Nobodys Girl Friday, J. E. Smyth
Nobodys Girl Friday, J. E. Smyth
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Nobody's Girl Friday
The Women Who Ran Hollywood

Author: J. E. Smyth

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 13 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/31/2018


Synopsis

The first comprehensive history of Hollywood's high-flying career women during the studio era, Nobody's Girl Friday covers the impact of the executives, producers, editors, writers, agents, designers, directors, and actresses who shaped Hollywood film production and style, led their unions, climbed to the top during the war, and fought the blacklist.

Based on a decade of archival research, author J.E. Smyth uncovers a formidable generation working within the American film industry and brings their voices back into the history of Hollywood. Their achievements, struggles, and perspectives fundamentally challenge popular ideas about director-based auteurism, male dominance, and female disempowerment in the years between First and Second Wave Feminism.

Nobody's Girl Friday is a revisionist history, but it's also a deeply personal, collective account of hundreds of working women, the studios they worked for, and the films they helped to make. For many years, historians and critics have insisted that both American feminism and the power of women in Hollywood declined and virtually disappeared from the 1920s through the 1960s. But Smyth vindicates Bette Davis's claim. The story of the women who called the shots in studio-era Hollywood has never fully been told—until now.

About J. E. Smyth

J. E. Smyth is an American historian and film critic. She has held fellowships from the Getty Research Institute, the Huntington Library, the Mellon Foundation, and the British Academy. She is a regular contributor to Cineaste Magazine and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and PBS. Smyth is Professor of History at the University of Warwick (UK). For more information, visit jesmyth.co.uk.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on April 10, 2018

Fans of Molly Haskell's From "Reverence to Rape" and Marjorie Rosen's "Popcorn Venus"--which chronicled how women were portrayed on screen from silent films until the mid 1970s--now have an outstanding additional resource in J.E. Smyth's NOBODY'S GIRL FRIDAY. Smyth ("Edna Ferber's Hollywood") delves......more

Goodreads review by Karen J. on October 31, 2018

This was one of the most interesting and educational reads I've experienced in a long time. J.E. Smyth's book can best be likened to a Women's Studies Film class read, much like a textbook I wish was required back when I was in university. This well-written and meticulously researched tome is chock......more

Goodreads review by Be So Good Oliver on July 11, 2023

Overall, I enjoyed the book and am grateful to have read it. Extremely informative. I was left with numerous things to reflect on, one being what I imagined studio-era Hollywood was like regarding women and then finding out how it truly was. I couldn't help but feel angry. Of course, the idea of "ba......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on May 23, 2018

Great book but it can be heavy with names which can seem confusing at times. As a writer of nonfiction and fiction I do understand how challenging that can be when you're trying to include people but sometimes I felt myself not sure who was who.......more

Goodreads review by Westley on July 09, 2018

Pretty good. Lots of information.......more