Nobody's Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood

· Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Karen White
Audiobook
13 hr 34 min
Unabridged
Eligible
Want a free 1 hr 21 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

The first comprehensive history of Hollywood's high-flying career women during the studio era, Nobody's Girl Friday covers the impact of the executives, producers, editors, writers, agents, designers, directors, and actresses who shaped Hollywood film production and style, led their unions, climbed to the top during the war, and fought the blacklist.



Based on a decade of archival research, author J.E. Smyth uncovers a formidable generation working within the American film industry and brings their voices back into the history of Hollywood. Their achievements, struggles, and perspectives fundamentally challenge popular ideas about director-based auteurism, male dominance, and female disempowerment in the years between First and Second Wave Feminism.



Nobody's Girl Friday is a revisionist history, but it's also a deeply personal, collective account of hundreds of working women, the studios they worked for, and the films they helped to make. For many years, historians and critics have insisted that both American feminism and the power of women in Hollywood declined and virtually disappeared from the 1920s through the 1960s. But Smyth vindicates Bette Davis's claim. The story of the women who called the shots in studio-era Hollywood has never fully been told—until now.
The first comprehensive history of Hollywood's high-flying career women during the studio era, Nobody's Girl Friday covers the impact of the executives, producers, editors, writers, agents, designers, directors, and actresses who shaped Hollywood film production and style, led their unions, climb...

Discover more

About the author

J. E. Smyth is an American historian and film critic. She is a regular contributor to Cineaste Magazine and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and PBS. Smyth is Professor of History at the University of Warwick (UK). For more information, visit jesmyth.co.uk.

Karen White has been narrating audiobooks since 1999, with more than two hundred to her credit. Honored to be included in AudioFile's Best Voices and Speaking of Audiobooks's Best Romance Audio 2012 and 2013, she is also an Audie Award finalist and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards.

J. E. Smyth is an American historian and film critic. She is a regular contributor to Cineaste Magazine and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and PBS. Smyth is Professor of History at the University of Warwick (UK). For more information, visit jesmyth.co.uk. Karen White has been narrating...

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.