The American Women's Almanac by Deborah G. Felder

Author:Deborah G. Felder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Visible Ink Press
Published: 2019-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

In the early years of the American motion picture industry, two directors stand out as auteurs—filmmakers involved in every aspect of production. One was D. W. Griffith, and the other was Lois Weber. An actor and producer as well as screenwriter and director, Lois Weber made silent films that reflected her concern with social justice and the human condition.

Born Florence Lois Weber in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Weber was the second of the three children of George Weber, an upholsterer and decorator, and his wife Matilda. As a child, Weber was considered a musical prodigy. She left home while still in her teens and lived in poverty while working as a street-corner evangelist and social activist for the Church Army Workers. Two years later, she returned home and, after continuing her music studies for a time, began to perform as a soprano singer and pianist. She toured the United States as a concert pianist but abandoned her musical career after a piano key broke off in her hand while she was playing. She decided to pursue an acting career and left for New York City.

Weber found acting work in repertory and stock companies. She was cast as the soubrette in the farce comedy Zig-Zag for a Chicago-based touring company and appeared in a road company production of the popular drama Why Girls Leave Home. In 1904, she married Wendell Phillips Smalley, the company’s leading man and manager. Around 1907, the two began working in motion pictures, often billed under the collective title “The Smalleys.” During their early years at the Gaumont and Reliance studios, the couple acted together on-screen and codirected scripts written by Lois Weber. In 1912, they moved to Carl Laemmle’s Universal Film Manufacturing Company, where they headed the Rex division of films. They produced one- and two-reel films each week with a stock company of actors and earned a reputation for sophisticated filmmaking. In 1914, Lois Weber became the first woman to direct a feature film when the couple completed a four-reel version of The Merchant of Venice. Seeking more freedom to make feature films, Weber and Smalley left Universal for Hobart Bosworth Productions, where they made such films as Hypocrites (1915).

When Weber and Smalley returned to Universal, Lois Weber became one of the top directors at the studio and was the sole author of scripts the couple adapted for the screen. Weber wrote, produced, and directed a series of films on the social issues of the era, including capital punishment (The People vs. John Doe, 1916); drug abuse (Hop, the Devil’s Brew, 1916); and poverty and wage equality (Shoes, 1916). Inspired by the trial of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, Weber made and acted in two films concerning contraception, family planning, and sex education: Where Are My Children? (1916) and Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1917).

In 1916, Weber became the first woman to be elected to the Motion Picture Directors Association. The following year, she left Universal to form her own studio. Lois Weber Productions, located on the grounds of a former estate in Los Angeles.

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