Table Of ContentWOMEN’S FILM AND
FEMALE EXPERIENCE:
1940-1950
Andrea S. Walsh
PRAEGER
WOMEN’S FILM
AND
FEMALE EXPERIENCE
WOMEN’S FILM
AND
FEMALE EXPERIENCE
1940-1950
Andrea S. Walsh
New York
Westport, Connecticut
London
Stills courtesy of Jerry Ohlinger’s Movie Materials Store, Movie Star News, and
Cinemabilia.
The Production Code has been reprinted with permission of Ken Clark of the Motion
Picture Association of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Walsh, Andrea S.
Women’s film and female experience, 1940–1950.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Women in moving-pictures. 2. Moving-pictures –
United States – History. I. Title.
PN1995.9.W6W3 1984 791.43'75'0909352042 83-24486
ISBN 0-275-91753-3
0-275-92599-4 (pbk.)
Copyright © 1984 by Praeger Publishers
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-24486
ISBN: 0-275-92599-4
First published in 1984 (cl.) and 1986 (pbk.)
Praeger Publishers, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent
Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards
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P
In order to keep this title in print and available to the academic community, this edition
was produced using digital reprint technology in a relatively short print run. This would
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Dedicated to the memory of my grandmother,
Anna Cotter Lally (1889–1981)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study had many phases – in classrooms, theaters, libraries,
my study and late at night in front of the television. I have many
people to thank for providing the intellectual, emotional, and
practical support necessary for its completion.
This project began as my doctoral dissertation. I wish especially
to thank my dissertation committee for their support, enthusiasm,
patience, and insight. Terry Hopkins saw this project through from
inception to completion. His guidance and probing insight helped me
to sharpen and refine both theory and method. Joan Smith provided
provocative criticism, and always encouraged me to disagree. Like-
wise, John Flint supported this study, encouraging me to ground it
firmly within the larger field of sociology of culture. Mary Ryan
helped me design the project initially and to link it to relevant
scholarship in women's history. Sarah Elbert gave sisterly support
and criticism, as well as guidelines for cultural and historical
analysis.
I thank Joel Greifinger who provided boundless support – emo-
tional and intellectual – and never acted bored or frustrated when
asked to read and comment upon yet another draft.
Likewise, Sonya Michel, my collaborator in research on women's
roles in the 1940s, provided sisterly support, perceptive (and always
gentle!) criticism, and new and impossible-to-find sources.
Many friends, students, and colleagues accompanied me to
movies, rekindled my enthusiasm, and read and commented upon all
or parts of the manuscript. Marty Frum bought me my first movie
stills, discussed an endless number of films with me, prepared the
index, and guided me to a wide array of sources. Nina Shapiro and
Anna Yeatman planted important ideas about women's culture in my
head a decade ago. Linda Silver encouraged me to take my work as
seriously as she did. My housemate and fellow media critic Ella
Taylor contributed critical insight, humor, and many cups of tea.
Myra Boime, Torry Dickinson, Lew Friedland, Robert Horwitz, Ruth
Harriet Jacobs, Isaac Jackson, Bill Martin, Chinnah Mithrasekaran,
Terry Kalb, Cheryl Klausner, Ellie Leiman, Lynne Layton, Linda
Peterson, Barbara Richardson, Simon Rosenblum, Bob Ross, Karen
Schachere, Ann Schofield, Mary Smith, Robbie Strongin, Steve Vogel,
and Anna Yeatman read or discussed with me the ideas of my study,
or sat with me in darkened theatres while I scribbled note after
note, after note. Larry Meacham and Betsy Swart provided much-
vii
viii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
appreciated research advice. I wish also to thank many of my
colleagues and students at SUNY-Binghamton, Cornell, and Clark
University, who shared their insights on women in film with me.
Lynda Sharp, my editor at Praeger, supported and encouraged this
study, while providing helpful criticism.
SUNY-Binghamton provided some of the financial support
necessary to complete this work. I would also like to thank the
People's Film Collective, Providence, Rhode Island and the Rhode
Island Committee For the Humanities for providing me an oppor-
tunity to show and discuss some of these films with large and
diverse audiences. Barbara Humphries and Emily Sieger, Motion
Picture Division, Library of Congress, assisted me in locating and
viewing many of these films. Elizabeth Bouché and Roxanne Rawson
typed several drafts and were more than willing to accommodate
crazy deadlines. Leslie Dowd and Patricia Hamilton assisted in
preparing the final draft.
Carmen Sirianni lived with this study through most of its short
but intense life, watching and listening to plots of more 1940s films
than he probably ever cares to remember. For his love, unfailing
support, and critical insight, I will always be grateful.
My parents Eileen and Michael Walsh and my aunt and uncle
Mary and Edward Fallon taught me long ago to love the "Bette
Davis" and "Katharine Hepburn" movies about which I would later
write.
And lastly, this book is dedicated to the memory of my grand-
mother, Anna Cotter Lally, who always believed that I would indeed
finish, but did not live to see the completion.
This study has been immeasurably enriched by everyone I have
mentioned; any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies are, of course,
mine.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION 1
Popular Culture and Popular Consciousness:
A Theoretical Framework for Interpreting
the Women's Film 5
Popular Culture and Social History 5
Modern Popular Culture and Its Social Context 8
Mass-Mediated Culture as Popular Culture 11
Notes 15
Chapter 1: THE "WOMEN'S FILM" 23
Narrative Form and Visual Style 27
Visual Style 27
Women's Films: Historical and Contemporary
Context 30
Film Production 30
The Women's Film, the Studios, and the
Production Code 32
Critics and the Women's Film 35
The Women's Film and Its Audience:
The Other Side of the Screen 36
The Women's Film in the 1940s 43
Notes 44
Chapter 2: DIVIDED AND UNITED:
AMERICAN WOMANHOOD ON THE HOMEFRONT 49
The Legacy of the Great Depression 50
War Breaks Out 51
The Home Front 51
Recruiting Women Workers:
The Promotional Campaigns 52
American Women Respond to the War Crisis 53
The "Other Rosies":
Unexpected Mobility 57
Still Unequal:
Resistance to Sexual Equality at Work 58
The Childcare and Community Services
Controversy 62
ix
