SCENARIO WRITING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22971, 24 February 1938, Page 3

SCENARIO WRITING

WOMEN IN FILM WORK CHANCES OF PROMOTION OPPORTUNITY FOR MUSICIANS There are many women, drawn from business and professional life, who fill various important roles in the making of screen entertainment. Some sit ill day in cutting rooms, editing films. Another group watches pictures all day, inspecting film for physical defects. There is a small army of stenographers in every studio, while many of them have graduated as writers. One of the most interesting women at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is Mrs. Ida Koverman, executive secretary to Louis B. Mayer. She directs the work of a staff of stenographers and clerks, helps arrange social affairs, and has been instrumental in discovering new dramatic talent. Another is Kate Corbalev, story editor. Every story submitted to the studio passes through her hands. Mrs. Corbalev is a graduate of Stanford University, and started to write scenarios some years ago. Dorothy Arzner, a stenographer, some years ago became a script clerk, then a film editor. From this she progressed to directing, and is the only important woman director in the industry to-day. Another prominent woman is Nathalie Bucknall, a Russian, once a member of the " Battalion of Death," who went to the studios with the idea of becoming librarian. She developed the library into the present research department, with a staff of 20. An Emergency Hospital Woman musicians find opportunities in pictures. Madeleine Lupher is musical secretary to Sigmund Romberg, the composer. A talented pianist, she developed a form of musical shorthand, anjl takes down tunes as he evolves them. Peggy Coleman has in the past 12 years treated every famous star in pictures. She came from nursing work with the public health service in New \ork, and before that was a lieutenant nurse with the American Army in France. She operates an emergency hospital. Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow, as well as utars back in the days of Lilian Gish, have been her patients for minor ailments or accidents. Stenographers find opportunities for advancement. Margaret Booth b.ecame script clerk, then film editor, editing such important pictures as Romeo and Juliet and others, and now is an assistant producer. Deirdre Pilkington became secretary to Pete Smith, the "unseen star," and now is assistant to the head of the studio short subjects department. Charlotte Wood, an actress, took a business college course, became secretary to Thomas Ince, then a publicity writer, and now in an editorial assistant to Hunt Stromberg. Woman Poster Artist Graduating from an art school, Jean McAnany took a position in a commercial art firm, and went to the M.G.M. advertising department, where she to-day creates posters for pictures. She is also a painter. Eli Benneche started in a furniture firm, specialised in interior decorating and to-day is assistant to Edwin B. Willis, chief of interior decoration at the studio. Women entering the studios as stenographers have probably the best route to advancement. They enter in the general script department, headed by Edith Farrell, who assigns thein as needed, sometimes to take dictation from writers, sometimes to work in the business offices. Usually, as they develop, they are promoted to secretaryships. Taking the other road, through the production offices, they become cutters. The studio business is highly specialised. Women coming to it face specialised training, starting in the script department as stenographers, in the cutting department as splicers of film, then assistant cutters; in the laboratories as film inspectors, then handlers' of film. In every exchange a dozen or more women are employed to inspect film between theatre engagements, and to keep it in proper condition.