Culture / Retrieval

Writing Women in the 1930s

In a largely male dominated field, early female writers found a way to make a substantial impact in the film industry.

by Imogen Sara Smith via Current [The Criterion Collection] on September 25, 2024

...teens she completed hundreds of scripts, from The New York Hat (1912), starring Mary Pickford, to films for Douglas Fairbanks, Marion Davies, and the Talmadge sisters. She was known for her clever and playful intertitles, which suggests why she was in demand once the talkie era arrived.

It has been estimated that during the silent era, more than fifty percent of all screenplays were written by women. “Screenwriter” was a brand-new profession, and the writers who did most to shape it included June Mathis, Frances Marion, and Loos. An oft-repeated narrative describes how women thrived during the freewheeling silent days, directing, producing, running studios, and even cranking cameras, only to be driven out with the consolidation of the studio system and the growth of movies into a big business, which occurred in tandem with the coming of sound. There is truth to this, but only partial: during the 1930s and ’40s, women continued to hold powerful positions in the studios as writers, supervising editors, designers, and producers. Marion’s salary at MGM reached a staggering $3,500 a week in the ’30s, and she and Loos acted as consultants and uncredited script doctors on many of the studio’s screenplays. Marion recalled that they tried to conceal this work from other contract writers, to avoid embarrassing or riling up men who already resented their outsize influence.

This power came partly from the common wisdom—accepted by the Hollywood studios, and articulated forcefully by Thalberg—that women were the primary audience for movies and appealing to their tastes was vital for box-office success. It wasn’t about feminism but about who bought the tickets, yet this mindset led the studios to build vehicles around female stars and put trust in creative women behind the scenes. These pioneers forged a strong network, collaborating, supporting, and encouraging one another. Loos became close friends with many of the stars she wrote for. Directors Lois Weber and Dorothy Arzner frequently worked with female writers. Pioneering Hollywood journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns helped persuade Marion to try her luck in the movies, and Marion made her name writing for Mary Pickford (though she would win Academy Awards for scripting The Big House [1930], a prison film with a predominantly male cast, and The Champ [1931], a boxing movie).