During the early era of cinema, moviegoers turned to women editors and writers for the latest on everyone's favorite stars, films, and filmmakers. Richard Abel returns these women to film history with an anthology of reviews, articles, and other works. Drawn from newspapers of the time, the selections show how columnists like Kitty Kelly, Mae Tinee, Louella Parsons, and Genevieve Harris wrote directly to female readers. They also profiled women working in jobs like scenario writer and film editor and noted the industry's willingness to hire women. Sharp wit and frank opinions entertained and informed a wide readership hungry for news about the movies but also about women on both sides of the camera. Abel supplements the texts with hard-to-find biographical information and provides context on the newspapers and silent-era movie industry as well as on the professionals and films highlighted by these writers.

An invaluable collection of rare archival sources, Movie Mavens reveals women's essential contribution to the creation of American film culture.

| Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Surveying a New Field for Newspaper Women Chapter 1. Women Writers Lead the Way, 1914–1916 ace Kingsley, Los Angeles Times Kitty Kelly, Chicago Tribune Charlotta Bass, California Eagle Louella O. Parsons, Chicago Record-Herald The Film Girl, Syracuse Herald Dorothy Day, Des Moines Tribune Mildred Joclyn, Chicago Post Oma Moody Lawrence, Chicago Post Mae Tinee, Chicago Tribune Chapter 2. Women Writers during the Great War, 1917–1918 Mae Tinée, Chicago Tribune Louella O. Parsons, Chicago Herald and New York Morning Telegraph Dorothy Day, Des Moines Tribune Kitty Kelly, Chicago Herald and Examiner Janet Flanner, Indianapolis Sunday Star Genevieve Harris, Chicago Post Charlotte S. Kelly, Indianapolis Sunday Star Chapter 3. A Peak Period for Women Writers, 1919–1921 Marjorie Daw, Cleveland Sunday Plain Dealer and Detroit Journal Mae Tinée, Chicago Tribune Charlotte S. Kelly, Indianapolis Sunday Star Genevieve Harris, Chicago Post Virginia Tracy, New York Sunday Tribune Dorothy Day, Des Moines Tribune Rae McRae, Des Moines Register Virginia Dale, Chicago Journal Harriette Underhill, New York Tribune Alberta Hartley, Des Moines News Chapter 4. Women Writers Carry On, 1922–1923 Grace Kingsley, Los Angeles Times Harriette Underhill, New York Tribune Mae Tinée, Chicago Tribune Elizabeth Kern, Omaha World-Herald Virginia Dale, Chicago Journal Genevieve Harris, Chicago Post Polly Wood, Chicago Herald and Examiner Afterword Appendix: Newspaper References Index Back cover |"Juxtaposing biographical information found through archival research with samples of film criticism transcribed from local papers, Abel throws a much-needed light on the female columnists who originally mediated the pictures for a mass audience increasingly defined by young women and girls." —Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
"With a scholar's knack for detail, Abel provides context for this crucial period of cinema history. An illuminating combination of scholarship and nostalgia." —Library Journal
"A revelation! From snarky hard-talking dames to tartly respectable scholars, Movie Mavens recovers the diverse and compelling voices of the legions of newspaperwomen who wrote about movies during the tumultuous 1910s and early 1920s. An invaluable resource from a model film historian."—Laura Horak, author of Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934
|Richard Abel is a professor emeritus of international cinema and media studies at the University of Michigan. His recent books include...