Description
Book SynopsisIn the early part of the twentieth century, migrants made their way from rural homes to cities in record numbers and many traveled west. Los Angeles became a destination. Women flocked to the growing town to join the film industry as workers and spectators, creating a New Woman. Their efforts transformed filmmaking from a marginal business to a cosmopolitan, glamorous, and bohemian one. By 1920, Los Angeles had become the only western city where women outnumbered men. In Go West, Young Women! Hilary A. Hallett explores these relatively unknown new western women and their role in the development of Los Angeles and the nascent film industry. From Mary Pickford's rise to become perhaps the most powerful woman of her age, to the racist moral panics of the post-World War I years that culminated in Hollywood's first sex scandal, Hallett describes how the path through early Hollywood presaged the struggles over modern gender roles that animated the century to come.
Trade Review"Don't miss Go West, Young Women!" The Huffington Post "A lively look at Hollywood's past, when the movies were still in their infancy, and at the women who were a critical part of it... Highly recommended." -- G. A. Foster Choice
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Part I. Along the Road to Hollywood Prologue I. Landscapes 1. "Oh for a girl who could ride a horse like Pearl White": The Actress Democratizes Fame 2. Women-Made Women: Writing the "Movies" before Hollywood Part II. Melodramas of Hollywood's Birth Prologue II. The Postwar Revolution in Morals and Manners, Redux 3. Hollywood Bohemia 4. The Movie Menace 5. A Star Is Born: Rereading Hollywood's First Sex Scandal Conclusion: The Girl from Hollywood Filmography Notes Acknowledgments Index
