In Her Shoes: Lois Weber and the Female Filmmakers Who Shaped Early Hollywood

Excerpts from “Women in Early Filmmaking: No Finer Calling” 

by Shelley Stamp 

Moviegoing became sensationally popular in the first decades of the twentieth century, quickly surpassing other commercial entertainments like vaudeville and amusement parks, creating a tremendous demand for films.  Movie theaters changed programs several times a week, sometimes daily, showing a revolving program of short films. Opportunities abounded for virtually anyone interested in working in this new medium, including many women. One hundred years ago, the movie business was a place of incredible opportunity for women – arguably much more open to female filmmakers than it remains today.  

Early moviemaking was also a flexible enterprise where it was relatively easy to move between creative positions and the role of “director” as we now know it was less clearly defined.  People who entered the business in one capacity could move to other roles with relative ease.  Women could move from screenwriting to acting to directing, as Lois Weber did, or from acting to producing to directing as Dorothy Davenport Reid did.  Many began their careers acting in front of the camera, then graduated to creative roles behind the scenes like writing and directing, including Gene Gauntier … Gauntier’s description of her work in the early days of Kalem [Studios] perfectly illustrates the fluidity of creative roles in early film production – and the opportunities this created for enterprising, artistic women:  “In addition to playing the principal parts, I also wrote, with exception of a bare half-dozen, every one of the five hundred or so pictures in which I appeared.  I picked locations, supervised sets, passed on tests, co-directed with Sidney Olcott, cut and edited and wrote captions…got up a large part of the advertising matter, and, with it all, averaged a reel a week.”  She added, “It was work in those days – but creative work, blazing the trail.” 

Why were so many women active in the early years of filmmaking?  Why not. The movie business was a thriving industry. It offered opportunities for economic independence and creative work. During an era of the “new woman,” when women were thinking expansively about what they might do with their lives, the fledgling motion picture industry offered incredible opportunities.  What is more, women’s voices were valued in the early years of motion picture production.  Female moviegoers were actively courted in an effort to legitimate the new art form – and having female filmmakers working behind the scenes was considered an essential asset, not a liability. 

In Los Angeles, the new Universal City complex was home to many female filmmakers.  Lois Weber was the studio’s top director in the mid-1910s – studio boss Carl Laemmle called her his “best man on the lot” – but she was by no means alone.  Cleo Madison, Ida May Park, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Elsie Jane Wilson, Ruth Stonehouse and Lule Warrenton all directed for the studio as well.  In fact, Universal released at least 170 films directed by women between 1914 and 1919, according to film historian Mark Garrett Cooper.  And Universal celebrated its stable of female filmmakers, counting them among the “wonders” contained within Universal City limits, according to studio publicity. When Lois Weber ran for Mayor of Universal City on an all-female, women’s suffrage ticket in 1913, eliciting derisive coverage in the national press, Universal countered by boasting that its workforce included “some of the brainiest as well as most beautiful women in America.” Female filmmakers were an advantage for Universal in the silent era, something they were proud to celebrate. 

In the end, the moment of opportunity for female filmmakers was relatively short-lived.  The movie business quickly became extremely lucrative and after the first World War larger studios began consolidating power by buying up theater chains and forcing out independent producers and exhibitors. To finance these acquisitions, studios borrowed considerable sums of money from Wall Street, and in doing so became eager to adopt a more conventional “masculine” corporate ethos, as historian Karen Ward Mahar has shown. Women were pushed out of leadership roles and positions of creative control; those with independent production companies could not compete with the powerful studios and found it increasingly difficult to finance productions and get distribution.  Ironically, then, just at the moment when women had achieved the right to vote with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, their fortunes in the film industry, once so bright, began to fade.  As film historian Jane Gaines puts it, silent cinema’s female filmmakers were “pink slipped,” pushed out of the industry, then “forgotten” in its subsequent histories.   

So rapid was this shift that by the late 1920s Lois Weber found male crews unaccustomed to working with female directors and uncomfortable taking orders from them – a marked contrast to the universal respect she had commanded on movie sets early in her career.  Interviewed about the changes that swept Hollywood at the beginning of the Jazz Age, privileging powerful studio conglomerates over small independent outfits, Gene Gauntier recalled, “After being master of all I surveyed, I could not work under those conditions.” 

The first histories of Hollywood written in the late 1920s and early 30s excluded any consideration of female filmmakers, focusing instead on female stars like Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. Scores of women who had been essential to the fledgling movie business as directors, screenwriters and producers were forgotten in an initial rush to legitimate the newly powerful industry. 

NCSS.D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts. 

NCSS.D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras. 

NCSS.D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context. 

NCSS.D2.His.12.9-12. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.

NCSS.D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past. 

NCSS.D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past. 

NCSS.D3.Eval.1.9-12. Gather relevant information from multiple sources representing a wide range of views while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3. Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9. Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9. Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the specific task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. 

MA:Re8.1.I - High School Proficient/Responding (Prof.MA:Re8). Analyze the intent, meanings, and reception of a variety of media artworks, focusing on personal and cultural contexts. 

MA:Re8.1.II - High School Accomplished/Responding (Acc.MA:Re8). Analyze the intent, meanings, and influence of a variety of media artworks, based on personal, societal, historical, and cultural contexts. 

MA:Re8.1.III - High School Advanced/Responding (Adv.MA:Re8). Analyze the intent, meanings, and impacts of diverse media artworks, considering complex factors of context and bias. 

MA:Cn11.1.I - High School Proficient/Connecting (Prof.MA.Cn11). Demonstrate and explain how media artworks and ideas relate to various contexts, purposes, and values, such as social trends, power, equality, and personal/cultural identity. 

MA:Cn11.1.II - High School Accomplished/Connecting (Acc.MA.Cn11). Examine in-depth and demonstrate the relationships of media arts ideas and works to various contexts, purposes, and values, such as markets, systems, propaganda, and truth.  

MA:Cn11.1.II - High School Advanced/Connecting (Adv.MA.Cn11). Demonstrate the relationships of media art ideas and works to personal and global contexts, purposes, and values, through relevant and impactful media artworks. 

To prepare for this lesson, you may want to familiarize with the information in our companion Teacher's Guide as well as our Glossary of Terms for Film Discussion and Analysis. Streaming versions of the film "Shoes" can be found on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons. The short clip below is available on YouTube.  

Columbia University's Women Film Pioneers Project offers an in-depth article on How Women Worked in the US Silent Film Industry. Students will read sections 1 and 5.1, as well as a profile on Lois Weber, but the full article may be useful for your own background knowledge.   

We also recommend the Lois Weber profile and short video from the NEH-supported Unladylike2020 on PBS. Our teacher's guide Teaching Film Analysis in the Humanities and Film as Social and Cultural History from History Matters provide other useful information. 

Activity 1. Engaging with the AFI Catalog

1. Explore the AFI Catalog entry for the film “Shoes” by Lois Weber (1916), read the “History,” “Credits,” and “Synopsis,” and answer the following questions: 

   • How was the film reviewed when it was released in 1916? 

   • What story is the film based on? 

   • In your own words, describe the plot of the film. 

   • What production company released the film?  

2. Explore the AFI Catalog and answer the following questions: 

   • How many films did Lois Weber direct?

   • How many films did Lois Weber direct starring Mary MacLaren?

   • What other roles did Lois Weber have in the making of her films?  

   • How many films were released by Universal Pictures (formerly called Universal Film Manufacturing Company) in 1916? 

   • Find two other films starring Mary McLaren. Based on their synopses, how do these films compare to “Shoes?” Do they have similar or different themes?  

   • How many other films were made about “poverty” in 1916? (You can search for films by subject and year) 

   • How many other women directors can you find between the years 1910 and 1930? What are some of their names?

Activity 2. Building Research Skills

1. Read the profile on Lois Weber from the Columbia University Women Film Pioneer’s Project and answer the question:  

According to Photoplay (March 1917), for a time, Weber was the highest paid director in Hollywood. However, something shifted in the 1920’s. The essay suggests three potential reasons for the downturn in her career, what are the potential reasons?  

2. Read the Library of Congress essay on “Shoes” directed by Lois Weber and answer the following questions: 

   • The author, Shelley Stamp, writes that the Los Angeles Examiner praised the film’s “exact portraiture of the appalling currency of poverty.” What was the date of the Los Angeles Examiner article?  

   • The essay mentions three examples of “realism” in the set design of the film, “Shoes.” One example is that the entire contents of a five-and-dime store were transported to the studio for the retail scenes. What is one other example? 

3. Using the database, Lantern - Media History Digital Library (https://lantern.mediahist.org), find two original reviews of the film, “Shoes” and write a paragraph describing how the film was received at the time it was released, citing the primary sources. (Try searching “Lois Weber, Shoes” to get started).  

4. Go to the Columbia University Women Film Pioneer’s Project article, “How Women Worked in the US Silent Film Industry” and read sections 1 (Who Worked at What and When) and 5.1 (Women’s Work before It Was “Women’s Work”). 
   Then, answer the questions: 

   • What other jobs did women hold in the film industry during the silent film era, (approximately 1900-1920)?  

   • Describe the phenomenon known as “Universal Women.”

5. Read “The Universal Women” chapter from Anthony Slide’s The Silent Feminists: America’s First Women Directors. The author notes that in the 1910’s, Universal Studios had nine women under contract as directors. Other than Lois Weber, can you find four other female directors mentioned in the chapter?  

6. Watch the short KCET documentary, LOST LA: Dream Factory, and answer the questions:  

   • Why did the film industry want to attract more women in the early 20th Century? 

   • What happened in 1920 that created a backlash against women’s freedom and led to Lois Weber’s film being dropped from Paramount Studios?  

Activity 3. Critical Viewing of the Film "Shoes" by Lois Weber

Photo caption

Screenshot from Shoes (1916) featuring actress Mary MacLaren, directed by Lois Weber.

Wikipedia

1. Watch the film once to allow students to experience it as the audience did at the time it was released. Then watch it a second time for critical viewing.  

2. While critically viewing the film, ask students to watch for details related to terms in our Glossary of Terms for Film Discussion and Analysis. Working individually or in groups, ask them to list what they notice as well as questions they have. After viewing, students can share their findings with each other in groups or pairs then report back to the larger class. Consider assigning the following glossary terms as a starting point:

   • Character

   • Set Design

   • Close-up

   • Editing

3. Upon viewing the film, ask students to respond to the following questions. If necessary, assign questions to groups ahead of time so that they can closely examine these moments in the film during the screening.  

   • In your opinion, what do the new shoes symbolize? What do the old shoes symbolize? 

   • Before going to the Blue Goose, Eva stares into a broken mirror. What do you think is going on in Eva’s mind? What might the broken mirror symbolize?  

   • Share some examples of close-ups in the film. What effect did they have on you? Why might the filmmaker use close-ups? 

   • How does Lois Weber (the filmmaker) use facial expressions to help tell the story? Provide an example from the film. 

   • How does the set design help to tell the story? Provide an example from the film.  

   • There are occasions when Weber uses juxtaposition and superimposition in the editing (see glossary for definitions). What might have been Weber’s intention in using these techniques?   

   • How does Lois Weber use symbolism to convey meaning throughout the film? 

   • What do you think was the intent of the filmmaker (Weber) in making this film? 

Applying Knowledge, Making Connections, and Creating

Choose one or more of the following assessment activities:

1. Respond to these two questions in a one-page written essay or 1–3-minute video: Why is it important to recognize Lois Weber and her impact on early Hollywood? Why do you think female film pioneers have been largely omitted from history books until now? 

2. Imagine that the film “Shoes” was set in present-day America, how would it be different? How would it be similar? Write a synopsis for this new version of the film. Include the setting and locations, the characters and their backstories, the plot, and visual style. (Think about “Who, What, When, Where, and How”)  

3. Using a variety of databases, research other films by Lois Weber. Create a slideshow presentation that provides an overview of five of her films (including “Shoes”). Include titles, production companies, dates, a synopsis for each, and images (a film still, a movie poster, a photograph of the director at work, etc.).  

4. Using a variety of databases, research other films by “Universal Women.” Create a slideshow presentation that provides an overview of five Universal Pictures’ films by women directors other than Lois Weber. Include titles, production companies, dates, a synopsis for each, and images (a film still, a movie poster, a photograph of the director at work, etc.).  

5. Create a visual timeline of Lois Weber’s career and filmography — using text, images, movie posters, movie reviews, and any other media that is appropriate.

6. Compare and contrast “Shoes” (1916) to a contemporary feature film about poverty (made in the last 20 years). Examples include: The Pursuit of Happyness [PG-13], Slumdog Millionaire [R], The Breadwinner [PG-13], and Queen of Katwe [PG]. What are some of the similarities? What are the main differences? Consider both the story and the style of the films. Write a short essay comparing and contrasting these two films.  

7. *R-rating means “Restricted,” children under 17 require accompanying parent or adult guardian. This rating means the film contains adult material such as adult activity, harsh language, intense graphic violence, drug abuse and/or nudity. 

8. Imagine that you are a journalist in the 1910s and write a one-page review either praising or criticizing “Shoes.” Use the original reviews of the film as an inspiration and a model.  

These activities can be done in a Media Arts class or arts integration context within a History/Social Studies or English Language Arts class with appropriate foundations in media arts.  

High School - Media Arts/Proficient 

• Create a photographic essay documenting poverty in the present-day. Be mindful of the ethics of photojournalism.  

• Create a slideshow presentation about women directors in early cinema.  

• Create a slideshow presentation about films from the silent era that had “poverty” as a theme.  

High School - Media Arts/Accomplished 

• Create a short, silent, narrative film (3 minutes) about one of the themes in “Shoes,” set in present-day, in your own city, town, or community. (Themes: poverty, unemployment, women’s rights, unequal pay, taking care of a family). 

• Create a short documentary (3 minutes) about the present-day reality of one of the themes in “Shoes” (poverty, unemployment, women’s rights, unequal pay, taking care of a family). 

High School - Media Arts/Advanced 

• In collaborative groups, create a short documentary (5-10 minutes) or multimedia installation about the role of women in early Hollywood. 
• In collaborative groups, create a treatment and/or storyboards for a short narrative (fictional) film that responds to the question, “How would the world be different today if more women had been in positions of power throughout the 20th Century?”