To Sue Sue one more time -- about Gloria Swanson's collection - and yes I think she saved everything - I learned one very important lesson. I had assumed that they had been gone through so often there was nothing new to find and in fact was told that there was nothing relating to Kennedy and Swanson...

Cinemaven - dont know how I missed yours yesterday but let me reply now. First, "knowing" Frances Marion really has made my life so much richer and given me a sense of security that I think only comes from knowing you are a link in the chain. One time after a screening of the WLD documenta...

To Robert - Frances Marion did not act in that many films -- and she was never comfortable in front of the camera - but none of them are known to survive. The one I would really love to see is Girl of Yesterday from 1915 which starred Mary Pickford and featured the future director Mickey Neilan. It ...

What first drew me to writing about the women of early Hollywood was my frustration at seeing the names of women writers in the credits - such as Frances Marion, Anita Loos and Adela Rogers St. Johns - and knowing so little about them. They each wrote memoirs of sorts but Frances's was much more abo...

First, Sue Sue and Lynn, thanks for the invitation to join the conversation. Let me try to answer both Al and Sue Sue at the same time. My First Time in Hollywood really evolved out of my realization of the fact that often my favorite part of the over one hundred of books I have read on film history...