January 31, 2019 • 43 mins
Mo tells the stories of three remarkable people who changed history - but whose names you've probably never heard. They are the pioneers before the pioneers. Before Rosa Parks, there was Elizabeth Jennings. Before Jackie Robinson, there was Moses Fleetwood Walker. And then there's Lois Weber, the woman who ruled Hollywood 100 years ago.Learn more about the Mobituaries book: http://bit.ly/MobituariesBook
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
So rewarding new I'm on a city bus with author
Amy Hillharth to talk about a civil rights pioneer. So
she was, she was riding through this neighborhood, right, Yes,
she was. Transportation was not integrated and had she had
trouble before? Much everybody had had some trouble in the past. Now,
(00:24):
I know you think you know who we're talking about here,
but no, we're not in Montgomery, Alabama, and we're not
talking about Rosa Parks in the nineteen fifties. We're in
New York City and we're talking about the eighteen fifties.
They tell her to get up, and she resists. Yeah,
she said no. And I'm pretty sure you've never heard
of this woman. Her mark on history has all but disappeared.
(00:48):
And she's not alone. In this episode. We'll also tell
you the story of the first black Major League Baseball player,
and no, his name is not Jackie Robinson. To rewind
a few decades, you know, from nineteen forty seven back
to eighteen eighty four actually, and will introduce you to
the woman who ruled Hollywood one hundred years ago. At
(01:11):
several points, she was the highest paid director in the industry,
the highest paid female, a man, woman or child. As
one reporter put it, I'm mo Rocca and this is mobituaries,
this moment the forgotten forerunners Jesse. The other day, one
(01:41):
of the fine citizens of our community is as Rosa Parks,
was arrested because she refused to give up her seat
for a white passenger. That was the Reverend doctor Martin
Luther King Junior, speaking about the Montgomery bus boycott in
nineteen fifty five. Off when civil rights icon Rosa Parks
(02:03):
stood her ground by sitting, but another African American woman
struck her own blow for justice a false century earlier.
She's really the Rosa Parks of New York, and most
New Yorkers, most Americans, have no idea. Her name was
Elizabeth Jennings, and Amy Hillharth wrote a book about her
(02:23):
called Streetcar to Justice. Last summer, Amy and I retraced
Elizabeth's footsteps around the once infamous Lower Manhattan neighborhood known
as Five Points. You may remember it was the setting
of the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, The
Five Points, Murderer's Alley, brickbat Mansion, The Gates of All.
(02:47):
I think it was the dirtiest, most disgusting place imaginable.
I think if you think of the worst smell you've
ever smelled, and multiplied by a thousand on a second,
have you been on the sea train lately? Amy's right,
City life was especially filthy. Back then the streets were
(03:09):
covered in horse manure, with wild hogs running a rampant
alongside open sewers. No surprise, life expectancy was only forty
years old. Amy and I met up on a sweltering day,
just like it was on July sixteenth, eighteen fifty four,
when Elizabeth headed to church to practice the organ with
(03:29):
the choir. She was wearing these long sleeved jacket over
a long dress that went down to her ankles, with
layers of petticoats and choruses and so on. Must have
been miserable. You know, I'm taking advantage of the fact
that this is audio only. I'm wearing shorts and I'm
still hot. In other words, Elizabeth Jennings is an upstanding
(03:56):
churchgoing woman, a school teacher, no less. All she wants
to do is board a horse drawn street car, the
public transportation of the day, with her good friend Sarah Adams.
But certain rules got in the way. In New York City,
like most northern cities at the time, there was both
(04:17):
dejoe legal and sort of de facto segregation and discrimination.
Leslie Alexander is a history professor at the University of
Oregon and has written about the black experience in New York.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they had particular street
cars that were designated as colored street cars. Now, a
(04:39):
black person could ask to board the cars designated for
white people, but if any white person on that particular
car objected to the presence of a black person, you,
in theory, would be ejected. Remarkably, we know exactly what
happens that day from contempt Brainy's news accounts. Jennings is
(05:02):
running late and the first car to arrive is for
white passengers. There are empty seats, so Elizabeth climbs aboard,
but the conductor says, hold it, you need to wait
for the next car with your people in it. That
other car does pull up, but it's full. Elizabeth isn't budging,
She's bold in a variety of ways. Here's Professor Alexander
(05:25):
reading Jennings's own detailed account published at the time in
the New York Daily Tribune. I answered again and told
him I was a respectable person born and raised in
New York, did not know where he was born. The
conductors an Irish immigrant, that I had never been insulted
before going to church, and that he was a good
for nothing, impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on
(05:47):
their way to church. He then said I should come
and he would put me out. She does not mince
words there. All of those things were incredibly important messaging
right in the nineteenth century to say I was born
in this country as a result of my birthright, I
have a right to be an American citizen and have
a right to be treated as such, and I'm a
(06:08):
respectable person. Then things turn physical. I told him not
to lay his hands on me. He took hold of me,
and I took hold of the window sash and held on.
He pulled me until he broke my grasp, and I
took hold of his coat and held onto that. The
conductor calls in a reinforcement the street car's driver. I
(06:29):
screamed murder with all my voice, and my companions screamed out,
you'll kill her. Don't kill her. The two men have
pushed Elizabeth down off the street car, but guess what,
she climbs back onto that street car again. Unable to
overpower her, the driver heads full speed to the nearest
police officer. The officer doesn't listen to Elizabeth's plea. Instead,
(06:51):
he forcibly pushes her off the street car and onto
the ground. She's really beaten up. Her clothes are torn,
She's covered with Bruce's Jennings refers to the men as
monsters in human form, but it turns out they messed
with the wrong person. Well, there's no question that Elizabeth
Jennings came from an activist tradition. Both of her parents
(07:14):
very heavily involved in the antislavery cause. Throughout her entire life,
she would have been hearing all kinds of political discussions
and debates taking place. Hers was a prominent family. Elizabeth's father,
Thomas Jennings, is believed to be the first African American
(07:36):
to hold a patent for an early version of dry cleaning.
It made the family considerably wealthy, and Thomas did this
in eighteen twenty one, before slavery was fully eradicated in
New York. That wouldn't happen until eighteen twenty seven, but
the legacy of slavery in New York was still being
felt decades later. Probably the most significant salient challenge that
(08:02):
black people in the North were facing was as the
result of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of
eighteen fifty, maybe the most despicable piece of legislation in
our history. The Fugitive Slave Act mandated that runaway slaves
be returned to their owners. It became the perfect pretext
for abducting free blacks from the North. The North essentially
(08:25):
became sort of open season for a process where black
folks are being rounded up and kidnapped on the streets
and sold into slavery. I mean it's horrifying, yes, all
the more remarkable then that, during such a precarious time
for black Americans, Elizabeth Jennings and her father decided to
sue the Third Avenue Railroad Company. Here's author Amy Hill Hearth,
(08:49):
and they passed a hat in the church. Everybody pitched in,
and then they went to look for lawyer. Their first
choice was unavailable. So the lawyer that they do find,
as name that's familiar to presidential history, buffs that's right.
And this is how I found out about the Elizabeth
(09:12):
Jennings story. You see, I have a thing for obscure
nineteenth century presidents. All the guys between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt,
lots of facial hair, usually from Ohio. One of them
was knocked off by an anarchist, another by an aggrieved
office seeker. If you've watched me on CBS Sunday Morning,
you've probably seen me do reports on a few of them. Anyway,
one day, I was rifling through one of my presidential
(09:34):
trivia books, because that's what I do on the weekends too,
on wine and I read about our episodes Heroin and
her legal representation by a future very obscure nineteenth century
president Chester Alan Arthur. Yes, our twenty first president, and
he was twenty four years old, and he actually only
(09:55):
been practicing law for about six weeks. He's really wet
behind the ears he was. Arthur would go on to
grow mutton chops that would humble any Brooklyn hipster. Quick
side note. Decades later, when he was in the White House,
he was accused of having actually been born in Canada,
the original Berther conspiracy. You can learn all about that
(10:16):
in my story online. But back to this story, In
spite of his youth, chet Arthur was up to the
task of defending Elizabeth Jennings. Arthur was an abolitionist and
he worked closely with her and her father on legal strategy.
Instead of pursuing a criminal case, they decided to bring
the suit to a civil court. With a civil case,
(10:37):
it would fix the situation for everyone, not just find
justice for her. So they weren't looking for a conviction
for assault. What they were looking for was change. That's right.
So if Jennings sought damages and one a new standard
would be set for integrated transportation. The case was argued
(10:58):
in Brooklyn before ay of white men. Jennings case was
bolstered by eyewitnesses and her own first person account, but
perhaps just as important, before deliberations, the judge reminded the
jury that, according to statute, rail companies, and there were
a bunch of them in New York City, were required
(11:18):
to carry all respectable passengers there's that word respectable again,
who were sober, well behaved, and free from disease. This
language might sound antiquated to you, but it's the all
that strikes me. The jury sided with Elizabeth Jennings and
(11:44):
awarded her two hundred and fifty dollars. The Third Avenue
Railroad Company was found liable and moved quickly to integrate
their cars. The other rail companies were put on notice
that they could be sued as well. At what point
is in New York's these transportation system fully integrated well.
Some historians say that that was the first major step
(12:07):
after the Civil War, there was legislation that was passed
that made it official. The case received national attention in
antislavery papers. The New York Daily Tribune ran the headline,
a wholesome verdict. Was she celebrated for a while? Yes,
she was for about twenty five years. It was tremendously significant.
(12:29):
That's Leslie Alexander again. You know, in the nineteenth century,
the idea of women of any race being involved in
an outspoken way in political matters of any kind was
extremely controversial. So for her to take a stand in
(12:50):
the way that she did and then allow her story
and her name to be associated with this very public
case was a huge deal. After the court case, Elizabeth
Jennings led a rather private life and her name slowly
faded from history. She continued teaching and even opened the
city's first black kindergarten. She also married Charles Graham. They
(13:14):
had a son, but he died as a young child.
Jennings name briefly appeared in the newspapers again due to
the political rise of Chester. Alan Arthur, that once wet
behind the ears lawyer was elected vice president in eighteen eighty.
Then he became president upon the assassination of James Garfield.
(13:35):
Elizabeth Jennings died on June fifth, nineteen o one. I
didn't expect to find much, but there were at least
a few short obituaries. Here's the New York Times with
the headline aged colored teacher dead. Missus E. J. Graham
was prominent in ante bellum raced troubles. Here the item
(13:55):
takes note that her whole life was devoted to the
improvement of her race. Why don't people know her name?
She was just not a person who was sort of
self seeking or self interested. She wasn't a person who
was promoting herself or her story in that regard. So,
you know, I think that's part of it. But I'll
tell you honestly, I think on a deeper level, the
(14:18):
primary reason we don't know Elizabeth Jennings story is that
it doesn't fit with the narrative of the story that
we like to tell about the North. So in order
to know about Elizabeth Jennings, you have to know that
slavery existed in the North. You have to know that
slavery existed in the North for almost as long as
(14:38):
it did in the South. You have to be willing
to acknowledge that the legacy of slavery haunted the black
population in the North for generations. But we do have
to be willing to sort of, you know, pull back
the curtains and have an honest conversation. So where are
(15:01):
we at the corner of Pearl and Park Row. You
in Lower Manhattan. If you do visit the site of
the Elizabeth Jennings incident, you won't find a monument or
even a placard. The street corner is actually dedicated to Ira,
a fugitive Joseph Dougherty, but thanks to the persistence of
(15:23):
some local school children, there is now an honorary street
sign for her a few blocks away. Wait, what's up there? Okay,
it says Elizabeth Jennings Place. The day we visited, it
was covered up under scaffolding. But those who know Elizabeth
(15:44):
Jennings story. Still hope that one day this remarkable woman
will finally earn a more prominent place in history out
in the open. What I would really love to see
my dream is a statue. Now, there is a statue
(16:05):
commemorating baseball's great number forty two, Jackie Robinson, But what
about the player who made history years before him? The
(16:26):
story of our next forgotten forerunner brought me to Toledo, Ohio.
When I got into town, I was feeling a little peckish.
What's the best thing about Toledo? Well, Tony Packles for
number one, and so I hit up legendary Hungarian hot
dog joint Tony Paco's. No, this isn't an ad I've
just always wanted to eat there ever since I was
(16:48):
a kid watching Mash and heard Toledo and Jamie Farr's
Clinger character rave about the place. Hey. Incidentally, if you
ever in Toledo, Ohio and a Hungarian side of town,
Tony Packo's greatest Hungarian hot with chili peppers thirty five cents.
Tony Pacos is famous for its buns. The walls of
this restaurant are covered with hot dog buns autographed by
(17:12):
all the luminaries who've eaten at Tony Paco's ever since
Burt Reynolds started the tradition in the early nineteen seventies.
Bob Hope, Patti LaBelle okay, So Walter Mondale's right next
to tiny Tim Don Shula. Oh there's Jibbie Reynolds, Penn
and Teller signed the same bun I love Aria Speedwagon
at the share the buns. So that's manager Frank Petersburger.
(17:36):
They've got plenty of Frank's here, but surprisingly no Burgers,
even though the food is delicious. Tony Pacos isn't the
legend I'm here to profile. I'm in Toledo to learn
about the first African American man to play Major League Baseball,
And no it's not this guy nineteen forty seven. It
(17:56):
was the Brooklyn Dodgers Abbott's Field, Jackie Robinson, given the
challenge by Dodger owner Branch Rickey, and he accepted. Jackie
Robinson is most certainly not forgotten. When he walked out
onto Ebbott's Field to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he
(18:17):
changed history. But technically speaking, he wasn't the first. According
to this plaque right outside Toledo's minor league ballpark. Here
we go Moses Fleetwood Walker. In eighteen eighty three, Walker
joined the newly formed Toledo Bluestockings and became the first
African American Major league ballplayer when Toledo joined the Major
(18:39):
League sanctioned American Association the following year. Now this deserves
a holy Toledo and here on this is considered Moses
Fleetwood Walker square. That's Rob Worsinski, the communications guy for
the current minor league team. Here the beloved Toledo Mudhens.
Mash fans may remember that Jamie Farr wore a Mudhens
(18:59):
jury from time to time on the show. But back
to Moses. When you ask people who was the first
man of color who played the top flight pro baseball
in America, everybody will say Jackie Robinson. But in order
for a color barrier to be broken, one head to
be set up in the first place, and it was
Moses Fleetwood Walker whose mere presence on the diamond invited
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the backlash that would bar black players from baseball for
decades afterwards. Moses Fleetwood Walker was born on October seventh,
eighteen fifty six, in Ohio and played baseball at Oberlin
College and at the University of Michigan. Before long, he
(19:45):
was playing for the minor league Toledo Bluestockings as the
team's catcher, barehanded in those days. Soon after, Toledo's team
got promoted to the American Association, and at the time
in eighteen eighty four, the American was top flight pro
baseball in America. While there were other black players who
(20:05):
joined team rosters, including Walker's own brother, Moses, was the first,
but there were no celebrations around this milestone. Just like
Robinson Wood, later on, Walker faced intense racial bigotry. There
were also threats of lynching his own pitcher ignored his signals.
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Walker couldn't have been all that surprised. Just the year before,
future Hall of Famer and Chicago player Cap Anson unsuccessfully
protested Walker's participation in the game Moses Fleetwood. Walker's time
and the majors was short. During his time with Toledo,
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he batted two sixty three with only one hundred and
fifty two at bats. As a catcher in the eighteen eighties,
baseball was a very dangerous position to play, and actually
he ended up having a series of injuries that season.
Played in a fraction of the games. Toledo released him
that same season. Walker went on to play in other leagues.
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While catching for the Newark, New Jersey Little Giants, he
was paired with an African American pitcher named George Washington Stovey.
In eighteen eighty seven, they were set to play against
Chicago and cap Anson. This time, Anson flat out refused
to play if the black team members were put on
the field. Newark gave into his demands soon after, baseball
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officials across the board decided not to sign any more
black players the color line had been drawn. Post baseball,
Walker held a variety of jobs, but eventually got in
trouble with the law. After stabbing a man to death
during a drunken racial altercation. He was acquitted. He did
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end up in jail later on for mail fraud. At
the same time, the injustices he'd experienced inspired him to
get angry and political. He wrote a book advocating black
emigration to Africa. He had some success in business, but
when he died in nineteen twenty four at the age
of sixty seven, there was barely any acknowledgement. But some
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proud Ohioans are trying to change that. Saturday is Moses
Fleetwood Walker's birthday, and thanks to a new state law,
he'll be honored on that day every year. Toledo is
doing its part to keep his name alive. At the ballpark.
Oh my god, it's a Moses Fleetwood Walker bobblehead. And
he's right next to Jamie Far. He's between two different
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Jamie Fars and just across the street at a bar
called Fleetwoods. And it's not named after Fleetwood Mac all right,
so we're entering Fleetwood's tap room. I mean, this looks
like a pretty serious place for draft beer. Forty eight
different types on tap. Hello, there's this picture. There's a
big picture of Moses Fleetwood Walker And once people know
the story behind the face, they're impressed. Yeah, that is incredible. Oh,
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Jackie Robinson was the first. That's pretty cool. Goal. Moses.
You can't help but think he died, I'm guessing, not
knowing that he would ever be acknowledged as as special
or important. It really was a guy who just loved
the game of baseball. He wanted to play it. Moses
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Fleetwood Walker and Jackie Robinson bookends to a sixty three
year long journey baseball researcher Larry Lester may have put
it best when he wrote, while Walker failed to lead
his people to the promised plan, Robinson delivered his people.
Both men wrestled with Jim crow Fleet bruised his knuckles
(23:49):
and lost the early rounds. However, Jackie later bloodied his
nose and won the fight. Next up, the Woman who
ran Hollywood one hundred years ago. Now, let's travel back
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to the earliest days of Hollywood, somewhere between nineteen ten
and nineteen twenty, to the story of one of silent
filmdom's most prolific, yet almost completely forgotten directors. How much
does this historical amnesia bother you? I mean, it's infuriating.
It's absolutely infuriating, and film historian Shelley Stamp is here
to set the record straight. One critic at the time
(24:37):
talked about the three great minds of early Hollywood, two
of whom will be familiar to most people who don't
know anything about early cinema d W. Griffith and Saal
speA Mill And the third great mind was Lois Webber,
not Lewis Lois Webber. She was the first American woman
to direct a feature film, A nineteen fourteen adaptation of
(24:59):
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. She was also one of
the stars. This all took place before movies even had sound.
Shelley Stamp wrote the book Lowest Webber. In early Hollywood,
she was the highest paid director in the industry, the
highest paid female, a man, woman, or child. As one
reporter put it, she was respected. She negotiated very lucrative
(25:21):
contracts when she formed her own studio, so you can
see she was right up there with names that we
associate with the fathers of American cinema at the time,
and their legacy endures and hers does not. Last year,
a mere three percent of studio films were directed by women,
(25:43):
and pay inequity is a persistent issue. But in the
Hollywood of one hundred years ago, Lowest Webber was one
of the most respected and highest paid directors. I know,
it's like I'm describing some mythical time and place like
Camelot that just poof disappeared. I mean, did this really happen? Well,
I think the first thing to emphasize is that, yes,
(26:03):
Webber was the most prominent female director during this time,
but there was lots of other female filmmakers during this time. Right,
she wasn't a unicorn, she wasn't an anomaly. And the
early years of the industry were open to many people. Right.
When film began in the early decades of the twentieth century,
it became really popular, really fast. So there was an
(26:24):
incredible need for movies. I mean it sounds like a
land rush or something, right, No, seriously, this is open terrain.
And you know, once the industry solidified in LA around
nineteen thirteen, LA became an incredible magnet for women in particular,
and Lois Webber was one of those women. She was
(26:45):
born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in eighteen seventy nine and
started off as an accomplished pianist. She then moved on
to the theater as an actress, and that's where she
met her husband, Phillips Smalley. He started working in the
movies first, but she very soon joined him and they
worked together as a collaborative team. She wrote the scenarios,
(27:06):
they acted together on screen, often playing husband, wife or
romantic partners, and then they co directed Who is Leading
Home Here? Initially their build as the Smalley's and their
build as a couple, but within four or five years.
Weber is clearly the dominant creative force. But as Shelley
told us early on, Webber was not a unicorn, wasn't
(27:29):
even the first in her field. In fact, the actual
first woman to direct films, really one of the first
filmmakers period, was Alice G. Blachet of France. We're talking
about the eighteen nineties. She eventually opened a US studio
in New Jersey with her husband, right around the time
Webber was getting her own start. I don't think it's
any exaggeration to say that women were at the beginning
(27:53):
of the formation of film language. Here is an article
August fourth, nineteen sixteen Lois Webber's are of first magnitude
from the Nashville, Tennessee in I mean the middle of
the country, you know, is surprised. It's not. Variety is
not a trade journal. Low As Webber ranks with the
greatest directors in the profession, and whose success confutes any
(28:15):
argument of women's inability to fill posts in a man's field.
I mean she was a very important finger. Webber was
also prolific. She directed over one hundred short films and
in one year alone, when she was Universal's top director.
She wrote and directed ten feature length films. This is
an extraordinary productivity. I can't really even imagine. I think,
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by contemporary standards, it's impossible to imagine. I mean, these days,
you know, you wait for your favorite director to make
a movie once every three years. Well, you know, the
reporters that saw her on set during these years, they
talk about how how decisive she was, how in command
she was. She had her script in her hand and
she was issuing orders, and everybody would come to her
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for every little detail about wardrobe, about sad, about everything.
I mean, I think she just worked incredibly hard. She's prolific.
Is she innovative? So she's not a cookie cutter director.
She's not a director that's prolific because she's turning out
the same thing again and again and again. She takes
on all of these very controversial social issues of her day.
(29:19):
She's known as this director who took on birth control
and poverty and religious hypocrisy. But equally important, I think
is her visual storytelling, which is extraordinary. One of Weber's
most popular early short films is called Suspense. It's from
nineteen thirteen. What she's doing is adapting of what at
(29:41):
that time would have been a really well known formula
called the last Minute Rescue, basically Liam Neeson movie. Yes, yes,
the early Liam Neeson. This is pre taken right by
nineteen thirteen. By the time she takes it on, it's
a very well known formula. She gives her film a
generic title to tell us that she's taking on this
(30:01):
formula and that she is going to better the master
at his own game. Shelley and I watched the film together.
It's only ten minutes long. And let me tell you,
suspense is gripping and what's happening here. One of the
hallmarks of the Last Minute Rescue is that you have
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the woman on the phone with police or her husband,
and often the phone line is cut, and so that
cross cutting back and forth of the phone call is
a key element of suspense. What whatever does is she
puts the three elements together in the frame. Yes, I
see it. The screen is split in three. There's the
wife at home on the phone, the husband at work,
and the intruder coming further and further into the house
(30:45):
right sawing the phone line, peeking through the door. So
we see all three elements at once, and there he
is looking right at us. A tramp is prowling around
the house and he's good and bad guy's good in
this and she's on the phone, and that's Lois Webber
playing the woman. She wrote it. She started it as
she's directing it. How did Lois Webber present if she
(31:07):
were to walk in here, would you think, well, there
she is, that's a groundbreaker or she's a radical? Absolutely not, No,
she had what that is What I think is really
interesting about her. Her persona was that of a kind
of very dignified, married, white, middle class woman. She really
presented herself that way. But I think that persona was
(31:30):
a way for her to tackle the issues that she tackled.
She describes herself as a missionary in several places that
I've seen. Well, she took that description very seriously. Early
in her career when she was pursuing music, she was
involved in evangelical work in New York, and she really
(31:52):
saw cinema as she said, it's it's a meeting where
I can preach to my heart's content. One of the
issues that she tackled on film was birth control. In
nineteen sixteen, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic
in America, That same year, Weber directed a film called
(32:13):
Where Are My Children, which was considered so controversial that
Universal preface to the film with a big, full screen
warning to parents not to let their children watch the
film unsupervised. The studio also defended the film subject matter
by pointing out that birth control had been in the
news fair warning to this audience. Though the film's point
(32:34):
of view has not aged well at all, her take
on legalizing contraception is very mired in the eugenics of
the period. She said, media case for legalized contraception for
largely for women living in poverty and for immigrant population.
So that's a sort of classic eugenics argument, right, And
(32:56):
that's one half of the film. The other half of
the film is vilifying wealthy, privileged white women who repeatedly
use abortion to avoid pregnancy. They're not propagating the right stock. Absolutely,
they're not propagating the right stock. And so the reproductive
politics of this film are pretty distasteful from a contemporary
(33:20):
point of view, right, you know, we can't really shy
away from that fact. But they were relatively typical of
the time. Lois Webber was not part of some fringe
No no Now, Lois Webber didn't earn recognition just for
her directing. Just when I thought nothing else would surprise me,
I learned about her political career. In nineteen thirteen, feigned
(33:46):
Hollywood director Lois Webber gained national attention for another role.
She was mayor of the Universal City. Yes, Universal City,
the home of Universal Studios. Any family that's been lucky
enough to take a trip to Los Angeles and we
went as a family in nineteen eighty when I was
in the fifth grade, hopefully took the Universal Studios tour
(34:06):
where you see the Psycho House and you know, Jaws
comes up and you think it's gonna bite you. What
they don't tell you on that tour. The city once
had a mayor, a female mayor, seven years before women
gained the right to vote nationally. What was this about?
Was this a big Hollywood publicity stunt kind of but
it was an important publicity stunt. Right. Universal City imagines
(34:29):
itself as a place where work in life are combined. Right,
that making motion pictures is so fun, that it's it's
a community. You live there and you work there together,
and so part of that is having a mayor. But
Webber runs on an all female ticket with other women,
other Universal stars running as distric attorney and police chief.
And some of the publicity was really negative, right about
(34:51):
women taking over the Universal city, and the Amazons, the
Amazons and you know they hate men and all all
this sort of stuff. Now it gets a little calm
implicated because Webber didn't win this election, but the guy
who did left the studio six months later, and she
took over the job a largely ceremonial post. Really, I
don't think it had any real function, but I think
it was an important ceremonial post and that it demonstrated
(35:15):
to the world that Universal was led by a woman.
So why don't we know Lois Webber's name? What happened?
I think there's a whole bunch of complicated things that
happened with her decline. Once we get into the twenties,
once we get into the height of the jazz age
entertainment and Hollywood in particular shifts to more escapism. Lois
Webber doesn't do escapist and she doesn't do escapism, and
(35:37):
she's out of stab. But there's a bunch of other
stuff that's going, yes, yes, which are well, what happens
is by the early twenties. The movie industry is incredibly profitable.
So so guess what power consolidates. I'm a managing like
(36:01):
a bunch of cigar choppers, like guys like the monopoly man,
coming in and going all right, all right, all right, ladies,
step aside, because now this is getting serious. There's big
money here, and this is a man's job. That is
basically what happens. I mean, the studios in order to
buy up Holly Theater chains had to borrow a lot
of money from Wall Street, and in doing so they
(36:21):
sort of bought into a corporate culture which was highly
male and as a result, disvalued, forgot about female filmmakers.
So and it happens really fast. You know, by the
late twenties and early thirties, when the first histories of
Hollywood are being written, there is no mention of Lois
Webber or any of the female filmmakers. It's all about
(36:42):
the female stars. It's all about Pickford and Swanson. Great,
but they are forgotten very very fast, in a sort
of effort to as you say, legitimate the industry. You know,
step aside, ladies, Well you know, we're gonna make this
very profitable industry legit you could say women in Hollywood
went the way of silent films. The Jazz Singer premiered
(37:08):
in nineteen twenty seven, talkies became all the rage in
the following decades. Women directors were the exception to the rule.
There was Dorothy Artisner. She was a big deal in
the nineteen thirties and forties. Then in the nineteen fifties,
Hollywood actress Ida Lapino you know her from crossword puzzles,
moved on to directing films and later television. And to
(37:31):
this day, female filmmakers are told, well, it's never been
done before. You're gonna have to reinvent the wheel. Oh
my goodness. You know, I don't think a woman can
direct a big budget film. I don't think a female
lead can carry a picture. I don't think a film
about so called women's issues can be successful. These arguments
were one a hundred years ago, and yet we're still
fighting about them because we've forgotten. It's a lot easier
(37:53):
to imagine something as possible if you know it's happened before. Absolutely,
that's why history matters. We talked about the forces that
made it difficult for Lois Webber. Did she retire at
one point, she did not retire. To her credit, she
made her last film in nineteen thirty four, which was
her one and only sound picture. She took a boatload
(38:16):
of generators to Kawai. She shot the first film on
location on Kawaii. Jurassic Park was shot. You can't even
imagine doing that. I mean, it's it's phenomenal. So she
That was her last film in nineteen thirty four. She
died five years later in nineteen thirty nine, and in
those intervening five years, she continued to write scripts. She
(38:38):
continued to try to get films made. She never gave up,
even in industry that was became very inhospitable to women,
Just like we did for Elizabeth Jennings and Moses fleetwood Walker.
We tracked down the newspaper coverage of Lois Webber's passing.
(39:00):
She didn't get a ton of ink in the major papers,
with one exception, a big front page item in the
Los Angeles Times penned by famed gossip columnist had a Hopper.
Hopper paid tribute by writing, I don't know of any
woman who has had a greater influence upon the motion
picture business than Lois, or anyone who has helped so
(39:21):
many climb the ladder of fame, asking for nothing but
friendship in return. Hopper added, I have a feeling she
wasn't sorry to leave this world for a better one.
Shelley Stamp hopes for a better legacy for Lois Webber.
I feel confident that over the long haul, the histories
of Hollywood will be rewritten to feature her and all
(39:44):
of the other women that were active at the beginning industry.
But the more films that come out and the more
textbooks that get rewritten, the more at tension that's paid
to her. I think we can correct this amnesia. These
are the story of just three forgotten four runners, the
Pioneers before the Pioneers. But in any story of firsts
(40:07):
and four runners, you've got to be careful. We talked
about Elizabeth Jennings as the Rosa Parks of New York
Parks is one of the most famous symbols of the
Civil rights struggle, But nine months before her arrest, a
woman named Claudette Colvin did the very same thing. And
as far as Moses fleetwood Walker well, baseball researchers recently
(40:28):
came across the story of William Edward White he played
one Major League game in eighteen seventy nine for the
Providence Grays White was actually a former slave, but lived
his free life as a white man. So was he
really the first? I don't know. Maybe proving who was
first isn't as important as we think. Maybe it misses
(40:50):
the point that all these people, whether they were first, second,
or one hundred and second, had guts and made things
at least a little bit better for the people who
came later, sometimes much later. Of course, that depends on
us remembering their stories next time. On Mobituaries, The Unforgettable
(41:28):
Audrey Hepburn, Were you aware that the day of your inauguration,
Audrey Hepburn died? No, you didn't know that. No. I
certainly hope you enjoyed this mobid Be sure to rate
and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on
Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on Twitter
at Morocca. For more great content, including photos of our forerunners,
(41:52):
please visit mobituaries dot com. You can subscribe to Mobituaries
wherever you're getting your podcasts. This episode of Mobituaries was
produced by Meghan Marcus. Our team of producers also includes
Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe, Meghan Deetree and me Morocca. It
was edited by Ashley Cleek and engineered by Dan de Zula.
(42:15):
Indispensable support from Genius Dineski, Kira Wardlow, Zach Gilcrest, Richard Roarer,
everyone at CBS News Radio, and Frank Petersburger at Tony Paco's.
Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart and as always,
undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John Carp without whom
Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries
(42:45):
the podcast, may I invite you to check out Mobituaries
the book. It's chock full of stories not in the podcast.
Celebrities who put their butts on the line, sports teams
that threw in the towel for good, forgotten, fashion defunct
diagnoses presidential candidacies that cratered, whole countries that went caput.
(43:06):
And dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe
the dragons will reel until just get the book. You
can order Mobituaries the Book from any online bookseller, or
stop by your local bookstore and look for me when
I come to your city. Tour information and lots more
at mobituaries dot com.
So rewarding new I'm on a city bus with author
Amy Hillharth to talk about a civil rights pioneer. So
she was, she was riding through this neighborhood, right, Yes,
she was. Transportation was not integrated and had she had
trouble before? Much everybody had had some trouble in the past. Now,
(00:24):
I know you think you know who we're talking about here,
but no, we're not in Montgomery, Alabama, and we're not
talking about Rosa Parks in the nineteen fifties. We're in
New York City and we're talking about the eighteen fifties.
They tell her to get up, and she resists. Yeah,
she said no. And I'm pretty sure you've never heard
of this woman. Her mark on history has all but disappeared.
(00:48):
And she's not alone. In this episode. We'll also tell
you the story of the first black Major League Baseball player,
and no, his name is not Jackie Robinson. To rewind
a few decades, you know, from nineteen forty seven back
to eighteen eighty four actually, and will introduce you to
the woman who ruled Hollywood one hundred years ago. At
(01:11):
several points, she was the highest paid director in the industry,
the highest paid female, a man, woman or child. As
one reporter put it, I'm mo Rocca and this is mobituaries,
this moment the forgotten forerunners Jesse. The other day, one
(01:41):
of the fine citizens of our community is as Rosa Parks,
was arrested because she refused to give up her seat
for a white passenger. That was the Reverend doctor Martin
Luther King Junior, speaking about the Montgomery bus boycott in
nineteen fifty five. Off when civil rights icon Rosa Parks
(02:03):
stood her ground by sitting, but another African American woman
struck her own blow for justice a false century earlier.
She's really the Rosa Parks of New York, and most
New Yorkers, most Americans, have no idea. Her name was
Elizabeth Jennings, and Amy Hillharth wrote a book about her
(02:23):
called Streetcar to Justice. Last summer, Amy and I retraced
Elizabeth's footsteps around the once infamous Lower Manhattan neighborhood known
as Five Points. You may remember it was the setting
of the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, The
Five Points, Murderer's Alley, brickbat Mansion, The Gates of All.
(02:47):
I think it was the dirtiest, most disgusting place imaginable.
I think if you think of the worst smell you've
ever smelled, and multiplied by a thousand on a second,
have you been on the sea train lately? Amy's right,
City life was especially filthy. Back then the streets were
(03:09):
covered in horse manure, with wild hogs running a rampant
alongside open sewers. No surprise, life expectancy was only forty
years old. Amy and I met up on a sweltering day,
just like it was on July sixteenth, eighteen fifty four,
when Elizabeth headed to church to practice the organ with
(03:29):
the choir. She was wearing these long sleeved jacket over
a long dress that went down to her ankles, with
layers of petticoats and choruses and so on. Must have
been miserable. You know, I'm taking advantage of the fact
that this is audio only. I'm wearing shorts and I'm
still hot. In other words, Elizabeth Jennings is an upstanding
(03:56):
churchgoing woman, a school teacher, no less. All she wants
to do is board a horse drawn street car, the
public transportation of the day, with her good friend Sarah Adams.
But certain rules got in the way. In New York City,
like most northern cities at the time, there was both
(04:17):
dejoe legal and sort of de facto segregation and discrimination.
Leslie Alexander is a history professor at the University of
Oregon and has written about the black experience in New York.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they had particular street
cars that were designated as colored street cars. Now, a
(04:39):
black person could ask to board the cars designated for
white people, but if any white person on that particular
car objected to the presence of a black person, you,
in theory, would be ejected. Remarkably, we know exactly what
happens that day from contempt Brainy's news accounts. Jennings is
(05:02):
running late and the first car to arrive is for
white passengers. There are empty seats, so Elizabeth climbs aboard,
but the conductor says, hold it, you need to wait
for the next car with your people in it. That
other car does pull up, but it's full. Elizabeth isn't budging,
She's bold in a variety of ways. Here's Professor Alexander
(05:25):
reading Jennings's own detailed account published at the time in
the New York Daily Tribune. I answered again and told
him I was a respectable person born and raised in
New York, did not know where he was born. The
conductors an Irish immigrant, that I had never been insulted
before going to church, and that he was a good
for nothing, impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on
(05:47):
their way to church. He then said I should come
and he would put me out. She does not mince
words there. All of those things were incredibly important messaging
right in the nineteenth century to say I was born
in this country as a result of my birthright, I
have a right to be an American citizen and have
a right to be treated as such, and I'm a
(06:08):
respectable person. Then things turn physical. I told him not
to lay his hands on me. He took hold of me,
and I took hold of the window sash and held on.
He pulled me until he broke my grasp, and I
took hold of his coat and held onto that. The
conductor calls in a reinforcement the street car's driver. I
(06:29):
screamed murder with all my voice, and my companions screamed out,
you'll kill her. Don't kill her. The two men have
pushed Elizabeth down off the street car, but guess what,
she climbs back onto that street car again. Unable to
overpower her, the driver heads full speed to the nearest
police officer. The officer doesn't listen to Elizabeth's plea. Instead,
(06:51):
he forcibly pushes her off the street car and onto
the ground. She's really beaten up. Her clothes are torn,
She's covered with Bruce's Jennings refers to the men as
monsters in human form, but it turns out they messed
with the wrong person. Well, there's no question that Elizabeth
Jennings came from an activist tradition. Both of her parents
(07:14):
very heavily involved in the antislavery cause. Throughout her entire life,
she would have been hearing all kinds of political discussions
and debates taking place. Hers was a prominent family. Elizabeth's father,
Thomas Jennings, is believed to be the first African American
(07:36):
to hold a patent for an early version of dry cleaning.
It made the family considerably wealthy, and Thomas did this
in eighteen twenty one, before slavery was fully eradicated in
New York. That wouldn't happen until eighteen twenty seven, but
the legacy of slavery in New York was still being
felt decades later. Probably the most significant salient challenge that
(08:02):
black people in the North were facing was as the
result of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of
eighteen fifty, maybe the most despicable piece of legislation in
our history. The Fugitive Slave Act mandated that runaway slaves
be returned to their owners. It became the perfect pretext
for abducting free blacks from the North. The North essentially
(08:25):
became sort of open season for a process where black
folks are being rounded up and kidnapped on the streets
and sold into slavery. I mean it's horrifying, yes, all
the more remarkable then that, during such a precarious time
for black Americans, Elizabeth Jennings and her father decided to
sue the Third Avenue Railroad Company. Here's author Amy Hill Hearth,
(08:49):
and they passed a hat in the church. Everybody pitched in,
and then they went to look for lawyer. Their first
choice was unavailable. So the lawyer that they do find,
as name that's familiar to presidential history, buffs that's right.
And this is how I found out about the Elizabeth
(09:12):
Jennings story. You see, I have a thing for obscure
nineteenth century presidents. All the guys between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt,
lots of facial hair, usually from Ohio. One of them
was knocked off by an anarchist, another by an aggrieved
office seeker. If you've watched me on CBS Sunday Morning,
you've probably seen me do reports on a few of them. Anyway,
one day, I was rifling through one of my presidential
(09:34):
trivia books, because that's what I do on the weekends too,
on wine and I read about our episodes Heroin and
her legal representation by a future very obscure nineteenth century
president Chester Alan Arthur. Yes, our twenty first president, and
he was twenty four years old, and he actually only
(09:55):
been practicing law for about six weeks. He's really wet
behind the ears he was. Arthur would go on to
grow mutton chops that would humble any Brooklyn hipster. Quick
side note. Decades later, when he was in the White House,
he was accused of having actually been born in Canada,
the original Berther conspiracy. You can learn all about that
(10:16):
in my story online. But back to this story, In
spite of his youth, chet Arthur was up to the
task of defending Elizabeth Jennings. Arthur was an abolitionist and
he worked closely with her and her father on legal strategy.
Instead of pursuing a criminal case, they decided to bring
the suit to a civil court. With a civil case,
(10:37):
it would fix the situation for everyone, not just find
justice for her. So they weren't looking for a conviction
for assault. What they were looking for was change. That's right.
So if Jennings sought damages and one a new standard
would be set for integrated transportation. The case was argued
(10:58):
in Brooklyn before ay of white men. Jennings case was
bolstered by eyewitnesses and her own first person account, but
perhaps just as important, before deliberations, the judge reminded the
jury that, according to statute, rail companies, and there were
a bunch of them in New York City, were required
(11:18):
to carry all respectable passengers there's that word respectable again,
who were sober, well behaved, and free from disease. This
language might sound antiquated to you, but it's the all
that strikes me. The jury sided with Elizabeth Jennings and
(11:44):
awarded her two hundred and fifty dollars. The Third Avenue
Railroad Company was found liable and moved quickly to integrate
their cars. The other rail companies were put on notice
that they could be sued as well. At what point
is in New York's these transportation system fully integrated well.
Some historians say that that was the first major step
(12:07):
after the Civil War, there was legislation that was passed
that made it official. The case received national attention in
antislavery papers. The New York Daily Tribune ran the headline,
a wholesome verdict. Was she celebrated for a while? Yes,
she was for about twenty five years. It was tremendously significant.
(12:29):
That's Leslie Alexander again. You know, in the nineteenth century,
the idea of women of any race being involved in
an outspoken way in political matters of any kind was
extremely controversial. So for her to take a stand in
(12:50):
the way that she did and then allow her story
and her name to be associated with this very public
case was a huge deal. After the court case, Elizabeth
Jennings led a rather private life and her name slowly
faded from history. She continued teaching and even opened the
city's first black kindergarten. She also married Charles Graham. They
(13:14):
had a son, but he died as a young child.
Jennings name briefly appeared in the newspapers again due to
the political rise of Chester. Alan Arthur, that once wet
behind the ears lawyer was elected vice president in eighteen eighty.
Then he became president upon the assassination of James Garfield.
(13:35):
Elizabeth Jennings died on June fifth, nineteen o one. I
didn't expect to find much, but there were at least
a few short obituaries. Here's the New York Times with
the headline aged colored teacher dead. Missus E. J. Graham
was prominent in ante bellum raced troubles. Here the item
(13:55):
takes note that her whole life was devoted to the
improvement of her race. Why don't people know her name?
She was just not a person who was sort of
self seeking or self interested. She wasn't a person who
was promoting herself or her story in that regard. So,
you know, I think that's part of it. But I'll
tell you honestly, I think on a deeper level, the
(14:18):
primary reason we don't know Elizabeth Jennings story is that
it doesn't fit with the narrative of the story that
we like to tell about the North. So in order
to know about Elizabeth Jennings, you have to know that
slavery existed in the North. You have to know that
slavery existed in the North for almost as long as
(14:38):
it did in the South. You have to be willing
to acknowledge that the legacy of slavery haunted the black
population in the North for generations. But we do have
to be willing to sort of, you know, pull back
the curtains and have an honest conversation. So where are
(15:01):
we at the corner of Pearl and Park Row. You
in Lower Manhattan. If you do visit the site of
the Elizabeth Jennings incident, you won't find a monument or
even a placard. The street corner is actually dedicated to Ira,
a fugitive Joseph Dougherty, but thanks to the persistence of
(15:23):
some local school children, there is now an honorary street
sign for her a few blocks away. Wait, what's up there? Okay,
it says Elizabeth Jennings Place. The day we visited, it
was covered up under scaffolding. But those who know Elizabeth
(15:44):
Jennings story. Still hope that one day this remarkable woman
will finally earn a more prominent place in history out
in the open. What I would really love to see
my dream is a statue. Now, there is a statue
(16:05):
commemorating baseball's great number forty two, Jackie Robinson, But what
about the player who made history years before him? The
(16:26):
story of our next forgotten forerunner brought me to Toledo, Ohio.
When I got into town, I was feeling a little peckish.
What's the best thing about Toledo? Well, Tony Packles for
number one, and so I hit up legendary Hungarian hot
dog joint Tony Paco's. No, this isn't an ad I've
just always wanted to eat there ever since I was
(16:48):
a kid watching Mash and heard Toledo and Jamie Farr's
Clinger character rave about the place. Hey. Incidentally, if you
ever in Toledo, Ohio and a Hungarian side of town,
Tony Packo's greatest Hungarian hot with chili peppers thirty five cents.
Tony Pacos is famous for its buns. The walls of
this restaurant are covered with hot dog buns autographed by
(17:12):
all the luminaries who've eaten at Tony Paco's ever since
Burt Reynolds started the tradition in the early nineteen seventies.
Bob Hope, Patti LaBelle okay, So Walter Mondale's right next
to tiny Tim Don Shula. Oh there's Jibbie Reynolds, Penn
and Teller signed the same bun I love Aria Speedwagon
at the share the buns. So that's manager Frank Petersburger.
(17:36):
They've got plenty of Frank's here, but surprisingly no Burgers,
even though the food is delicious. Tony Pacos isn't the
legend I'm here to profile. I'm in Toledo to learn
about the first African American man to play Major League Baseball,
And no it's not this guy nineteen forty seven. It
(17:56):
was the Brooklyn Dodgers Abbott's Field, Jackie Robinson, given the
challenge by Dodger owner Branch Rickey, and he accepted. Jackie
Robinson is most certainly not forgotten. When he walked out
onto Ebbott's Field to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he
(18:17):
changed history. But technically speaking, he wasn't the first. According
to this plaque right outside Toledo's minor league ballpark. Here
we go Moses Fleetwood Walker. In eighteen eighty three, Walker
joined the newly formed Toledo Bluestockings and became the first
African American Major league ballplayer when Toledo joined the Major
(18:39):
League sanctioned American Association the following year. Now this deserves
a holy Toledo and here on this is considered Moses
Fleetwood Walker square. That's Rob Worsinski, the communications guy for
the current minor league team. Here the beloved Toledo Mudhens.
Mash fans may remember that Jamie Farr wore a Mudhens
(18:59):
jury from time to time on the show. But back
to Moses. When you ask people who was the first
man of color who played the top flight pro baseball
in America, everybody will say Jackie Robinson. But in order
for a color barrier to be broken, one head to
be set up in the first place, and it was
Moses Fleetwood Walker whose mere presence on the diamond invited
(19:22):
the backlash that would bar black players from baseball for
decades afterwards. Moses Fleetwood Walker was born on October seventh,
eighteen fifty six, in Ohio and played baseball at Oberlin
College and at the University of Michigan. Before long, he
(19:45):
was playing for the minor league Toledo Bluestockings as the
team's catcher, barehanded in those days. Soon after, Toledo's team
got promoted to the American Association, and at the time
in eighteen eighty four, the American was top flight pro
baseball in America. While there were other black players who
(20:05):
joined team rosters, including Walker's own brother, Moses, was the first,
but there were no celebrations around this milestone. Just like
Robinson Wood, later on, Walker faced intense racial bigotry. There
were also threats of lynching his own pitcher ignored his signals.
(20:26):
Walker couldn't have been all that surprised. Just the year before,
future Hall of Famer and Chicago player Cap Anson unsuccessfully
protested Walker's participation in the game Moses Fleetwood. Walker's time
and the majors was short. During his time with Toledo,
(20:46):
he batted two sixty three with only one hundred and
fifty two at bats. As a catcher in the eighteen eighties,
baseball was a very dangerous position to play, and actually
he ended up having a series of injuries that season.
Played in a fraction of the games. Toledo released him
that same season. Walker went on to play in other leagues.
(21:08):
While catching for the Newark, New Jersey Little Giants, he
was paired with an African American pitcher named George Washington Stovey.
In eighteen eighty seven, they were set to play against
Chicago and cap Anson. This time, Anson flat out refused
to play if the black team members were put on
the field. Newark gave into his demands soon after, baseball
(21:34):
officials across the board decided not to sign any more
black players the color line had been drawn. Post baseball,
Walker held a variety of jobs, but eventually got in
trouble with the law. After stabbing a man to death
during a drunken racial altercation. He was acquitted. He did
(21:58):
end up in jail later on for mail fraud. At
the same time, the injustices he'd experienced inspired him to
get angry and political. He wrote a book advocating black
emigration to Africa. He had some success in business, but
when he died in nineteen twenty four at the age
of sixty seven, there was barely any acknowledgement. But some
(22:22):
proud Ohioans are trying to change that. Saturday is Moses
Fleetwood Walker's birthday, and thanks to a new state law,
he'll be honored on that day every year. Toledo is
doing its part to keep his name alive. At the ballpark.
Oh my god, it's a Moses Fleetwood Walker bobblehead. And
he's right next to Jamie Far. He's between two different
(22:44):
Jamie Fars and just across the street at a bar
called Fleetwoods. And it's not named after Fleetwood Mac all right,
so we're entering Fleetwood's tap room. I mean, this looks
like a pretty serious place for draft beer. Forty eight
different types on tap. Hello, there's this picture. There's a
big picture of Moses Fleetwood Walker And once people know
the story behind the face, they're impressed. Yeah, that is incredible. Oh,
(23:07):
Jackie Robinson was the first. That's pretty cool. Goal. Moses.
You can't help but think he died, I'm guessing, not
knowing that he would ever be acknowledged as as special
or important. It really was a guy who just loved
the game of baseball. He wanted to play it. Moses
(23:28):
Fleetwood Walker and Jackie Robinson bookends to a sixty three
year long journey baseball researcher Larry Lester may have put
it best when he wrote, while Walker failed to lead
his people to the promised plan, Robinson delivered his people.
Both men wrestled with Jim crow Fleet bruised his knuckles
(23:49):
and lost the early rounds. However, Jackie later bloodied his
nose and won the fight. Next up, the Woman who
ran Hollywood one hundred years ago. Now, let's travel back
(24:15):
to the earliest days of Hollywood, somewhere between nineteen ten
and nineteen twenty, to the story of one of silent
filmdom's most prolific, yet almost completely forgotten directors. How much
does this historical amnesia bother you? I mean, it's infuriating.
It's absolutely infuriating, and film historian Shelley Stamp is here
to set the record straight. One critic at the time
(24:37):
talked about the three great minds of early Hollywood, two
of whom will be familiar to most people who don't
know anything about early cinema d W. Griffith and Saal
speA Mill And the third great mind was Lois Webber,
not Lewis Lois Webber. She was the first American woman
to direct a feature film, A nineteen fourteen adaptation of
(24:59):
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. She was also one of
the stars. This all took place before movies even had sound.
Shelley Stamp wrote the book Lowest Webber. In early Hollywood,
she was the highest paid director in the industry, the
highest paid female, a man, woman, or child. As one
reporter put it, she was respected. She negotiated very lucrative
(25:21):
contracts when she formed her own studio, so you can
see she was right up there with names that we
associate with the fathers of American cinema at the time,
and their legacy endures and hers does not. Last year,
a mere three percent of studio films were directed by women,
(25:43):
and pay inequity is a persistent issue. But in the
Hollywood of one hundred years ago, Lowest Webber was one
of the most respected and highest paid directors. I know,
it's like I'm describing some mythical time and place like
Camelot that just poof disappeared. I mean, did this really happen? Well,
I think the first thing to emphasize is that, yes,
(26:03):
Webber was the most prominent female director during this time,
but there was lots of other female filmmakers during this time. Right,
she wasn't a unicorn, she wasn't an anomaly. And the
early years of the industry were open to many people. Right.
When film began in the early decades of the twentieth century,
it became really popular, really fast. So there was an
(26:24):
incredible need for movies. I mean it sounds like a
land rush or something, right, No, seriously, this is open terrain.
And you know, once the industry solidified in LA around
nineteen thirteen, LA became an incredible magnet for women in particular,
and Lois Webber was one of those women. She was
(26:45):
born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in eighteen seventy nine and
started off as an accomplished pianist. She then moved on
to the theater as an actress, and that's where she
met her husband, Phillips Smalley. He started working in the
movies first, but she very soon joined him and they
worked together as a collaborative team. She wrote the scenarios,
(27:06):
they acted together on screen, often playing husband, wife or
romantic partners, and then they co directed Who is Leading
Home Here? Initially their build as the Smalley's and their
build as a couple, but within four or five years.
Weber is clearly the dominant creative force. But as Shelley
told us early on, Webber was not a unicorn, wasn't
(27:29):
even the first in her field. In fact, the actual
first woman to direct films, really one of the first
filmmakers period, was Alice G. Blachet of France. We're talking
about the eighteen nineties. She eventually opened a US studio
in New Jersey with her husband, right around the time
Webber was getting her own start. I don't think it's
any exaggeration to say that women were at the beginning
(27:53):
of the formation of film language. Here is an article
August fourth, nineteen sixteen Lois Webber's are of first magnitude
from the Nashville, Tennessee in I mean the middle of
the country, you know, is surprised. It's not. Variety is
not a trade journal. Low As Webber ranks with the
greatest directors in the profession, and whose success confutes any
(28:15):
argument of women's inability to fill posts in a man's field.
I mean she was a very important finger. Webber was
also prolific. She directed over one hundred short films and
in one year alone, when she was Universal's top director.
She wrote and directed ten feature length films. This is
an extraordinary productivity. I can't really even imagine. I think,
(28:37):
by contemporary standards, it's impossible to imagine. I mean, these days,
you know, you wait for your favorite director to make
a movie once every three years. Well, you know, the
reporters that saw her on set during these years, they
talk about how how decisive she was, how in command
she was. She had her script in her hand and
she was issuing orders, and everybody would come to her
(28:59):
for every little detail about wardrobe, about sad, about everything.
I mean, I think she just worked incredibly hard. She's prolific.
Is she innovative? So she's not a cookie cutter director.
She's not a director that's prolific because she's turning out
the same thing again and again and again. She takes
on all of these very controversial social issues of her day.
(29:19):
She's known as this director who took on birth control
and poverty and religious hypocrisy. But equally important, I think
is her visual storytelling, which is extraordinary. One of Weber's
most popular early short films is called Suspense. It's from
nineteen thirteen. What she's doing is adapting of what at
(29:41):
that time would have been a really well known formula
called the last Minute Rescue, basically Liam Neeson movie. Yes, yes,
the early Liam Neeson. This is pre taken right by
nineteen thirteen. By the time she takes it on, it's
a very well known formula. She gives her film a
generic title to tell us that she's taking on this
(30:01):
formula and that she is going to better the master
at his own game. Shelley and I watched the film together.
It's only ten minutes long. And let me tell you,
suspense is gripping and what's happening here. One of the
hallmarks of the Last Minute Rescue is that you have
(30:23):
the woman on the phone with police or her husband,
and often the phone line is cut, and so that
cross cutting back and forth of the phone call is
a key element of suspense. What whatever does is she
puts the three elements together in the frame. Yes, I
see it. The screen is split in three. There's the
wife at home on the phone, the husband at work,
and the intruder coming further and further into the house
(30:45):
right sawing the phone line, peeking through the door. So
we see all three elements at once, and there he
is looking right at us. A tramp is prowling around
the house and he's good and bad guy's good in
this and she's on the phone, and that's Lois Webber
playing the woman. She wrote it. She started it as
she's directing it. How did Lois Webber present if she
(31:07):
were to walk in here, would you think, well, there
she is, that's a groundbreaker or she's a radical? Absolutely not, No,
she had what that is What I think is really
interesting about her. Her persona was that of a kind
of very dignified, married, white, middle class woman. She really
presented herself that way. But I think that persona was
(31:30):
a way for her to tackle the issues that she tackled.
She describes herself as a missionary in several places that
I've seen. Well, she took that description very seriously. Early
in her career when she was pursuing music, she was
involved in evangelical work in New York, and she really
(31:52):
saw cinema as she said, it's it's a meeting where
I can preach to my heart's content. One of the
issues that she tackled on film was birth control. In
nineteen sixteen, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic
in America, That same year, Weber directed a film called
(32:13):
Where Are My Children, which was considered so controversial that
Universal preface to the film with a big, full screen
warning to parents not to let their children watch the
film unsupervised. The studio also defended the film subject matter
by pointing out that birth control had been in the
news fair warning to this audience. Though the film's point
(32:34):
of view has not aged well at all, her take
on legalizing contraception is very mired in the eugenics of
the period. She said, media case for legalized contraception for
largely for women living in poverty and for immigrant population.
So that's a sort of classic eugenics argument, right, And
(32:56):
that's one half of the film. The other half of
the film is vilifying wealthy, privileged white women who repeatedly
use abortion to avoid pregnancy. They're not propagating the right stock. Absolutely,
they're not propagating the right stock. And so the reproductive
politics of this film are pretty distasteful from a contemporary
(33:20):
point of view, right, you know, we can't really shy
away from that fact. But they were relatively typical of
the time. Lois Webber was not part of some fringe
No no Now, Lois Webber didn't earn recognition just for
her directing. Just when I thought nothing else would surprise me,
I learned about her political career. In nineteen thirteen, feigned
(33:46):
Hollywood director Lois Webber gained national attention for another role.
She was mayor of the Universal City. Yes, Universal City,
the home of Universal Studios. Any family that's been lucky
enough to take a trip to Los Angeles and we
went as a family in nineteen eighty when I was
in the fifth grade, hopefully took the Universal Studios tour
(34:06):
where you see the Psycho House and you know, Jaws
comes up and you think it's gonna bite you. What
they don't tell you on that tour. The city once
had a mayor, a female mayor, seven years before women
gained the right to vote nationally. What was this about?
Was this a big Hollywood publicity stunt kind of but
it was an important publicity stunt. Right. Universal City imagines
(34:29):
itself as a place where work in life are combined. Right,
that making motion pictures is so fun, that it's it's
a community. You live there and you work there together,
and so part of that is having a mayor. But
Webber runs on an all female ticket with other women,
other Universal stars running as distric attorney and police chief.
And some of the publicity was really negative, right about
(34:51):
women taking over the Universal city, and the Amazons, the
Amazons and you know they hate men and all all
this sort of stuff. Now it gets a little calm
implicated because Webber didn't win this election, but the guy
who did left the studio six months later, and she
took over the job a largely ceremonial post. Really, I
don't think it had any real function, but I think
it was an important ceremonial post and that it demonstrated
(35:15):
to the world that Universal was led by a woman.
So why don't we know Lois Webber's name? What happened?
I think there's a whole bunch of complicated things that
happened with her decline. Once we get into the twenties,
once we get into the height of the jazz age
entertainment and Hollywood in particular shifts to more escapism. Lois
Webber doesn't do escapist and she doesn't do escapism, and
(35:37):
she's out of stab. But there's a bunch of other
stuff that's going, yes, yes, which are well, what happens
is by the early twenties. The movie industry is incredibly profitable.
So so guess what power consolidates. I'm a managing like
(36:01):
a bunch of cigar choppers, like guys like the monopoly man,
coming in and going all right, all right, all right, ladies,
step aside, because now this is getting serious. There's big
money here, and this is a man's job. That is
basically what happens. I mean, the studios in order to
buy up Holly Theater chains had to borrow a lot
of money from Wall Street, and in doing so they
(36:21):
sort of bought into a corporate culture which was highly
male and as a result, disvalued, forgot about female filmmakers.
So and it happens really fast. You know, by the
late twenties and early thirties, when the first histories of
Hollywood are being written, there is no mention of Lois
Webber or any of the female filmmakers. It's all about
(36:42):
the female stars. It's all about Pickford and Swanson. Great,
but they are forgotten very very fast, in a sort
of effort to as you say, legitimate the industry. You know,
step aside, ladies, Well you know, we're gonna make this
very profitable industry legit you could say women in Hollywood
went the way of silent films. The Jazz Singer premiered
(37:08):
in nineteen twenty seven, talkies became all the rage in
the following decades. Women directors were the exception to the rule.
There was Dorothy Artisner. She was a big deal in
the nineteen thirties and forties. Then in the nineteen fifties,
Hollywood actress Ida Lapino you know her from crossword puzzles,
moved on to directing films and later television. And to
(37:31):
this day, female filmmakers are told, well, it's never been
done before. You're gonna have to reinvent the wheel. Oh
my goodness. You know, I don't think a woman can
direct a big budget film. I don't think a female
lead can carry a picture. I don't think a film
about so called women's issues can be successful. These arguments
were one a hundred years ago, and yet we're still
fighting about them because we've forgotten. It's a lot easier
(37:53):
to imagine something as possible if you know it's happened before. Absolutely,
that's why history matters. We talked about the forces that
made it difficult for Lois Webber. Did she retire at
one point, she did not retire. To her credit, she
made her last film in nineteen thirty four, which was
her one and only sound picture. She took a boatload
(38:16):
of generators to Kawai. She shot the first film on
location on Kawaii. Jurassic Park was shot. You can't even
imagine doing that. I mean, it's it's phenomenal. So she
That was her last film in nineteen thirty four. She
died five years later in nineteen thirty nine, and in
those intervening five years, she continued to write scripts. She
(38:38):
continued to try to get films made. She never gave up,
even in industry that was became very inhospitable to women,
Just like we did for Elizabeth Jennings and Moses fleetwood Walker.
We tracked down the newspaper coverage of Lois Webber's passing.
(39:00):
She didn't get a ton of ink in the major papers,
with one exception, a big front page item in the
Los Angeles Times penned by famed gossip columnist had a Hopper.
Hopper paid tribute by writing, I don't know of any
woman who has had a greater influence upon the motion
picture business than Lois, or anyone who has helped so
(39:21):
many climb the ladder of fame, asking for nothing but
friendship in return. Hopper added, I have a feeling she
wasn't sorry to leave this world for a better one.
Shelley Stamp hopes for a better legacy for Lois Webber.
I feel confident that over the long haul, the histories
of Hollywood will be rewritten to feature her and all
(39:44):
of the other women that were active at the beginning industry.
But the more films that come out and the more
textbooks that get rewritten, the more at tension that's paid
to her. I think we can correct this amnesia. These
are the story of just three forgotten four runners, the
Pioneers before the Pioneers. But in any story of firsts
(40:07):
and four runners, you've got to be careful. We talked
about Elizabeth Jennings as the Rosa Parks of New York
Parks is one of the most famous symbols of the
Civil rights struggle, But nine months before her arrest, a
woman named Claudette Colvin did the very same thing. And
as far as Moses fleetwood Walker well, baseball researchers recently
(40:28):
came across the story of William Edward White he played
one Major League game in eighteen seventy nine for the
Providence Grays White was actually a former slave, but lived
his free life as a white man. So was he
really the first? I don't know. Maybe proving who was
first isn't as important as we think. Maybe it misses
(40:50):
the point that all these people, whether they were first, second,
or one hundred and second, had guts and made things
at least a little bit better for the people who
came later, sometimes much later. Of course, that depends on
us remembering their stories next time. On Mobituaries, The Unforgettable
(41:28):
Audrey Hepburn, Were you aware that the day of your inauguration,
Audrey Hepburn died? No, you didn't know that. No. I
certainly hope you enjoyed this mobid Be sure to rate
and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on
Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on Twitter
at Morocca. For more great content, including photos of our forerunners,
(41:52):
please visit mobituaries dot com. You can subscribe to Mobituaries
wherever you're getting your podcasts. This episode of Mobituaries was
produced by Meghan Marcus. Our team of producers also includes
Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe, Meghan Deetree and me Morocca. It
was edited by Ashley Cleek and engineered by Dan de Zula.
(42:15):
Indispensable support from Genius Dineski, Kira Wardlow, Zach Gilcrest, Richard Roarer,
everyone at CBS News Radio, and Frank Petersburger at Tony Paco's.
Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart and as always,
undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John Carp without whom
Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries
(42:45):
the podcast, may I invite you to check out Mobituaries
the book. It's chock full of stories not in the podcast.
Celebrities who put their butts on the line, sports teams
that threw in the towel for good, forgotten, fashion defunct
diagnoses presidential candidacies that cratered, whole countries that went caput.
(43:06):
And dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe
the dragons will reel until just get the book. You
can order Mobituaries the Book from any online bookseller, or
stop by your local bookstore and look for me when
I come to your city. Tour information and lots more
at mobituaries dot com.
Host
Mo Rocca
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