When women wrote Hollywood
Dear Reader,
You won鈥檛 find her name in the credits of 鈥淐asablanca,鈥� but without her the movie might not have turned out the way it did.听
Bess Meredyth was a Hollywood writer in the early to mid-1900s, but like many women of the time, was not always given her due.
Meredyth鈥檚 husband, Michael Curtiz, directed the famed Bogart-Bergman film, and accounts from on and off set indicate Curtiz was getting pointers from his experienced wife and then passing them off to the 鈥淐asablanca鈥� screenwriters as his own. They would intentionally ask him pointed questions to trip him up, ultimately getting him to say he was consulting her.
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That anecdote is from the book 鈥淲hen Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry.鈥� I heard stories of Meredyth and others in the book when I attended a panel discussion at Denver鈥檚 Pop听Culture听Con last month. That event is modeled after the decades-old Comic-Con International in San Diego, which kicks off next week.
This year, Comic-Con听on the 50th anniversary of 鈥淪esame Street,鈥� and the fourth and final season of NBC鈥檚 鈥淭he Good Place,鈥� whose impact听听with readers last fall. The focus in San Diego will also be on superheroes and 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� 鈥� the type of 鈥渘erdy鈥� fare that increasingly drives society鈥檚 shared cultural experiences, as听听recently.
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Speaking of that, with the 50th anniversary of the first walk on the moon coming up on July 20, we were curious about how movies have inspired our perceptions of the moon. We鈥檝e included film critic Peter Rainer鈥檚 essay about that this week, along with a piece about the home in Ohio where author and cartoonist James Thurber grew up, and another that highlights how African American chefs are connecting modern Southern cuisine with its African roots.
Kim Campbell,听Culture听and听Learning听editor
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