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{{distinguish|Francis Marion}}
{{short description|American screenwriter, director, journalist and author}}
{{short description|American screenwriter, director, journalist and author}}
{{distinguish|Francis Marion}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
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== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in [[San Francisco, California]], to Minnie Benson and Len Douglas Owens, an advertising and billboard executive ("billposter"),<ref>
Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in [[San Francisco, California]], to Minnie Benson and Len Douglas Owens, an advertising and billboard executive ("billposter"),<ref>* Polk's Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory 1888
*Polk's Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory 1888
* Crocker-Langley San Francisco Business Directory 1899
* [[The Billboard]] [1903-02-28] — "Len D. Owens' health has failed..."
*Crocker-Langley San Francisco Business Directory 1899
* Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory 1909
*[[The Billboard]] [1903-02-28] — "Len D. Owens' health has failed..."
* Who's who on the Pacific Coast 1913 — Franklin Harper
*Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory 1909
* https://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/learn/filmstudycenter/Frances_Marion_users_guide_MoMA.pdf
*Who's who on the Pacific Coast 1913 — Franklin Harper
</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoblue21sanf |title=San Francisco blue book |date=1904 |publisher=San Francisco, Calif. : Charles C. Hoag |others=San Francisco Public Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=CARSON |first=L. PIERCE |date=2012-08-09 |title=Mother and son turn historic resort land into winemaking venture |url=https://napavalleyregister.com/wine/mother-and-son-turn-historic-resort-land-into-winemaking-venture/article_18e40510-e282-11e1-be72-0019bb2963f4.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=The Napa Valley Register |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.pvfarmcenter.org/history.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=THE POPE VALLEY FARM CENTER |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1898-04-24 |title=Thomas H. B. Varney advertising |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-call-and-post-thomas-h/13477878/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The San Francisco Call and Post |pages=33}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Len D. Owens – Napa County Historical Society |url=https://napahistory.org/len-d-owens/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=napahistory.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Sam |title=Famed Napa Valley hot springs resort awaits a revival |url=https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/aetna-springs-napa-revival-17741990.php |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=SFGATE |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Desert Sun 21 March 1968 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19680321.2.18 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref> later, developer of [[Aetna Springs Resort]], [[Aetna Springs, California|Aetna Springs]], [[Pope Valley]], California.<ref>* https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/napavalleyregister.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/da/fda7e7f4-738a-518d-b3ac-1f5efd826b44/5afcc3b3a23f9.pdf.pdf
*https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-call-and-post-thomas-h/13477878/
</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Eberling |first=Barry |date=2023-01-21 |title=Napa's famed Aetna Springs still awaits rebirth |url=https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napas-famed-aetna-springs-still-awaits-rebirth/article_c414d78a-8244-11ed-a18d-fbaba5637554.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=The Napa Valley Register |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/town193sanf |title=Town talk |date=1911 |publisher=San Francisco : Town Talk Pub. Co. |others=California State Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-03-21 |title=Best Of 2012: Recreation |url=https://bohemian.com/best-of-2012-recreation-1/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Bohemian {{!}} Sonoma & Napa Counties |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="1900 United States Federal Census">1900 United States Federal Census</ref> She had an older sister, Maude, and a younger brother, Len.<ref name="1900 United States Federal Census" /> After Len D. Owens' health failed,<ref>[[The Billboard]] [1903-02-28] — "Len D. Owens' health has failed..."</ref> Marion lived in [[Pope Valley]], California and later used it at the setting for her 1935 book ''Valley People''.<ref>{{Cite news |last = Yerger |first = Rebecca |title = Napa County's Literary Legacy|newspaper = [[Napa Valley Register]] |location = [[Napa, California]] |date = May 16, 2021 |url = https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/history/rebecca-yerger-memory-lane-napa-county-s-literary-legacy/article_51decb8f-558a-5914-963c-f4a6d971782e.html}}</ref>
*https://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/learn/filmstudycenter/Frances_Marion_users_guide_MoMA.pdf

*https://napahistory.org/len-d-owens/
:"Her father divorced her mother when Marion was almost ten and remarried just a few years later. She was sent to a Christian boarding school..."<ref name="criterion.com">https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6948-the-woman-who-invented-the-hollywood-screenwriter {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>
*https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19680321.2.18

*https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/aetna-springs-napa-revival-17741990.php
She dropped out of school at age 12, after having been caught drawing a cartoon strip of her teacher.
*https://www.pvfarmcenter.org/history.html
*https://napavalleyregister.com/wine/mother-and-son-turn-historic-resort-land-into-winemaking-venture/article_18e40510-e282-11e1-be72-0019bb2963f4.html
*https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoblue21sanf
</ref> later, developer of [[Aetna Springs Resort]], [[Aetna Springs, California|Aetna Springs]], [[Pope Valley]], California.<ref>
*https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napas-famed-aetna-springs-still-awaits-rebirth/article_c414d78a-8244-11ed-a18d-fbaba5637554.html
*https://archive.org/details/town193sanf/page/n8/mode/1up
*https://bohemian.com/best-of-2012-recreation-1/
*https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/napavalleyregister.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/da/fda7e7f4-738a-518d-b3ac-1f5efd826b44/5afcc3b3a23f9.pdf.pdf
</ref><ref name="1900 United States Federal Census">1900 United States Federal Census</ref> She had an older sister, Maude, and a younger brother, Len.<ref name="1900 United States Federal Census" /> After Len D. Owens' health failed,<ref>[[The Billboard]] [1903-02-28] — "Len D. Owens' health has failed..."</ref> Marion lived in [[Pope Valley]], California and later used it at the setting for her 1935 book ''Valley People''.<ref>{{Cite news |last = Yerger |first = Rebecca |title = Napa County's Literary Legacy|newspaper = [[Napa Valley Register]] |location = [[Napa, California]] |date = May 16, 2021 |url = https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/history/rebecca-yerger-memory-lane-napa-county-s-literary-legacy/article_51decb8f-558a-5914-963c-f4a6d971782e.html}}</ref>


:"She was suspended from elementary school when she was twelve for drawing satiric pictures of her teacher and was sent to St. Margaret’s Hall,<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/sim_armed-forces-journal_1906-05-19_43_38 |title=Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces 1906-05-19: Vol 43 Iss 38 |date=1906-05-19 |publisher=Gannett Co. |language=English}}</ref> a private boarding school in San Mateo. At sixteen, she transferred to the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco"<ref name="anb-FM">* Marion, Frances (18 November 1888–12 May 1973)
:"Her father divorced her mother when Marion was almost ten and remarried just a few years later. She was sent to a Christian boarding school..."<ref>https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6948-the-woman-who-invented-the-hollywood-screenwriter</ref>
* Cari Beauchamp
* Published in print: 1999
* Published online: February 2000
* https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800790
* American National Biography Online
* Oxford University Press
</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Marion, Frances (1888-1973), screenwriter |url=https://www.anb.org/display/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1800790 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=American National Biography |date=2000 |language=en |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800790 |last1=Beauchamp |first1=Cari }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Search Results for Frances Marion |url=https://www.anb.org/search?q=Frances+Marion |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=American National Biography |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Search Results for Marion, Frances |url=https://www.anb.org/search?q=Marion%2C+Frances |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=American National Biography |language=en}}</ref>


She dropped out of school at age 12, after having been caught drawing a cartoon strip of her teacher. She then transferred to a school in [[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]] and then to the [[Mark Hopkins Art Institute]] in San Francisco when she was 16 years old. Marion attended this school from 1904 until the school was destroyed by the fire that followed in the wake of the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxLUDQAAQBAJ|title=Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]|last1=Lamphier|first1=Peg A.|last2=Welch|first2=Rosanne|date=January 23, 2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-603-6|pages=246|language=en}}</ref>
She then transferred to a school in [[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]] and then to the [[Mark Hopkins Art Institute]] in San Francisco when she was 16 years old. Marion attended this school from 1904 until the school was destroyed by the fire that followed in the wake of the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxLUDQAAQBAJ|title=Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]|last1=Lamphier|first1=Peg A.|last2=Welch|first2=Rosanne|date=January 23, 2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-603-6|pages=246|language=en}}</ref>


:"In 1906, she married her 19-year-old instructor from the Art Institute, Wesley de Lappe. Following the advice of family friend and acclaimed writer [[Jack London]], to "go forth and live" so that she could capture the human spirit in her art, Marion undertook a series of odd jobs such as telephone operator and fruit cannery worker."<ref>https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-marion</ref>
:"In 1906, she married her 19-year-old instructor from the Art Institute, Wesley de Lappe. Following the advice of family friend and acclaimed writer [[Jack London]], to "go forth and live" so that she could capture the human spirit in her art, Marion undertook a series of odd jobs such as telephone operator and fruit cannery worker."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Frances Marion |url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-marion |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=National Women's History Museum |language=en}}</ref>


== Career ==
== Career ==
Circa 1907-1911, in San Francisco, Marion worked as a photographer's assistant to [[Arnold Genthe]] and experimented with photographic layouts and color film. Later she worked for [[Western Pacific Railroad]] as a commercial artist, then, at 19, as a "cub"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1973-05-14 |title=Article clipped from The News Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-journal/26058878/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The News Journal |pages=1}}</ref><ref name="The San Francisco Examiner">{{Cite news |date=1973-05-14 |title=Article clipped from The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/26058938/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=50}}</ref> reporter for the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]''. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1912,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-30 |title=Classic Hollywood: Film pioneers describe early days in 'My First Time in Hollywood' |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/classichollywood/la-ca-mn-classic-hollywood-20150531-story.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Marion worked as a poster artist for the [[Oliver Morosco|Morosco]] Theater<ref>{{Cite news |date=1913-01-05 |title=Morosco theatre opening |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-morosco-theatre-op/35650882/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Globe Theatre, Los Angeles, Los Angeles: Downtown |url=https://www.historictheatrephotos.com/Theatre/Globe-Los-Angeles.aspx |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=www.historictheatrephotos.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, CA - Cinema Treasures |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1459 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=cinematreasures.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Globe Theatre/Garland Building |url=http://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/globe-theatre-garland-building/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=LA Conservancy |language=en-US}}</ref> as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Without Lying Down|last=Beauchamp|first=Cari|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-520-21492-7|pages=22–37}}</ref>
Circa 1907-1911, in San Francisco, Marion worked as a photographer's assistant to [[Arnold Genthe]] and experimented with photographic layouts and color film. Later she worked for [[Western Pacific Railroad]] as a commercial artist, then as a reporter for the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]''. After moving to Los Angeles, Marion worked as a poster artist for the [[Oliver Morosco|Morosco]] Theater<ref>
*https://www.historictheatrephotos.com/Theatre/Globe-Los-Angeles.aspx
*https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1459
*http://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/globe-theatre-garland-building/
*https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-morosco-theatre-op/35650882/
</ref> as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Without Lying Down|last=Beauchamp|first=Cari|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-520-21492-7|pages=22–37}}</ref>


[[File:Frances-marion-1915.jpg|thumb|left|Marion, 1915]]
[[File:Frances-marion-1915.jpg|thumb|left|Marion, 1915]]
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She won the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Writing in 1931 for the film ''[[The Big House (1930 film)|The Big House]]'', she received the [[Academy Award for Best Story]] for ''[[The Champ (1931 film)|The Champ]]'' in 1932, both featuring [[Wallace Beery]], and co-wrote ''[[Min and Bill]]'' starring her friend [[Marie Dressler]] and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films.
She won the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Writing in 1931 for the film ''[[The Big House (1930 film)|The Big House]]'', she received the [[Academy Award for Best Story]] for ''[[The Champ (1931 film)|The Champ]]'' in 1932, both featuring [[Wallace Beery]], and co-wrote ''[[Min and Bill]]'' starring her friend [[Marie Dressler]] and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films.

:"Half of all films written before 1925 were written by women, but writers' names rarely appeared on the screen. In fact, this figure is available only through the copyright records at the Library of Congress, where writers' names had to be included."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-12 |title=Even for Talkies, They Worked Silently - The New York Times |website=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/22/arts/even-for-talkies-they-worked-silently.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112204530/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/22/arts/even-for-talkies-they-worked-silently.html |archive-date=January 12, 2023 }}</ref>


== Personal life ==
== Personal life ==
[[File:The Love Light (1921) - 2.jpg|thumb|Mary Pickford, and Frances Marion, writer and director, on location, for ''[[The Love Light]]'', 1920]]
In 1914, Marion befriended [[Adela Rogers St. Johns]],
[[Marie Dressler]], and [[Mary Pickford]].<ref>https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6948-the-woman-who-invented-the-hollywood-screenwriter</ref>


In 1914, Marion befriended [[Adela Rogers St. Johns]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stephens |first=Palmina |title=Adela Rogers St. Johns : the consummate sob sister |url=https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/gx41mn084 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=scholarworks.calstate.edu |language=English}}</ref>
[[File:Pre-election parade for suffrage in NYC, Oct. 23, 1915, in which 20,000 women marched LCCN2001704302.tif|thumb|Marion attended this parade for women's suffrage in New York City, October 23, 1915]]
[[Marie Dressler]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Critic |first=Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Staff |title=When Women Ruled / PFA shows films of early Hollywood's female screenwriters |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/when-women-ruled-pfa-shows-films-of-early-3010207.php |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=SFGATE |language=en}}</ref> and [[Mary Pickford]].<ref name="criterion.com"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2020-03-28 |title=Mary and Doug Get Married |url=https://marypickford.org/caris-articles/mary-and-doug-marry/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Mary Pickford Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
On October 23, 1915, Marion participated in a parade of more than thirty thousand supporters of [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]] in New York City.


[[File:Pre-election parade for suffrage in NYC, Oct. 23, 1915, in which 20,000 women marched LCCN2001704302.tif|thumb|Marion attended this pre-election parade for women's suffrage in New York City, October 23, 1915]]
After her success in Hollywood, Marion often visited [[Aetna Springs Resort]] in [[Aetna Springs, California]], using it as a personal retreat and often bringing several film-industry colleagues with her on vacations. The resort, in fact, was directly connected to her own family's history, for Marion's father had built the resort in the 1870s.<ref>{{Cite news |last = Jensen |first = Peter |title = A grand 19th-century resort to be reborn in Pope Valley|newspaper = [[Napa Valley Register]] |location = [[Napa, California]] |date = February 6, 2012 |url = http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/a-grand-th-century-resort-to-be-reborn-in-pope/article_31be2f26-4fba-11e1-8c95-001871e3ce6c.html|access-date = February 6, 2012}}</ref>[[File:Fred Thomson, Frances Marion, Mary Pickford - Dec 1919 EH.jpg|thumb|[[Mary Pickford]] (center) with newlyweds [[Fred Thomson]] and Frances Marion (1919)|alt=|left]]Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe and then to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed [[Fred Thomson]], who co-starred with Mary Pickford in ''The Love Light'' in 1921.<ref name="Bio" /> She was such close friends with Mary Pickford that they honeymooned together when Mary married Douglas Fairbanks and Frances married Fred.<ref name="youtube1">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XdaJaYOeJg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/4XdaJaYOeJg |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=The Love Light (Frances Marion, Mary Pickford Co. US 1921) (d/w)|date=October 10, 2013|publisher=[[YouTube]]|access-date=March 5, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref> After Thomson's unexpected death from a leg wound in 1928, she married director [[George Hill (director)|George Hill]] in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933. She had two sons—Frederick C. Thomson and Richard Thomson (adopted). Frederick earned a PhD in English at Yale, taught there and later joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina. He became an editor of the writings of [[George Eliot]], publishing editions of ''[[Felix Holt, the Radical]]'' in 1980 and later.
On October 23, 1915, Marion participated in a parade of more than thirty thousand supporters of [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]] in New York City.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

After her success in Hollywood, Marion often visited [[Aetna Springs Resort]] in [[Aetna Springs, California]], using it as a personal retreat and often bringing several film-industry colleagues with her on vacations. The resort, in fact, was directly connected to her own family's history, for Marion's father had built the resort in the 1870s.<ref>{{Cite news |last = Jensen |first = Peter |title = A grand 19th-century resort to be reborn in Pope Valley|newspaper = [[Napa Valley Register]] |location = [[Napa, California]] |date = February 6, 2012 |url = http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/a-grand-th-century-resort-to-be-reborn-in-pope/article_31be2f26-4fba-11e1-8c95-001871e3ce6c.html|access-date = February 6, 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Fred Thomson, Frances Marion, Mary Pickford - Dec 1919 EH.jpg|thumb|[[Mary Pickford]] (center) with newlyweds [[Fred Thomson]] and Frances Marion (1919)|alt=|left]]

Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe and then to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed [[Fred Thomson]], who co-starred with Mary Pickford in ''The Love Light'' in 1921.<ref name="Bio" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Pickford Chronology |url=https://marypickford.org/mary-pickford-chronology/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Mary Pickford Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> She was such close friends with Mary Pickford that they honeymooned together when Mary married Douglas Fairbanks and Frances married Fred.<ref name="youtube1">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XdaJaYOeJg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/4XdaJaYOeJg |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=The Love Light (Frances Marion, Mary Pickford Co. US 1921) (d/w)|date=October 10, 2013|publisher=[[YouTube]]|access-date=March 5, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

During the 1920s, Frances Marion and Fred Thomson lived at the 15-acre<ref>{{Citation |title=Estate of Fred Thomson and Frances Marion |date=1928 |url=https://calisphere.org/item/64b842663c2fc0f60819f3716363810c/ |access-date=2024-04-25}}</ref> ''The Enchanted Hill'', in Beverly Hills, designed by architect [[Wallace Neff]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meares |first=Hadley |date=2014-07-22 |title=How old Hollywood and starchitecture built Santa Monica's Gold Coast |url=https://la.curbed.com/2014/7/22/10077618/santa-monica-history-gold-coast-beach-houses |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Curbed LA |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Meares |first=Hadley |date=2015-10-22 |title=Mapping LA's most incredible lost mansions |url=https://la.curbed.com/maps/los-angeles-lost-mansions |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Curbed LA |language=en}}</ref>

In early December 1928, Thomson stepped on a nail while working in his stables, contracting [[tetanus]], and died in [[Los Angeles]] on [[Christmas Day]] 1928.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|title=Fred C. Thomson, Screen Actor, Dies. Rival of Tom Mix in Western Roles. Was a Minister. Star Athlete While at Princeton.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/12/27/archives/fred-c-thomson-screen-actor-dies-rival-of-tom-mix-in-western-roles.html |agency=[[Associated Press]] |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 27, 1928|access-date=July 24, 2009 |quote=Fred C. Thomson, screen actor, featured in Western roles, died here shortly before midnight last night. He failed to rally from an operation for gallstones, performed three weeks ago. }}</ref>

After Thomson's unexpected death, she married director [[George Hill (director)|George Hill]] in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933.

She had two sons: [[US Navy]] Captain Richard G. Thomson (adopted<!-- https://californiabirthindex.org/birth/james_harrison_thomson_born_1927_1161121 -->),<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/03/18/aye-tis-the-wedding-o-the-green/266ef849-3926-4744-b56c-6440337ed90c/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=1987-09-11 |title=MOVIES - Sept. 11, 1987 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-11-ca-4689-story.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Thomson Obituary (2003) - Washington, DC - The Washington Post |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/richard-thomson-obituary?id=5481939 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Legacy.com}}</ref> and Frederick Clifton Thomson<ref>https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?user=6586269&id=790558988&clippingId=118336291&width=820&height=776&crop=2608_1018_1300_1231&rotation=0 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Frederick Clifton Thomson, Born 12/08/1926 in California {{!}} CaliforniaBirthIndex.org |url=https://californiabirthindex.org/birth/frederick_clifton_thomson_born_1926_1077256 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=californiabirthindex.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-03-23 |title=Obituary for Fred Clifton Thomson |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-sun-obituary-for-fred-clifton/118336291/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The Herald-Sun |pages=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-26 |title=fred thomson – NC Miscellany |url=https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/tag/fred-thomson/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |language=en-US}}</ref> who earned a PhD in English at Yale, taught there and later joined the faculty of the [[University of North Carolina]], later becoming an editor of the writings of [[George Eliot]], publishing editions of ''[[Felix Holt, the Radical]]'' in 1980 and later.


== Later years and death ==
== Later years and death ==
In 1945, ''Molly, Bless Her'', the 1937 novel written by Frances Marion, was adapted by [[Roger Burford]], as the screenplay for the [[comedy film]], ''[[Molly and Me]]'', directed by [[Lewis Seiler]] and starring [[Monty Woolley]], [[Gracie Fields]], [[Reginald Gardiner]] and [[Roddy McDowall]], released by [[20th Century Fox]].

For many years she was under contract to [[MGM]] Studios. Independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing [[stage play]]s and novels.
For many years she was under contract to [[MGM]] Studios. Independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing [[stage play]]s and novels.


Frances Marion published a memoir ''Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood'' in 1972. Marion died<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/14/archives/frances-marion-dies-on-coast-screenwriter-won-two-oscars-scored.html</ref> the following year of a ruptured [[aneurysm]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sicherman|first=Barbara|author2=Hurd Green, Carol|title=Notable American Women: The Modern Period : A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|year=1980|page=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich/page/457 457]|isbn=0-674-62732-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich/page/457}}</ref>
Frances Marion published a memoir ''Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood'' in 1972. Marion died<ref>{{Cite news |date=1973-05-14 |title=Frances Marion Dies on Coast; Screenwriter Won Two Oscars |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/14/archives/frances-marion-dies-on-coast-screenwriter-won-two-oscars-scored.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="The San Francisco Examiner"/> the following year of a ruptured [[aneurysm]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sicherman|first=Barbara|author2=Hurd Green, Carol|title=Notable American Women: The Modern Period : A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|year=1980|page=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich/page/457 457]|isbn=0-674-62732-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich/page/457}}</ref>


== Selected filmography ==
== Selected filmography ==
Line 103: Line 115:
|1912
|1912
|''[[The New York Hat]]''
|''[[The New York Hat]]''
| Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish
| Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, [[Lillian Gish]]
|Contributing writer
|Contributing writer
|-
|-
Line 121: Line 133:
|-
|-
|''[[The Gilded Cage (1916 film)|The Gilded Cage]]''
|''[[The Gilded Cage (1916 film)|The Gilded Cage]]''
| Alice Brady, Montagu Love, Alec B. Francis
| [[Alice Brady]], Montagu Love, Alec B. Francis
| Scenarist/writer
| Scenarist/writer
|-
|-
|rowspan=3|1917
|rowspan=3|1917
| ''[[A Little Princess (1917 film)|A Little Princess]]''
| ''[[A Little Princess (1917 film)|A Little Princess]]''
|Katherine Griffith, Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts, Theodore Roberts
|Katherine Griffith, Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, [[ZaSu Pitts]], Theodore Roberts
|Writer
|Writer
|-
|-
Line 374: Line 386:


== Published works ==
== Published works ==
*''[[:wikisource:Minnie_Flynn|Minnie Flynn]]''. NY: Boni and Liveright, 1925<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ5FAAAAIAAJ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006534530 -->
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ5FAAAAIAAJ Minnie Flynn]''. NY: Boni and Liveright, 1925; free via [[google books]] and [[Hathi Trust]] {{Open access}}<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ5FAAAAIAAJ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006534530 -->
:* [[:wikisource:Minnie Flynn]]
*''The Secret Six''. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 [novelization of her own screenplay]
*''The Secret Six''. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 ([[novelization]] of her own screenplay of ''[[The Secret Six]]'')
*''Valley People''. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935 <!--https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010112232 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion-2/valley-people/ -->
*''Valley People''. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935 <!--*https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010112232
::"The book’s portrayal of the community as isolated inbreds bent on self-destruction and domination understandably ruffled many feathers"<ref>
*https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion-2/valley-people/
*https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/history/rebecca-yerger-memory-lane-napa-county-s-literary-legacy/article_51decb8f-558a-5914-963c-f4a6d971782e.html
*https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/archive/Author-Frances-Marion--Southern-California--1935-2A3BF1OALBK0Z.html
*https://readingcalifornia.typepad.com/reading_california_fictio/2006/09/valley_people.html
-->
*https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/04/archives/a-portrait-gallery-of-village-people-valley-people-by-frances.html
::"The book’s portrayal of the community as isolated inbreds bent on self-destruction and domination understandably ruffled many feathers"<ref>https://readingcalifornia.typepad.com/reading_california_fictio/2006/09/valley_people.html {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=STAFF |first=REGISTER |date=2021-05-16 |title=Rebecca Yerger, Memory Lane : Napa County's literary legacy |url=https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/history/rebecca-yerger-memory-lane-napa-county-s-literary-legacy/article_51decb8f-558a-5914-963c-f4a6d971782e.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=The Napa Valley Register |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Strauss |first=Harold |date=1935-08-04 |title=A Portrait Gallery of Village People; VALLEY PEOPLE. By Frances Marion. 282 pp. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. $2. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/04/archives/a-portrait-gallery-of-village-people-valley-people-by-frances.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
</ref>
*''How to Write and Sell Film Stories''. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937 <!--
*''How to Write and Sell Film Stories''. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937 <!--
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/frances-marion-on-characterization-part-1/
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/frances-marion-on-characterization-part-1/
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/frances-marion-on-characterization-part-2/
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/frances-marion-on-characterization-part-2/
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/14/frances-marion-on-theme-part-3/
*https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/frances-marion-on-theme-part-4/
*https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/the-technique-of-screen-writing/ -->
*https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/the-technique-of-screen-writing/ -->
*''Molly, Bless Her''. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937 <!--https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/molly-bless-her/ -->
*''Molly, Bless Her''. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937 <!--https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/molly-bless-her/ -->
Line 390: Line 404:
* ''The Passions of Linda Lane''. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 [paperback; revised edition of ''Minnie Flynn'']
* ''The Passions of Linda Lane''. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 [paperback; revised edition of ''Minnie Flynn'']
*''The Powder Keg''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953 <!-- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion-3/the-powder-keg-2/ -->
*''The Powder Keg''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953 <!-- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion-3/the-powder-keg-2/ -->
*''Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood''. NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 [[memoir]] <!--
*''[https://archive.org/details/offwiththeirhead00mari Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood]'' (via [[Internet Archive]] {{registration required}}) NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 memoir <!--
*https://americanpopularculture.com/archive/film/marion.htm
*https://americanpopularculture.com/archive/film/marion.htm
*https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/off-with-their-heads-2/ -->
*https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/frances-marion/off-with-their-heads-2/ -->


== Bibliography ==
== Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |author=Beauchamp, Cari |title=Without lying down: Frances Marion and the powerful women of early Hollywood |url= https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520214927/without-lying-down |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |year=1997 |isbn=0-520-21492-7 }} {{isbn|9780520214927}}
* {{cite book |authorlink=Cari Beauchamp |author=Beauchamp, Cari |title=Without lying down: Frances Marion and the powerful women of early Hollywood |url= https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520214927/without-lying-down |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |year=1997 |isbn=0-520-21492-7 }} {{isbn|9780520214927}} <!--
*https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cari-beauchamp-dead-hollywood-historian-author-1235757275/
*Beauchamp, C. Marion, Frances. ''American National Biography Online'', February 2000.
*https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1997/04/13/script-of-a-lifetime/01390257-54f4-4250-bc05-646961802a5b/
*Claus Tieber. ''[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262049822_The_narrative_structure_of_Frances_Marion's_screenplays The narrative structure of Frances Marion’s screenplays]'' In book: ''Not so Silent: Women in Cinema Before Sound''. (pp.96 – 114) Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis
*https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780684802138

-->
*''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpf-JXytBS4 Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood]'' — [[Turner Classic Movies]] & [[Kino Lorber]] via [[YouTube]]<!--
*https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/arts/080300hollywood-tv-review.html
*https://milestonefilms.com/products/without-lying-down-frances-marion-and-the-power-of-women-in-hollywood-1917
*https://kinolorber.com/product/without-lying-down-frances-marion-and-the-power-of-women-in-hollywood
*https://www.silentera.com/video/docWithoutLyingDownHV.html
*https://www.jstor.org/stable/41689682
-->
*Beauchamp, Cari. ''Marion, Frances''. ''[[American National Biography]] Online'', February 2000.<ref name=anb-FM/>
* {{Citation |last=Tieber |first=Claus |editor-last=Bull |editor-first=Sofia |editor2-last=Widding |editor2-first=Astrid Söderbergh |title=Not so Silent: Women in Cinema before Sound |place=Stockholm, Sweden |publisher=Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis |series=Stockholm Studies in Film History |year=2010 |chapter=Not Quite Classical Hollywood Cinema: the Narrative Structure of Frances Marion’s Screenplays |pages=96, 99–100 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/417336 |chapter-url-access=registration |isbn=978-91-86071-40-0}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262049822_The_narrative_structure_of_Frances_Marion's_screenplays via ''researchgate'']
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. [https://americanpopularculture.com/archive/film/marion.htm NOTES ON FRANCES MARION'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: ''OFF WITH THEIR HEADS''] June 2015, [[Pepperdine University]] Magazine Americana ISSN 1553-8923
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, The Secret Six, and the Evolving American Heroine of the Early 1930s'', Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, March 2017
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, The Secret Six, and the Evolving American Heroine of the Early 1930s'', Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, March 2017
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, Studio Politics, Film Censorship, and the Box Office: Or, The Business of Adapting Dinner at Eight at MGM, 1933'', Literature/Film Quarterly, 42.1, 2014.
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, Studio Politics, Film Censorship, and the Box Office: Or, The Business of Adapting Dinner at Eight at MGM, 1933'', Literature/Film Quarterly, 42.1, 2014.
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''The Education of Frances Marion and Irving Thalberg: Censorship, Development, and Distribution at MGM, 1927-1930'', Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 31.2, 2014.
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''The Education of Frances Marion and Irving Thalberg: Censorship, Development, and Distribution at MGM, 1927-1930'', Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 31.2, 2014.
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272275086_Frances_Marion_Censorship_and_the_Screenwriter_in_Hollywood_1929-1931 Frances Marion: Censorship and the Screenwriter in Hollywood, 1929-1931]'', Journal of Screenwriting, 3.2, 2012. {{DOI|10.1386/josc.3.2.141_1}}
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272275086_Frances_Marion_Censorship_and_the_Screenwriter_in_Hollywood_1929-1931 Frances Marion: Censorship and the Screenwriter in Hollywood, 1929-1931]'', Journal of Screenwriting, 3.2, 2012. {{doi|10.1386/josc.3.2.141_1}}
* Christopher Scott Zeidel, [https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/57/ Frances Marion and Mary Pickford] [[California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo]] MA History {{doi|10.15368/theses.2009.25}}
{{refend}}
{{refend}}


Line 411: Line 437:
== External links ==
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Frances Marion}}
{{Commons category|Frances Marion}}
*[https://oralhistoryportal.library.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_13004853 Oral history interview with Frances Marion, 1958] Columbia Center for Oral History, [[Columbia University Libraries]]
*[https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-marion Frances Marion] at womenshistory.org
*[https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-marion Frances Marion] at [[National Women's History Museum]]
*[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frances-Marion Frances Marion] at [[britannica.com]]
*[https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marion-frances-1888-1973 Frances Marion] at [[encyclopedia.com]]
*{{Tcmdb name|122326%7C52360/Frances-Marion}}
*{{Tcmdb name|122326%7C52360/Frances-Marion}}
*{{OL author|1873287A}}
*{{OL author|1873287A}}
Line 417: Line 446:
:*{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224045302/https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-frances-marion/ |date=December 24, 2017 }}
:*{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224045302/https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-frances-marion/ |date=December 24, 2017 }}
*{{IMDb name|id=0547966|name=Frances Marion}}
*{{IMDb name|id=0547966|name=Frances Marion}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnoXv3Mdgl8 Frances Marion: Hollywood's Favourite Storyteller] @ ''Falkirk Leisure and Culture'' via [[YouTube]]
*https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-life-of-frances-marion-a-trailblazer-for-women-in-hollywood
*https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-life-of-frances-marion-a-trailblazer-for-women-in-hollywood
*https://msinthebiz.com/2016/08/04/dame-in-the-game-frances-marion/
*https://msinthebiz.com/2016/08/04/dame-in-the-game-frances-marion/
*https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/10119-the-great-screenwriters-part-27-frances-marion/
*https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/10119-the-great-screenwriters-part-27-frances-marion/
*https://lithub.com/how-frances-marion-and-mary-pickford-conquered-hollywood/
*[https://archive.org/details/francesmarionimages_201912 Frances Marion article] in [[Photoplay]] 1917
*[https://archive.org/details/francesmarionimages_201912 ''Frances Marion'' article] in [[Photoplay]] 1917


{{Navboxes
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Latest revision as of 18:43, 18 August 2024

Not to be confused with Francis Marion.

Frances Marion
Marion directing The Love Light, which she also wrote, 1920
Born
Marion Benson Owens

(1888-11-18)November 18, 1888
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedMay 12, 1973(1973-05-12) (aged 84)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • director
  • journalist
  • author
Years active1912–1972
Spouses
Wesley de Lappe
​
​
(m. 1906; div. 1910)​
Robert Pike
​
​
(m. 1911; div. 1917)​
​
​
(m. 1919; died 1928)​
​
​
(m. 1930; div. 1933)​

Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens; November 18, 1888[1] – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. During the course of her career, she wrote over 325 scripts.[2] She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards. Marion began her film career working for filmmaker Lois Weber. She wrote numerous silent film scenarios for actress Mary Pickford, before transitioning to writing sound films.

Early life

[edit]

Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California, to Minnie Benson and Len Douglas Owens, an advertising and billboard executive ("billposter"),[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] later, developer of Aetna Springs Resort, Aetna Springs, Pope Valley, California.[11][12][13][14][15] She had an older sister, Maude, and a younger brother, Len.[15] After Len D. Owens' health failed,[16] Marion lived in Pope Valley, California and later used it at the setting for her 1935 book Valley People.[17]

"Her father divorced her mother when Marion was almost ten and remarried just a few years later. She was sent to a Christian boarding school..."[18]

She dropped out of school at age 12, after having been caught drawing a cartoon strip of her teacher.

"She was suspended from elementary school when she was twelve for drawing satiric pictures of her teacher and was sent to St. Margaret’s Hall,[19] a private boarding school in San Mateo. At sixteen, she transferred to the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco"[20][21][22][23]

She then transferred to a school in San Mateo and then to the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco when she was 16 years old. Marion attended this school from 1904 until the school was destroyed by the fire that followed in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[24]

"In 1906, she married her 19-year-old instructor from the Art Institute, Wesley de Lappe. Following the advice of family friend and acclaimed writer Jack London, to "go forth and live" so that she could capture the human spirit in her art, Marion undertook a series of odd jobs such as telephone operator and fruit cannery worker."[25]

Career

[edit]

Circa 1907-1911, in San Francisco, Marion worked as a photographer's assistant to Arnold Genthe and experimented with photographic layouts and color film. Later she worked for Western Pacific Railroad as a commercial artist, then, at 19, as a "cub"[26][27] reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1912,[28] Marion worked as a poster artist for the Morosco Theater[29][30][31][32] as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts.[1]

Marion, 1915

In the summer of 1914 she was hired as a writing assistant, an actress and general assistant by Lois Weber Productions, a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber. She could have been an actor, but preferred work behind the camera.She learned screenwriting from Weber.[citation needed]

When Lois Weber went to work for Universal, she offered to bring Marion with her. Marion decided not to take Weber up on the offer. Soon after, close friend Mary Pickford offered Marion a job at Famous Players–Lasky. Marion accepted, and began working on scenarios for films like Fanchon the Cricket, Little Pal, and Rags. Marion was then cast alongside Pickford in A Girl of Yesterday. At the same time, she worked on an original scenario for Pickford to star in, The Foundling. Marion sold the script to Adolph Zukor for $125. The film was shot in New York, and Moving Picture World gave it a positive pre-release review. But the film negative was destroyed in a laboratory fire before prints could be made.[33]

Marion, having traveled from Los Angeles to New York for The Foundling's premiere, applied for work as a writer at World Films and was hired for an unpaid two-week trial. For her first project, she decided to try recutting existing films that had been shelved as unreleasable. Marion wrote a new prologue and epilogue for a film starring Alice Brady, daughter of World Films boss William Brady. The new portions turned the film from a laughable melodrama into a comedy. The revised film sold for distribution for $9,000, and Brady gave Marion a $200/week contract for her writing services.[34]

Marion (right) with Marshall Neilan and Mary Pickford in 1917

Soon Marion became head of the writing department at World Films, where she was credited with writing 50 films. She left in 1917 when, following the success of The Poor Little Rich Girl, Famous Players–Lasky signed her to a $50,000 a year contract as Mary Pickford's official scenarioist.[35] Marion was reported at this time to be "one of the highest paid script writers in the business."[36] Her first project under the contract was an adaptation of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Marion in her war correspondent uniform, 1918

Marion worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I.[37][38] She documented women's contribution to the war effort on the front lines, and was the first woman to cross the Rhine after the armistice.[39]

Upon Marion's return from Europe in 1919, William Randolph Hearst offered her $2,000 a week to write scenarios for his Cosmopolitan Productions. Marion shared a house with fellow screenwriter Anita Loos on Long Island.[40]

While at Cosmopolitan, Marion wrote an adaptation of Fannie Hurst's Humoresque which was Cosmopolitan's first successful film, and also was the first film to win the Photoplay Medal of Honor, a precursor of the Academy Award for Best Picture.[41] Marion told her best friend Mary Pickford the story she heard during her recent honeymoon in Italy for which Pickford said it was the next movie she wanted to do. Pickford insisted that Marion not only be the writer but also the director of the film, and the result was Marion's directorial debut The Love Light.[42] Her earlier success in adapting the Fannie Hurst novel and her friendship with Hurst contributed to her decision to adapt another Hurst story, "Superman," as her next movie to direct. The resulting film, Just Around the Corner, was a best-seller for the studio.[43] Marion directed only one more movie The Song of Love, co-directing it with Chester Franklin.

She won the Academy Award for Writing in 1931 for the film The Big House, she received the Academy Award for Best Story for The Champ in 1932, both featuring Wallace Beery, and co-wrote Min and Bill starring her friend Marie Dressler and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films.

"Half of all films written before 1925 were written by women, but writers' names rarely appeared on the screen. In fact, this figure is available only through the copyright records at the Library of Congress, where writers' names had to be included."[44]

Personal life

[edit]
Mary Pickford, and Frances Marion, writer and director, on location, for The Love Light, 1920

In 1914, Marion befriended Adela Rogers St. Johns,[45] Marie Dressler,[46] and Mary Pickford.[18][47]

Marion attended this pre-election parade for women's suffrage in New York City, October 23, 1915

On October 23, 1915, Marion participated in a parade of more than thirty thousand supporters of women's suffrage in New York City.[citation needed]

After her success in Hollywood, Marion often visited Aetna Springs Resort in Aetna Springs, California, using it as a personal retreat and often bringing several film-industry colleagues with her on vacations. The resort, in fact, was directly connected to her own family's history, for Marion's father had built the resort in the 1870s.[48]

Mary Pickford (center) with newlyweds Fred Thomson and Frances Marion (1919)

Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe and then to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed Fred Thomson, who co-starred with Mary Pickford in The Love Light in 1921.[37][49] She was such close friends with Mary Pickford that they honeymooned together when Mary married Douglas Fairbanks and Frances married Fred.[50]

During the 1920s, Frances Marion and Fred Thomson lived at the 15-acre[51] The Enchanted Hill, in Beverly Hills, designed by architect Wallace Neff.[52][53]

In early December 1928, Thomson stepped on a nail while working in his stables, contracting tetanus, and died in Los Angeles on Christmas Day 1928.[54]

After Thomson's unexpected death, she married director George Hill in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933.

She had two sons: US Navy Captain Richard G. Thomson (adopted),[55][56][57] and Frederick Clifton Thomson[58][59][60][61] who earned a PhD in English at Yale, taught there and later joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina, later becoming an editor of the writings of George Eliot, publishing editions of Felix Holt, the Radical in 1980 and later.

Later years and death

[edit]

In 1945, Molly, Bless Her, the 1937 novel written by Frances Marion, was adapted by Roger Burford, as the screenplay for the comedy film, Molly and Me, directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Monty Woolley, Gracie Fields, Reginald Gardiner and Roddy McDowall, released by 20th Century Fox.

For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios. Independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels.

Frances Marion published a memoir Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood in 1972. Marion died[62][27] the following year of a ruptured aneurysm in Los Angeles.[63]

Selected filmography

[edit]
Year Title Featured Stars Notes
1912 The New York Hat Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish Contributing writer
1915 Camille Clara Kimball Young, Paul Capellani, Robert Cummings Scenario
A Girl of Yesterday Mary Pickford, Frances Marion, Glenn L. Martin Actress
1916 The Foundling Mary Pickford, Mildred Morris, Gertrude Norman Writer
The Gilded Cage Alice Brady, Montagu Love, Alec B. Francis Scenarist/writer
1917 A Little Princess Katherine Griffith, Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts, Theodore Roberts Writer
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien Writer
The Poor Little Rich Girl Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks Writer
1918 Stella Maris Mary Pickford Photoplay
How Could You, Jean? Mary Pickford Scenario
M'Liss Mary Pickford Writer
Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley Mary Pickford, William Scott, Kate Price Writer
The Temple of Dusk Sessue Hayakawa, Jane Novak, Louis Willoughby, Mary Jane Irving Writer
1919 The Cinema Murder Marion Davies, Eulalie Jensen, Anders Randolf, Reginald Barlow Scenario
Anne of Green Gables Mary Miles Minter Writer
1920 Pollyanna Mary Pickford Adaptation
The Flapper Olive Thomas, Warren Cook Screenplay, story
Humoresque Gaston Glass, Vera Gordon, Alma Rubens Scenario
The Restless Sex Marion Davies, Ralph Kellard Writer
1921 The Love Light Mary Pickford, Evelyn Dumo Director, story (uncredited)
Just Around the Corner Margaret Seddon, Lewis Sargent, Sigrid Holmquist Director, scenario
1922 The Primitive Lover Constance Talmadge, Harrison Ford Scenario
The Toll of the Sea Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley Scenario (uncredited), story
1923 The Famous Mrs. Fair Myrtle Stedman, Huntley Gordon Adaptation, screenplay
The Song of Love Norma Talmadge, Joseph Schildkraut, Arthur Edmund Carewe Director, screenplay
1924 Secrets Norma Talmadge Adaptation
Cytherea Alma Rubens, Constance Bennett, Norman Kerry, Lewis Stone, Irene Rich Adaptation
The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln George A. Billing, Ruth Clifford, George K. Arthur, Louise Fazenda Story, screenplay
1925 Stella Dallas Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett, Lois Moran Adaptation
A Thief in Paradise Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle Adaptation
Thank You Alec B. Francis, Jacqueline Logan Writer
Lightnin' Jay Hunt, Wallace MacDonald Writer
1926 The Scarlet Letter Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson Adaptation, scenario, titles
The Winning of Barbara Worth Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky Adaptation
Son of the Sheik Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Montagu Love, Karl Dane, George Fawcett Adaptation
1927 The Red Mill Marion Davies Adaptation, screenplay
Love John Gilbert, Greta Garbo Continuity
Madame Pompadour Dorothy Gish Writer
1928 The Wind Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming Scenario
The Awakening Vilma Bánky, Walter Byron Story
Bringing Up Father J. Farrell MacDonald, Polly Moran, Marie Dressler Writer
1929 Their Own Desire Norma Shearer, Belle Bennett, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Helene Millard Screenplay
1930 Min and Bill Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery Dialogue, scenario
The Big House Robert Montgomery, Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone Dialogue, story
Won the Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Good News Mary Lawlor, Stanley Smith Scenario
The Rogue Song Lawrence Tibbett, Catherine Dale Owen Writer
Anna Christie Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler Writer
1931 The Secret Six Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy, Marjorie Rambeau Dialogue, screenplay
The Champ Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe Ates Story
Won the Academy Award for Best Story
1932 Blondie of the Follies Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Billie Dove Screenplay, story
Emma Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy Story
1933 Peg o' My Heart Marion Davies, Onslow Stevens, J. Farrell MacDonald Adaptation
Dinner at Eight Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke Screenplay
The Prizefighter and the Lady Myrna Loy, Max Baer, Walter Huston, Primo Carnera, Jack Dempsey Story
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story
Going Hollywood Marion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, Stuart Erwin Story (uncredited)
Secrets Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard Writer
1936 Camille Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore Screenplay
Riffraff Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy Screenplay, story
Poor Little Rich Girl Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, Michael Whalen, Claude Gillingwater Writer
1937 Knight Without Armour Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat Adaptation
Love from a Stranger Ann Harding, Basil Rathbone Adaptation
1940 Green Hell Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Vincent Price, Joan Bennett, Alan Hale Sr., George Sanders, John Howard Original story, screenplay

Published works

[edit]
  • The Secret Six. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 (novelization of her own screenplay of The Secret Six)
  • Valley People. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935
"The book’s portrayal of the community as isolated inbreds bent on self-destruction and domination understandably ruffled many feathers"[64][65][66]
  • How to Write and Sell Film Stories. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937
  • Molly, Bless Her. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937
  • Westward The Dream. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Company, 1948
  • The Passions of Linda Lane. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 [paperback; revised edition of Minnie Flynn]
  • The Powder Keg. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953
  • Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (via Internet Archive (registration required)) NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 memoir

Sources

[edit]
  • Beauchamp, Cari (1997). Without lying down: Frances Marion and the powerful women of early Hollywood. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21492-7. ISBN 9780520214927
  • Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood — Turner Classic Movies & Kino Lorber via YouTube
  • Beauchamp, Cari. Marion, Frances. American National Biography Online, February 2000.[20]
  • Tieber, Claus (2010), "Not Quite Classical Hollywood Cinema: the Narrative Structure of Frances Marion's Screenplays", in Bull, Sofia; Widding, Astrid Söderbergh (eds.), Not so Silent: Women in Cinema before Sound, Stockholm Studies in Film History, Stockholm, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, pp. 96, 99–100, ISBN 978-91-86071-40-0 via researchgate
  • Leslie Kreiner Wilson. NOTES ON FRANCES MARION'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: OFF WITH THEIR HEADS June 2015, Pepperdine University Magazine Americana ISSN 1553-8923
  • Leslie Kreiner Wilson. Frances Marion, The Secret Six, and the Evolving American Heroine of the Early 1930s, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, March 2017
  • Leslie Kreiner Wilson. Frances Marion, Studio Politics, Film Censorship, and the Box Office: Or, The Business of Adapting Dinner at Eight at MGM, 1933, Literature/Film Quarterly, 42.1, 2014.
  • Leslie Kreiner Wilson. The Education of Frances Marion and Irving Thalberg: Censorship, Development, and Distribution at MGM, 1927-1930, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 31.2, 2014.
  • Leslie Kreiner Wilson. Frances Marion: Censorship and the Screenwriter in Hollywood, 1929-1931, Journal of Screenwriting, 3.2, 2012. doi:10.1386/josc.3.2.141_1
  • Christopher Scott Zeidel, Frances Marion and Mary Pickford California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo MA History doi:10.15368/theses.2009.25

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Beauchamp, Cari (1997). Without Lying Down. University of California Press. pp. 22–37. ISBN 978-0-520-21492-7.
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  38. ^ Motion Picture Magazine. MBRS Library of Congress. The Motion Picture Publishing Co. November 1, 1918. pp. 53.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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[edit]
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