Lois Weber:
Female Pioneer of the Film Industry
by Elizabeth B.
The
American movie industry has always been extremely influenced by women,
some women more than others. My generation usually scoffs at even black
and white movies, and we hardly even think about silent movies. In
the twenties, when women were not very respected, some women pushed
their way through to make an impression on the world. One of the biggest
women in Hollywood was Lois Weber, who not only starred in movies,
but wrote them, directed them, and set up her own studio.
Lois
Weber was born on June thirty first, 1881, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
She showed strong talent at an early age. When she was sixteen, she
went on a brief tour as a concert pianist. Weber had always wanted
to study voice in New York and her parents refused to let her go. This
prompted her to leave anyway, having no money or furniture, only the
clothes on her back. This would later be shown in her films, which
always dealt with real life.
She decided to sing with the missionary Church Army before heading
to New York. When she got there, she started to work as a street corner
Evangelist, doing missionary work, like preaching and singing hymns.
Weber decided that she wanted to share her view with a larger audience
so she toured with the Zig Zag stage company and appeared in a road
company of Why Girls Leave Home. In 1905, she married Philip Smalley, the director
of the show. He made her quit acting and become a homemaker, but that
only lasted for three years. Lois had a message she had to spread and
nothing could keep it quiet.
In 1908, she had taken a job under the film
director Herbert Blanche. It was her place to preach her Evangelism
and her first film was called "Hypocrites." In
a dual role, the lead actor plays a monk who sees the hypocrisy of
the world and a minister who is stoned to death by his congregation
for unveiling a statue of "The Naked Truth." The
movie premiered in 1914. It was a drama attacking political corruption,
the church, and the business world. There were also several other movies
carrying the same theme that were big box office hits. The society
was blown away that these movies were carrying such blows to them and
the audiences loved them. One of the films was even banned, causing
it even more popularity and it grossed over three million dollars.
By 1916, Weber was a top paid producer at Universal
Studios. She earned over five thousand a week. The other directors
at Universal during that time were Cleo Madison and Ida May Park.
In 1916, Universal screened her five-reel "showcase" called "Where Are My Children?" The
film spoke against abortion, or "race suicide", but it also
advocated birth control. After it was banned in Philadelphia by the
Philadelphia Board of Censors, censorship trials sprung up all over
the country. The publicity the film got helped it gross over three
million dollars.
In late 1916, she broke off and started her
own studio. She quickly released her next films that were as popular
as "Where Are My
Children?" The first was "Shoes" in 1916, which was
about child labor, then "The People vs. John Doe", also in
1916 that talked to the issue of capital punishment. Next was "The
Hand That Rocks the Cradle", which was a tribute to Margaret Sanger.
Sanger was the founder of the birth control movement. After these movies,
Weber was hailed as the greatest woman director by Universal Studios.
She continued to direct movies, turning out five more. The most popular
was "The Blot", made in 1921. It portrays a poor but proud
who would rather starve than accept charity. This mirrored her life
when she arrived in New York because she had nothing but wanted to
work rather than accept charity.
After "The Blot", Weber's films began to fall short at the
box office. The audiences wanted more entertainment than the morals
she portrayed and they didn't want to be preached on the difficult
themes she showed. Weber fell into a rut, divorcing her alcoholic husband
and losing her studio. She was forced to go back to Universal and in
1927 she tried to make a comeback with "Sensation Seekers",
a film reflecting her disapproval of the jazz age morality. Her last
silent film was "The Angel of Broadway" in 1927. It
was about a cabaret dancer who burlesques the innocence of a Salvation
Army girl. It was a bitter allusion to Weber's early days. It was closed
from theatres because of bad reviews. In 1934, she made "White
Heat", which talked about miscegenation and racism on a sugar
plantation on Hawaii. The critics attacked it as humorless and distributors
rejected it.
Weber was penniless and had a bad reputation. She divorced her alcoholic
husband and Universal kept her one as a script doctor. This goddess
of the silver screen had been reduced to being a script doctor. Weber
fell ill for a few years and on November 13, 1939,she died, broke and
forgotten.
Lois Weber was one of the most influential women in film history.
In the early 1900's, when woman were not respected at all, she was
a top paid director. She blazed a trail for women to follow. She also
brought serious problems to the public eye and encouraged the people
to think about them. Weber spoke her mind and would not let the censors
block it away. If a studio would censor her work, she would take her
movie somewhere else. She was a strong feminist and didn't let a man
rule her.
Researching Lois Weber, I discovered that there are many aspects to
pioneers. Lois Weber was very multi-dimensional and parts of her were
hard to like. She was very stubborn and she was very religious. I liked
how she worked for what she wanted and didn't give up. She wouldn't
let someone change her opinions. Yet I had to look at her in another
way. Weber stuck to her views and if you didn't agree with them, she
didn't care about you. I found it hard to admire someone with those
traits. Weber was very admirable, and her film topics were very real
to me. She didn't try to hide anything and that made me like her even
more.
Although people still remember silent films, many important and significant
people are over looked. Because few famous people starred in her films,
she is all but forgotten in the industry. Remembered or not, movies
have been changed by Lois Weber, one of the first women directors in
America.
Percy Julian Junior High
Seventh Grade
Mr. Gates Language Arts Teacher
Sites visited:
- http://www.reelwomen.com/weberbio.html
- http://writetools.com/women/stories/weber_lois.html
- http://www.tecomm.com/MMTC-Weber.html
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