Frances Marion | |
|---|---|
 Marion directingThe Love Light, which she also wrote, 1920 | |
| Born | Marion Benson Owens (1888-11-18)November 18, 1888 San Francisco,California, U.S. |
| Died | May 12, 1973(1973-05-12) (aged 84) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1912–1972 |
| Spouses | |
Frances Marion (bornMarion 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 alongsideJune Mathis andAnita Loos. During the course of her career, she wrote over 325 scripts.[2] She was the first writer to win twoAcademy Awards. Marion began her film career working for filmmakerLois Weber. She wrote numeroussilent film scenarios for actressMary Pickford, before transitioning to writingsound films.
Marion was born Marion Benson Owens inSan 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 ofAetna 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 inPope Valley, California and later used it as the setting for her 1935 bookValley People.[17]
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 inSan Mateo and then to theMark 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 the1906 San Francisco earthquake.[24]
Circa 1907-1911, in San Francisco, Marion worked as a photographer's assistant toArnold Genthe and experimented with photographic layouts and color film. Later she worked forWestern Pacific Railroad as a commercial artist, then, at 19, as a "cub"[26][27] reporter for theSan Francisco Examiner. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1912,[28] Marion worked as a poster artist for theMorosco Theater[29][30][31][32] as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts.[1]
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 directorLois 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 forUniversal, she offered to bring Marion with her. Marion decided not to take Weber up on the offer. Soon after, close friendMary Pickford offered Marion a job atFamous Players–Lasky. Marion accepted, and began working on scenarios for films likeFanchon the Cricket,Little Pal, andRags. Marion was then cast alongside Pickford inA Girl of Yesterday. At the same time, she worked on an original scenario for Pickford to star in,The Foundling. Marion sold the script toAdolph Zukor for $125. The film was shot in New York, andMoving 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 forThe 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 starringAlice Brady, daughter of World Films bossWilliam 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]
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 ofThe 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 wasan adaptation ofRebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Marion worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent duringWorld 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 hisCosmopolitan Productions. Marion shared a house with fellow screenwriterAnita Loos on Long Island.[40]
While at Cosmopolitan, Marion wrotean adaptation ofFannie Hurst'sHumoresque which was Cosmopolitan's first successful film, and also was the first film to win thePhotoplay Medal of Honor, a precursor of theAcademy Award for Best Picture.[41] Marion told her best friendMary 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 debutThe 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 movieThe Song of Love, co-directing it withChester Franklin.
She won theAcademy Award for Writing in 1931 for the filmThe Big House, she received theAcademy Award for Best Story forThe Champ in 1932, both featuringWallace Beery, and co-wroteMin and Bill starring her friendMarie Dressler and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films.
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In 1914, Marion befriendedAdela Rogers St. Johns,[45]Marie Dressler,[46] andMary Pickford.[18][47]
On October 23, 1915, Marion participated in a parade of more than thirty thousand supporters ofwomen's suffrage in New York City.[citation needed]
After her success in Hollywood, Marion often visitedAetna Springs Resort inAetna 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]
Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe and then to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wedFred Thomson, who co-starred with Mary Pickford inThe 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 architectWallace Neff.[52][53]
In early December 1928, Thomson stepped on a nail while working in his stables, contractingtetanus, and died inLos Angeles onChristmas Day 1928.[54]
After Thomson's unexpected death, she married directorGeorge 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 theUniversity of North Carolina, later becoming an editor of the writings ofGeorge Eliot, publishing editions ofFelix Holt, the Radical in 1980 and later.
In 1945,Molly, Bless Her, the 1937 novel written by Frances Marion, was adapted byRoger Burford, as the screenplay for thecomedy film,Molly and Me, directed byLewis Seiler and starringMonty Woolley,Gracie Fields,Reginald Gardiner andRoddy McDowall, released by20th Century Fox.
For many years she was under contract toMGM Studios. Independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writingstage plays and novels.
Frances Marion published a memoirOff With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood in 1972. Marion died[62][27] the following year of a rupturedaneurysm in Los Angeles.[63]
| 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 theAcademy 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 theAcademy 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 |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)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.
