Lois Weber: Interviews
Lois Weber (1879–1939) was one of early Hollywood’s most successful screenwriter-directors. A one-time Church Army worker who preached from street corners, Weber began working in the American film industry as an actress around 1908 but quickly ascended to the positions of screenwriter and director.

She wrote, directed, starred in, edited, and titled hundreds of movies during her career and is believed to be the first woman to direct a feature film. At the height of her influence, Weber used her medium to address pressing social issues such as birth control, abortion, capital punishment, poverty, and drug abuse.

She gained international fame in 1915 with her controversial Hypocrites, a complex film that featured full female nudity as part of its important moral lesson. Her most famous film, Where Are My Children?, was the Universal studio’s biggest box-office hit the following year and played to enthusiastic audiences around the globe. These productions and many others contributed to her standing as a truly world-class filmmaker.

Despite her many successes, Weber was pushed out of the business in the 1930s as a result of Hollywood’s institutionalized sexism. Shoved into the corners of film history, she remained a largely forgotten figure for decades. Lois Weber: Interviews restores her long-muted voice by reprinting more than sixty items in which she expressed her views on a range of filmic subjects. The volume includes interviews, articles that Weber wrote, the text of a speech she gave, and reconstructed conversations with her Hollywood coworkers. Lois Weber: Interviews provides key insights into one of our first great writer-directors, her many films, and the changing business in which she worked.
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Lois Weber: Interviews
Lois Weber (1879–1939) was one of early Hollywood’s most successful screenwriter-directors. A one-time Church Army worker who preached from street corners, Weber began working in the American film industry as an actress around 1908 but quickly ascended to the positions of screenwriter and director.

She wrote, directed, starred in, edited, and titled hundreds of movies during her career and is believed to be the first woman to direct a feature film. At the height of her influence, Weber used her medium to address pressing social issues such as birth control, abortion, capital punishment, poverty, and drug abuse.

She gained international fame in 1915 with her controversial Hypocrites, a complex film that featured full female nudity as part of its important moral lesson. Her most famous film, Where Are My Children?, was the Universal studio’s biggest box-office hit the following year and played to enthusiastic audiences around the globe. These productions and many others contributed to her standing as a truly world-class filmmaker.

Despite her many successes, Weber was pushed out of the business in the 1930s as a result of Hollywood’s institutionalized sexism. Shoved into the corners of film history, she remained a largely forgotten figure for decades. Lois Weber: Interviews restores her long-muted voice by reprinting more than sixty items in which she expressed her views on a range of filmic subjects. The volume includes interviews, articles that Weber wrote, the text of a speech she gave, and reconstructed conversations with her Hollywood coworkers. Lois Weber: Interviews provides key insights into one of our first great writer-directors, her many films, and the changing business in which she worked.
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Lois Weber: Interviews

Lois Weber: Interviews

by Martin F. Norden (Editor)
Lois Weber: Interviews

Lois Weber: Interviews

by Martin F. Norden (Editor)

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Overview

Lois Weber (1879–1939) was one of early Hollywood’s most successful screenwriter-directors. A one-time Church Army worker who preached from street corners, Weber began working in the American film industry as an actress around 1908 but quickly ascended to the positions of screenwriter and director.

She wrote, directed, starred in, edited, and titled hundreds of movies during her career and is believed to be the first woman to direct a feature film. At the height of her influence, Weber used her medium to address pressing social issues such as birth control, abortion, capital punishment, poverty, and drug abuse.

She gained international fame in 1915 with her controversial Hypocrites, a complex film that featured full female nudity as part of its important moral lesson. Her most famous film, Where Are My Children?, was the Universal studio’s biggest box-office hit the following year and played to enthusiastic audiences around the globe. These productions and many others contributed to her standing as a truly world-class filmmaker.

Despite her many successes, Weber was pushed out of the business in the 1930s as a result of Hollywood’s institutionalized sexism. Shoved into the corners of film history, she remained a largely forgotten figure for decades. Lois Weber: Interviews restores her long-muted voice by reprinting more than sixty items in which she expressed her views on a range of filmic subjects. The volume includes interviews, articles that Weber wrote, the text of a speech she gave, and reconstructed conversations with her Hollywood coworkers. Lois Weber: Interviews provides key insights into one of our first great writer-directors, her many films, and the changing business in which she worked.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781496820815
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication date: 01/25/2019
Series: Conversations with Filmmakers Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Martin F. Norden (1951–2023) taught film history and screenwriting as professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has more than one hundred publications to his credit, including The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies and ReFocus: The Films of Paul Leni. He presented his film research at dozens of professional conferences across North America and Europe. And he served as a consultant on the documentary films CinemAbility and Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.
Martin F. Norden (1951–2023) taught film history and screenwriting as professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has more than one hundred publications to his credit, including The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies; ReFocus: The Films of Paul Leni; and Lois Weber: Interviews (published by University Press of Mississippi). He presented his film research at dozens of professional conferences across North America and Europe. And he served as a consultant on the documentary films CinemAbility and Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Chronology xxv

Filmography xxxv

An Interesting Interview with Rex Stars Moving Picture News / 1912 3

Views of The Reviewer "The Reviewer" / 1912 6

Lois Weber on Scripts Epes Winthrop Sargent / 1912 9

Salvation Singer Now Directs Film Actors Los Angeles Herald / 1913 12

The Making of Picture Plays That Will Fiave an Influence for Good on the Public Mind Lois Weber / 1913 15

A Perpetual Leading Lady Bertha H. Smith / 1914 21

A Versatile Couple Minerva Martin / 1914 24

Under Lois Weber's Wing at Bos worth Frances Marion / 1914 28

Hypocrites Lois Weber / 1915 33

The Smalleys Have a Message to the World Universal Weekly / 1915 35

How I Became a Motion Picture Director Lois Weber / 1915 38

Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley: A Practical and Gifted Pair with High Ideals Richard Willis / 1915 41

A Lady General of the Picture Army Lillian Hartman Johnson / 1915 45

No Sinecure, This Film of Pavlowa's Kitty Kelly / 1915 47

Behind the Scenes with Lois Weber Hugh C. Weir / 1915 49

The New Animated Subtitle Motography / 1915 52

Sacrifice Price of Success in Photoplay Art Mark C. Larkin / 1915 54

Girls of the Silent Drama Denounce Accuser Photoplayers Weekly / 1916 56

Author! Author! John H. Blackwood / 1916 58

The Greatest Woman Director in the World "Mile, Chic" / 1916 60

"Room for Long and Short. Pictures"-Lois Weber Motion Picture News / 1916 64

Lois Weber, Talks Shop Moving Picture World / 1916 66

Lois the Wizard H. H. Van Loan / 1916 69

Personalities I Have Met: Dustin Farnum Mary Pickford / 1916 72

Personalities I Have Met: Lois Weber Mary Pickford / 1916 75

Lois Weber Smalley Ernestine Black / 1916 77

A Dream in Realization Arthur C. Denison / 1917 81

Lois Weber, Film Genius, Has Spectacular Rise to Fame Los Angeles Examiner / 1917 84

On the Lot with Lois Weber Elizabeth Peltret / 1917 86

The Lady Behind the Lens Fritzi Remont / 1918 89

Through with Sermons Ogden Lawrence / 1918 95

Roast Beef-Well Done Grace Kingsley / 1919 97

Lois Weber Does Everything from Writing Scenario to Labeling Finished Film New York Call / 1919 101

Lois Weber's Plans: Noted Director Says She "Won't Direct Star" Grace Kingsley / 1919 103

Always Thought Behind Work of Woman Director Mary Burke / 1920 105

"Chronicle" Screen Contest Nearing Close San Francisco Chronicle / 1921 107

The Muse of the Reel Aline Carter / 1921 110

L.A. Producer Attacks Hamon Plan Lois Weber / 1921 115

Lois Weber and Husband Both Producing Oakland Tribune / 1921 117

Let the Church Help Make Pictures Better Lois Weber / 1921 119

What's the Matter with Marriage? Frankie Lynne / 1921 124

What Do Men Need? Emma-Lindsay Squier / 1921 126

Remember Telescopic Pictures Out at Grandma's House Lois Weber / 1921 130

American Films First: Prominent Picture Producer Would Bar the Foreign Product Philadelphia Inquirer / 1921 133

Ladies' Day Celia Brynn / 1921 135

What's Wrong in Pictureland? Asks Woman Film Producer Lois Weber / 1921 138

Want to Write Movies? Here's a Lesson by One Who Knows the Game Lois Weber / 1921 140

Hollywood Folks Resent Reports of Wild Bohemianism Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger / 1921 143

Church Worker Is Producer of Plays Frances L. Garside / 1922 145

Exit Flapper; Enter Woman William Foster Elliot / 1922 148

Romance Plus Common Sense Pearl Malverne / 1923 151

Only Woman Movie Director Owes Her Career to a Broken Piano Key Mayme Ober Peak / 1926 154

Lois Weber Understands Girls Josephine MacDowell / 1927 161

The Gate Women Don't Crash Charles S. Dunning / 1927 165

Many Women Well Fitted by Film Training to Direct Movies, Lois Weber Claims Lois Weber / 1928 172

Hostility of Men Drawback to Women Making Success in Picture Directing, Claim Lois Weber / 1928 175

Women Who've Won: Lois Weber Lillian G. Genn / 1928 178

The Best Actor in the Whole Picture Peter Hyun / 1933 180

Voice Culture Big Thing Now Mollie Merrick / 1933 183

The Little Red Schoolhouse Becomes a Theatre Winifred Aydelotte / 1934 185

Appendix Short Takes, 1912-1933 190

Index 209

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