Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens; November 18, 1888 – 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 alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. During the course of her career, she wrote over 325 scripts. She was the first writer to win two

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

. Marion began her film career working for filmmaker Lois Weber. She wrote numerous

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

scenarios for actress

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

, before transitioning to writing

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

Early life

Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, to Minnie Benson and Len Douglas Owens, an advertising and billboard executive ("billposter"), later, developer of Aetna Springs Resort, Aetna Springs, Pope Valley, California.1900 United States Federal Census She had an older sister, Maude, and a younger brother, Len. After Len D. Owens' health failed, Marion lived in Pope Valley, California and later used it at the setting for her 1935 book ''Valley People''. :"Her father divorced her mother when Marion was almost ten and remarried just a few years later. She was sent to a Christian boarding school..." She dropped out of school at age 12, after having been caught drawing a cartoon strip of her teacher. :"She was suspended from elementary school when she was twelve for drawing satiric pictures of her teacher and was sent to St. Margaret’s Hall, a private boarding school in San Mateo. At sixteen, she transferred to the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco"* Marion, Frances (18 November 1888–12 May 1973) * Cari Beauchamp * Published in print: 1999 * Published online: February 2000 * https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800790 * American National Biography Online * Oxford University Press She then transferred to a school in San Mateo and then to the Mark 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 the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

. :"In 1906, she married her 19-year-old instructor from the Art Institute, Wesley de Lappe. Following the advice of family friend and acclaimed writer

Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...

, to "go forth and live" so that she could capture the human spirit in her art, Marion undertook a series of odd jobs such as telephone operator and fruit cannery worker."

Career

Circa 1907-1911, in San Francisco, Marion worked as a photographer's assistant to Arnold Genthe and experimented with photographic layouts and color film. Later she worked for

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

as a commercial artist, then, at 19, as a "cub" reporter for the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

''. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1912, Marion worked as a poster artist for the Morosco Theater as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts. Frances-marion-1915

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 director Lois Weber. She could have been an actor, but preferred work behind the camera. When Lois Weber went to work for Universal, she offered to bring Marion with her. Marion decided not to take Weber up on the offer. Soon after, close friend

offered Marion a job at Famous Players–Lasky. Marion accepted, and began working on scenarios for films like ''

Fanchon the Cricket ''Fanchon the Cricket'' is a 1915 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a novel, ''La Petite Fadette'' by George Sand. It was directed by James Kirkwood, Sr., James ...

'', '' Little Pal'', and '' Rags.'' Marion was then cast alongside Pickford in '' A Girl of Yesterday''. At the same time, she worked on an original scenario for Pickford to star in, '' The Foundling.'' Marion sold the script to

Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor (; ; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of Ameri ...

for $125. The film was shot in New York, and ''

Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. ...

'' gave it a positive pre-release review. But the film negative was destroyed in a laboratory fire before prints could be made. Marion, having traveled from Los Angeles to New York for ''The 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 starring Alice Brady, daughter of World Films boss William 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. 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 of ''

The Poor Little Rich Girl ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'' is a 1917 American comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur. Adapted by Frances Marion from the 1913 play by Eleanor Gates. The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress Viola Dana. The film st ...

,'' Famous Players–Lasky signed her to a $50,000 a year contract as Mary Pickford's official scenarioist. Marion was reported at this time to be "one of the highest paid script writers in the business." Her first project under the contract was an adaptation of '' Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm''. Frances Marion in war uniform

Marion worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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. Upon Marion's return from Europe in 1919,

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

offered her $2,000 a week to write scenarios for his Cosmopolitan Productions. Marion shared a house with fellow screenwriter Anita Loos on Long Island. While at Cosmopolitan, Marion wrote an adaptation of Fannie Hurst's ''Humoresque'' which was Cosmopolitan's first successful film, and also was the first film to win the ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film fan magazines, its title another word for screenplay. It was founded in Chicago in 1911. Under early editors Julian Johnson and James R. Quirk, in style and reach it became a pacesetter for fan m ...

'' Medal of Honor, a precursor of the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

. Marion told her best friend

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 debut The Love Light. 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. Marion directed only one more movie The Song of Love, co-directing it with

Chester Franklin Chester Mortimer Franklin (September 1, 1889 – March 12, 1954) was an American film director and actor active mainly in the silent era. Born in San Francisco, he was the brother of Sidney A. Franklin. In the late 1910s, he co-directed wit ...

. She won the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Writing in 1931 for the film '' The Big House'', she received the Academy Award for Best Story for '' The Champ'' in 1932, both featuring

Wallace Beery Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' (1 ...

, and co-wrote '' Min and Bill'' starring her friend

Marie Dressler Leila Marie Koerber (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934), known professionally as Marie Dressler, was a Canadian-born stage- and screen-actress and comedian, popular in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood in early silent film, silent an ...

and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. :"Half of all films written before 1925 were written by women, but writers' names rarely appeared on the screen. In fact, this figure is available only through the copyright records at the Library of Congress, where writers' names had to be included."

Personal life

In 1914, Marion befriended Adela Rogers St. Johns,

, and

. On October 23, 1915, Marion participated in a parade of more than thirty thousand supporters of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

in New York City. After her success in Hollywood, Marion often visited Aetna Springs Resort in Aetna 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. Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe and then to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed

Fred Thomson Frederick Clifton Thomson (February 26, 1890 – December 25, 1928) was an American silent film cowboy who rivaled Tom Mix in popularity before dying at age 38 of tetanus. Birth and athletic achievement Born in Pasadena, California to Clara a ...

, who co-starred with Mary Pickford in ''The Love Light'' in 1921. She was such close friends with Mary Pickford that they honeymooned together when Mary married Douglas Fairbanks and Frances married Fred. During the 1920s, Frances Marion and Fred Thomson lived at the 15-acre ''The Enchanted Hill'', in Beverly Hills, designed by architect Wallace Neff. In early December 1928, Thomson stepped on a nail while working in his stables, contracting

tetanus Tetanus (), also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'' and characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually l ...

, and died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

1928. After Thomson's unexpected death, she married director George Hill in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933. She had two sons:

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Captain Richard G. Thomson (adopted), and Frederick Clifton Thomson who earned a PhD in English at Yale, taught there and later joined the faculty of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, later becoming an editor of the writings of

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

, publishing editions of '' Felix Holt, the Radical'' in 1980 and later.

Later years and death

In 1945, ''Molly, Bless Her'', the 1937 novel written by Frances Marion, was adapted by Roger Burford, as the screenplay for the

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

, '' Molly and Me'', directed by

Lewis Seiler Lewis Seiler (September 30, 1890 – January 8, 1964) was an American film director. He directed more than 80 films between 1923 and 1958. Seiler was born in New York City, and died at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, Los Angeles. Partial fi ...

and starring Monty Woolley,

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...

, Reginald Gardiner and

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...

, released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. For many years she was under contract to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Studios. Independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing

stage play A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging ...

s and novels. Frances Marion published a memoir ''Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood'' in 1972. Marion died the following year of a ruptured

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also b ...

in Los Angeles.

Selected filmography

Published works

*
Minnie Flynn
'. NY: Boni and Liveright, 1925; free via

google books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

and

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

:* :wikisource:Minnie Flynn *''The Secret Six''. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 (

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

of her own screenplay of '' The Secret Six'') *''Valley People''. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935 ::"The book’s portrayal of the community as isolated inbreds bent on self-destruction and domination understandably ruffled many feathers" *''How to Write and Sell Film Stories''. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937 *''Molly, Bless Her''. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937 *''Westward The Dream''. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Company, 1948 * ''The Passions of Linda Lane''. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 aperback; revised edition of ''Minnie Flynn''*''The Powder Keg''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953 *
Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood
' (via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

) NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 memoir

Sources

* *
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood
' —

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art film, art ho ...

via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

*Beauchamp, Cari. ''Marion, Frances''. '' American National Biography Online'', February 2000. *
via ''researchgate''
* Leslie Kreiner Wilson

June 2015,

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

Magazine Americana ISSN 1553-8923 * Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, The Secret Six, and the Evolving American Heroine of the Early 1930s'', Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, March 2017 * Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''Frances Marion, Studio Politics, Film Censorship, and the Box Office: Or, The Business of Adapting Dinner at Eight at MGM, 1933'', Literature/Film Quarterly, 42.1, 2014. * Leslie Kreiner Wilson. ''The Education of Frances Marion and Irving Thalberg: Censorship, Development, and Distribution at MGM, 1927-1930'', Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 31.2, 2014. * Leslie Kreiner Wilson.
Frances Marion: Censorship and the Screenwriter in Hollywood, 1929-1931
', Journal of Screenwriting, 3.2, 2012. * Christopher Scott Zeidel
Frances Marion and Mary Pickford
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo MA History

References

External links

Oral history interview with Frances Marion, 1958
Columbia Center for Oral History,

Columbia University Libraries Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources ...

Frances Marion
at National Women's History Museum
Frances Marion
at britannica.com
Frances Marion
at

encyclopedia.com ''Encyclopedia.com'' is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information, images, and videos from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works. History The website was launched by Infonautics in March 1998. Infonautics w ...

* *
Frances Marion
at the Women Film Pioneers Project :* *
Frances Marion: Hollywood's Favourite Storyteller
@ ''Falkirk Leisure and Culture'' via

*https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-life-of-frances-marion-a-trailblazer-for-women-in-hollywood *https://msinthebiz.com/2016/08/04/dame-in-the-game-frances-marion/ *https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/10119-the-great-screenwriters-part-27-frances-marion/ *https://lithub.com/how-frances-marion-and-mary-pickford-conquered-hollywood/
''Frances Marion'' article
in

1917 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marion, Frances 1888 births 1973 deaths American women film directors Screenwriters from California 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Writers from San Francisco American women screenwriters American women in World War I People from Napa County, California Best Story Academy Award winners Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners American women journalists 20th-century American women writers Journalists from California Novelists from California Women film pioneers Film directors from San Francisco 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American screenwriters