What'sHerName

What'sHerName


THE SCREENWRITER Frances Marion

December 07, 2021
Black and white photo of Frances Marion, a beautiful woman with pale skin and dark red lips, sitting in a "camp chair"-style seat with her name stenciled on the back. The chair is facing away from the camera, but she is turned back to smile at the viewer. She wears a dark sweater and skirt and an enormous, puffy, black velvet hat rather like a mushroom cap covering her hair.Frances Marion
public domain

Frances Marion was one of the most important, influential, and well-paid screenwriters in Hollywood. Her films moved audiences to tears and brought out the best in every actor for whom she ever wrote. And when the switch to ‘talking pictures’ left most other silent film writers in the dust, Frances continued to astonish, creating dozens of the most famous and beloved films of the first half of the 20th century. So how come nobody remembers her name?

Our guest Pam Munter takes us on a whirlwind tour of the dramatic, cinema-worthy life of this remarkable woman.


 


The full version of one of Marion’s most famous films, The Love Light, is available on YouTube (watch for Fred Thomson as Mary Pickford’s co-star!), as is her 1917 Poor Little Rich Girl, and a short clip from her prison drama, The Big House.


 


 


 


 
















Pam Munter is the author of Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood and many other books. She is a former clinical psychologist, a performer and a writer.



Music featured in this episode included:









 


 



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Cover of "Fading Fame" by Pam Munter
Cover of "Without Lying Down" by Cari Beauchamp
Cover of "As Alone As I Want To Be," a memoir by Pam Munter
Pixel-style cross-stitch pattern of silent film screenwriter Frances Marion

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