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Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. Order Number 1338131 That her soul may remain pure: Women in American silent film Steidel, Debra Eve, M.A. The American University, 1989 Copyright ©1989 by Steidel, Debra Eve. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. ZecbRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. THAT HER SOUu MAY REMAIN PURE: WOMEN IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM by Debra Eve Steidel submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Film and Video Signatures of Committee: ___ Chair: 7 (I'tfl y Jean off the College 11 September 1989 Date 1989 The American University ~lO}[p Washington, D.C. 20016 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C COPYRIGHT by DEBRA EVE STEIDEL 1989 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To The Memory of My Grandmother Anna "Jimmy" Donovan Steidel Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THAT HER SOUL MAY REMAIN PURE: WOMEN IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM BY Debra Eve Steidel ABSTRACT The grappling for a definition of women's roles during the era of American silent film, 1895 through 1930, reflected changes occuring in mass morality. The earliest silents portraying women as second-class citizens were soon joined by valiant heroines and social problem films offering a more balanced picture of the capabilities and concerns of womanhood. As the blossoming "new morality" generated apprehension, a Victorian dichotomy emerged between the "pure" women of D.W. Griffith and Mary Pickford who were rewarded with marriage and family, and the sexually perverse vampire like Theda Bara who caused destruction and death. But by the 1920s the films of Cecil B. DeMille, Clara Bow and Greta Garbo displayed the emancipated new wives, flappers and sophisticates in full-force. Yet underlying these impeccably modern women was an affirmation of traditional morality. By insisting that a ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. woman's soul did indeed remain pure, films reflected a widespread desire to cling to rapidly decaying values. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......... ii INTRODUCTION .................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. THE EARLIEST SILENT FILMS . 5 CHAPTER 2. SOCIAL PROBLEM FILMS: WHITE SLAVERY, BIRTH CONTROL, SUFFRAGE . 25 White Slavery . 25 Birth Control . 29 Suffrage ..... 33 CHAPTER 3. THE SERIAL QUEENS .... 39 CHAPTER 4. MACK SENNETT'S KEYSTONE COMEDIES . 46 CHAPTER 5. VICTORIAN VALUES: D.W. GRIFFITH AND LILLIAN GISH .... 71 CHAPTER 6. MARY PICKFORD ..... 85 CHAPTER 7. THE COMICS: CHARLES CHAPLIN AND BUSTER KEATON ..................... 106 Charles Chaplin .... 106 Buster Keaton . 117 CHAPTER 8. THE VAMPIRE . 12 7 CHAPTER 9. THE JAZZ AGE: THE NEW WOMAN AND NEW MOVIES . 138 The New Woman . 140 1. The Political Sphere . 141 2. Economics . 142 3. Social Changes . 14 6 The New Movies . 156 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 10. CECIL B. DEMILLE AND MODERN MARRIAGE . 172 CHAPTER 11. FLAPPERS, WORKING GIRLS, AND CINDERELLAS ........................... 199 The Modern Flapper . 199 Working Girls . 217 Hollywood Cinderellas . 225 CHAPTER 12. THE EUROPEAN INFLUENCE . 232 Erich Von Stroheim . 232 Greta Garbo and the Worldly Woman . 244 CHAPTER 13. THE FEMALE GAZE: WOMEN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY . 256 Directors . 257 Screenwriters .... 274 CONCLUSION . 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 285 FILMOGRAPHY 295 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION When the first female dancer flickered across a hastily strung up bedsheet at Koster and Bial's Music Hall less than one century ago, few in that initial film audience could predict the enormous impact the moving picture would have on American society. The movies soon became more than simple entertainment; they became a cultural depository, a way to define existence, to interpret the fantasies, dreams and commonly-held values of the American public. The silent film period, from 1895 through 193 0, was one of immense social change in the United States. Nineteenth century traditional order, already damaged by the burgeoning Industrial Revolution, was forever transformed by the first World War. The 1920s jazz age, fast-paced and frenzied, offered a drastically revised moral code. The role of women in society also underwent great change. Women who began the new century chained to home and motherhood asserted their rights to political and economic equality and independence; they most often expressed their new-found freedoms by throwing off the fetters of conservative Victorian morality and adopting the 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 modern manners and morals of the independent, sexually- liberated "new woman." Unfortunately, the silent film is today a dead art. Only a fraction of films from Hollywood's most prolific era have survived time and irregular archival preservation. The original silent films were tinted and toned in brilliant hues of pink, blue, gold and green to convey both mood and time of day. They were accompanied by piano, organ or even elaborate orchestra scores, and were often exhibited in lavish, opulent theaters. Few modern audiences are lucky enough to enjoy this experience; instead they see deteriorating prints projected at the wrong speed in a classroom, and regard these works of art as quaint relics of a time gone by. The silent film, then, must be examined in the context of its own time. This thesis approaches silent films as literary works, focusing on plot and women's acting over camera technique, for two reasons. First, in the silent film era, technology and style evolved so rapidly that a comparison of visual style is not always an accurate measure of a film's intended message. Second, silent film audiences, often unsophisticated and unused to film language, concentrated overwhelmingly on the messages imparted by the storyline and the image and behavior of the women on the screen. Within ten years of the birth of the movie industry, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 films had become deeply ingrained in the cultural psyche, and movie theaters became secular temples of America1s daydreams, goals and values. As the original mass medium of the arts, films were tied to commercial considerations as no other art form. To survive financially, films had to conform to mass morality while also providing an outlet for vicarious fantasy. The grappling for a definition of women's roles in silent film, then, reflects the changes occuring in that mass morality. A progression of the silent film heroine in these 35 years is evident. The earliest silent films portraying women as second class citizens bound by male domination were soon joined by works offering a more balanced picture of the