observer
(Praise for the author's previous book Living with Grace)
"Readers will . . . come away with a new appreciation for Kelly as an ordinary person turned starlet."
-- Publishers Weekly
(Praise for the author's previous book Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays)
"A lot of fun . . . one of the best film books of 2015." -- Thomas Gladysz, Huffington Post
(Praise for the author's previous book Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays)
"Irresistible . . ." -- Leonard Maltin, Indiewire.com
See the publisher website: Lyons Press
> From the same author:
Hollywood at Play (2017)
The Lives of the Stars Between Takes
> On a related topic:
The Women Who Built Hollywood (2023)
12 Trailblazers in Front of and Behind the Camera
Subject: History of Cinema
Hollywood (2019)
Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies
by Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges
Subject: History of Cinema
The Glamour Factory (2018)
Inside Hollywood's Big Studio System
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