I’d say that Frances Marion was the most famous woman that you’ve never heard of, except that I’m fairly certain she’s just one of the many famous women who have dropped out of the public conscious. But Frances Marion is probably one of the most famous women writers you’ve never heard of.

Beginning in 1917, Frances was Hollywood’s highest paid screenwriter for thirty years. She wrote 325 scripts, over 200 of which were for produced films. She was also a director and a producer, and was the only woman on the first board of directors of the Screen Writers’ Guild, and also served as its vice-president. She wrote novels and stage plays, and eventually became a sculptor. Earlier, she had a career as a war correspondent, and she was the first Allied woman to cross the Rhine in World War I. She didn’t do this in a convoy, or even riding in a jeep. She walked along a road through a battleground, alone, and in the dark.

There were a number of powerful women in early Hollywood, not only actresses, but directors, producers, and especially writers. Cari Beauchamp, in Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, points out that half the films copyrighted between 1911 and 1925 were written by women.

Mary Pickford & Frances Marion

Frances Marion was a big influence on the careers of many stars. She worked closely with Mary Pickford throughout her career, and wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, one of the early hits that made Pickford a star. She also wrote Son of the Shiek, Rudolph Valentino’s last movie, and it was her efforts that resurrected silent actress Marie Dressler’s failing career. Marion wrote the screenplay for Dinner at Eight, with Dressler as one of the stars. She wrote scripts for movies with Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Marion Davies, Walter Huston, Leslie Howard, Shirley Temple, and many others.

In 1928, Marion tried to introduce a very young Walter Disney to Louis B. Mayer, forcing Mayer to watch an animated short staring a mouse that Disney had brought to the studio. But Mayer berated Disney and stormed out in a fury, telling Marion that a cartoon starring a mouse was offensive, that it would frighten women, especially pregnant women. Marion pointed out that animated mice were not that scary next to the subjects commonly shown in popular MGM movies, such as gangsters, murder, and rape, but Mayer didn’t listen. Marion was vindicated later, when another studio produced the cartoons and Disney was given a special award at the Oscars for creating Mickey Mouse.

Even though they were present in large numbers and wielded a lot of power and influence, women professionals in Hollywood at that time still faced sexism. When Frances Marion directed The Love Light starring Mary Pickford, a bad storm came up during the filming of a shipwreck scene. Her assistant director was forced to jump off a small boat when it was driven into the rocks, and nearly drowned. (He was saved by Douglas Fairbanks and Frances’ husband, cowboy star Fred Thomson, who both swam out into the stormy ocean to rescue him.) While the injured were taken to the nearest hotel to recover, Frances stayed on the beach with the cameraman to finish filming the scene. A reviewer later criticized the film by saying that only a woman director would have used such a phony-looking miniature in a fake storm.

Frances also won two Oscars for screenwriting, one for The Big House and one for The Champ. The Big House was a prison film, critical of the abuses of the criminal justice system and meant to be a call for reform. Frances determined to make it as realistic as possible. She toured San Quentin, facing the ridicule of the warden, guards, prisoners, and everyone else she encountered, who were certain the “little woman” couldn’t handle it. The film became a major hit.

Frances’ long career ended at MGM in 1946. After 1940, her scripts for MGM were uncredited. She and the few other women writers still working there were expected to conceal whatever influence they still had. They even had to carry scripts in unmarked envelopes, and many people assumed they were secretaries.

If you want to know more about the huge number of women who were movers and shakers in early Hollywood, I highly recommend Cari Beauchamp’s Without Lying Down. It’s an eye-opening and inspirational read.