Film / Women’s Studies “With rigorous focus, admirable “A meticulous and probing UU economy, and wide-ranging research, institutional history attuned to nn Cooper outlines a sophisticated the hierarchies of gender. Cooper ii strategy for investigating how and identifi es a set of truly signifi cant vv why Universal Studios hired women questions regarding the early ee as directors and then stopped doing access of women to directorial rr so. This is the book we have been positions in silent cinema and the ss waiting for.” abrupt curtailment of that access.” aa — Kay Armatage, author of The Girl — Diane Negra, author of Off-White ll UUnniivveerrssaall from God’s Country: Nell Shipman and Hollywood: American Culture and WW the Silent Cinema Ethnic Female Stardom oo WWoommeenn Between 1912 and 1919, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company mm credited eleven women with directing at least 170 fi lms, but by the ee mid-1920s all of these directors had left Universal and only one still nn worked in the fi lm industry at all. Two generations of cinema historians have either overlooked or been stymied by the mystery of why Universal fi rst Filmmaking and systematically supported and promoted women directors and then abruptly C F h i l reversed that policy. a m Institutional Change n m In this trailblazing study, Mark Garrett Cooper approaches the phenomenon g e a in Early Hollywood as a case study in how corporate movie studios interpret and act on i k n i n institutional culture in deciding what it means to work as a man or woman. In E g a fttohracanuts sehinxisgpt looarininc iawsls ousmeexse inosm’fs i enoxsrit laiets u fatroniom ne fatflhe cceht fi a olnfm ga e i,bn Crdoouaosdptlreyyr cacushl attuhllreea nilgn reeesvv iiitsnaitobenlre p orrfee stguaetlntiod onefrs e ad CourtesyCover ph rly Ho and In MMaarrkk GGaarrrreetttt CCooooppeerr work roles. Drawing on a range of historical and sociological approaches to Robotog lly sti sintustdiytuintgio ncoarlp oorrgaatne iiznasttioitnu tainond sa, eCsothopeteirc ecxoanmviennetsio tnhse druelraintigo nthshe ifpo rbmetawtieveen ert S. Birchraph: Grace wood tution ySteoanrse hwohuesne ,w Eolimsee nJ afin lem Wmialskoenrs, sauncdh I dasa RMuatyh PAanrkn dBiareldcwteidn ,fi Cllmeos fMoar dUisnoivne, rRsault.h ard Collectio Cunard in R al ne Mark Garrett Cooper is an associate professor of English and fi lm and media .tu rn studies and the director of the Moving Image Research Collections at the of th University of South Carolina. He is the author of Love Rules: Silent Hollywood e Tw and the Rise of the Managerial Class. in ’s D o u b A volume in the series le, 1 Cooper 9 Women & Film History International 1 4 . ISBN978-0-252-07700-5 University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago www.press.uillinois.edu Illinois Universal Women Women and Film History International Series Editors Kay Armatage, Jane M. Gaines, and Christine Gledhill A new generation of motion picture historians is rediscovering the vital and diverse contributions of women to world film history whether as producers, actors or spectators. Taking advantage of new print material and moving picture archival discoveries as well as the benefits of digital access and storage, this series investigates the significance of gender in the cinema. A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. Cooper_Universal text.indd 1 12/17/09 11:19:57 AM Cooper_Universal text.indd 2 12/17/09 11:19:57 AM Universal Women Filmmaking and Institutional Change in Early Hollywood Mark Garrett Cooper University of Illinois Press Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield Cooper_Universal text.indd 3 1/7/10 10:43:54 AM © 2010 by Mark Garrett Cooper All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 C P 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cooper, Mark Garrett. Universal women : filmmaking and institutional change in early Hollywood / Mark Garrett Cooper. p. cm. — (Women and film history international) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-252-03522-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-252-07700-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Universal Film Manufacturing Company—History. 2. Women motion picture producers and directors—United States. 3. Women motion picture producers and directors—History— 20th century. I. Title. PN1999.U57C66 2010 791.43023'30922—dc22 2009027087 Cooper_Universal text.indd 4 12/17/09 11:19:57 AM For UFF-FSU Cooper_Universal text.indd 5 12/17/09 11:19:58 AM Cooper_Universal text.indd 6 12/17/09 11:19:58 AM Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface: A Puzzle, Some Premises, and a Hypothesis xiii Part one PossIbIlIty 1 1. Universal’s Names 9 2. Universal’s Organization 25 3. Universal City 45 Part tWo ImPossIbIlIty 91 4. Genre: A Category of Institutional Analysis 99 5. Serials: The Foreclosure of Collaboration 110 6. Gender and the Dramatic Feature 128 Postscript: Eleanor’s Catch 173 Notes 187 Index 221 Cooper_Universal text.indd 7 12/17/09 11:19:58 AM Cooper_Universal text.indd 8 12/17/09 11:19:58 AM acknowledgments Grants from Florida State University allowed me to conduct the research for this book, which would not have been possible absent the resources of numerous archives and the amazing professionals who staff them. I thank the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- ences and especially Barbara Hall, whose generosity and wisdom benefited the project throughout its gestation, Kristine Krueger, and Lea Whittington; the Los Angeles Public Library; the Special Collections Department of UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library, especially Octavio Olvera; the Seaver Center for Western History Research, particularly Betty Uyeda and Beth Werling; the Pacific Region U.S. National Archives in Laguna Niguel, especially Lisa Gezelter (and I would like to thank G. Russell Overton for his advice on navigating that collection); George Eastman House; the Museum of Modern Art, particularly Charles Silver; the Library of Congress and especially the indefatigable Madeline Matz and Rosemary Hanes; the British Film Institute, particularly Kathleen Dickson and Vicky Hedley; the National Archives of the United Kingdom; the British Library; the Centre National de la Cinématogra- phie, especially Eric Le Roy and Sandra Larrosa; the Amsterdam Filmmuseum, particularly Elif Rongen and Ronny Temme; and the Swedish Film Institute, especially Jon Wengström and Magnus Rosborn. In addition to these public archives, three experts on Universal’s early history generously shared their insights and personal collections. Richard Koszarski allowed me to invade his dining room for a day of research inter- rupted only by an excellent pastrami sandwich. Robert S. Birchard and Marc Wanamaker each generously provided me with materials and advice. I hope they will recognize something of their Universals in my account, but in any ix Cooper_Universal text.indd 9 12/17/09 11:19:58 AM