The Movie Queen Films: When Audience and Subject Become One. beginning of a now twenty-year-long search for a woman named Margaret Cram and the silent

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1 The Movie Queen Films: When Audience and Subject Become One Has anyone here seen Margaret? Folks in Northern Maine have a problem, and they re looking to Boston for help. 1 This peculiar query appeared in the Boston Globe in 1989, a year that marked the beginning of a now twenty-year-long search for a woman named Margaret Cram and the silent films she directed throughout New England in the mid to late-1930s. The hunt began when Helen Burns gave the Northeast Historic Film archive (NHF) 2 the physical film and all rights to Movie Queen, Lubec, a silent 16 mm black and white film made in With the help of Burns and a few others who had appeared in the film, the NHF in 1989 hosted two public screenings of the film and conducted oral history sessions to gather information about the film s production and reception. In the years since, nine Movie Queen films from three states (Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts) have been given to NHF, some by historical societies or libraries, others by individuals and service clubs. 3 These films are important to film archivists and scholars for many reasons: they shed light on social and artistic practices at the local level during the 1930s; they provide snapshots of the main streets and townspeople in small communities during the Depression; they reveal information about audience reception and the popularity of amateur entertainment at the time; and when seen, screened and studied today, these films can build recognition and appreciation of oft-forgotten moving images. This paper argues that by fusing amateur film and theatricals, promoting everyone s potential to be a star, and emphasizing that 1 Jack Thomas, Our Towne, The Boston Globe, July 20, Located in Bucksport, Maine, the NHF is considered by many to be one of the best regional archives in the nation. In her article From Forgotten Film to a Film Archive, Janna Jones describes how the discovery and arduous restoration of a 1930s Maine logging film led David Weiss and Karan Sheldon to form the archive in November of Janna Jones, From Stump to Ship: Forgotten Film to the Formation of Film Archives (Film History, Vol. 15, No. 2), There are several other Movie Queen films that are known about but remain lost, including films from Maine and New York 1

2 local performance was worth watching, the Movie Queen productions capitalized on the cultural relevance of the amateur and a social moment in which community particularly resonated. Each Movie Queen film follows the same plot: a local girl returning from Hollywood is paraded through town, tours the local businesses and is given goods by each proprietor, and is kidnapped and rescued by a local hero. 4 In each town the film was made to accompany a threeact musical comedy of the same name that starred local townspeople and a visiting troupe of actors. The national prevalence of multipurpose venues like town halls, opera houses and theaters that mixed film and live presentation well suited the mixed format of the Movie Queen production. 5 Information discovered recently by Karan Sheldon, cofounder of NHF, and other archivists suggests that the Movie Queen films were produced by a Boston-based business called the Amateur Theatre Guild. 6 Young female directors were sent out to small towns around the country to supervise the film and theater productions and generate revenue from tickets sales for the live performance. The directors were sent to the towns for a two to three week period and followed a meticulously planned schedule which involved arriving to establish connections and find sponsors, casting and rehearsing the live show, shooting and sending film away for editing and directing the performance. The Guild s proprietor was Lauren Kenyon Woods, who wrote Movie Queen, A Musical Comedy in Three Acts and the script for another touring production called The Circus that did not include a film component. 7 The films are technically rudimentary; the shots are shaky and the editing is rough. The emphasis is not on technique or the form of the film, but on the local subjects and the loose 4 A few of the earliest films don t have the kidnapping plot. There were also a couple of instances in which some of the film didn t get back from editing in time for the stage performance. This was the case in Eastport, ME in September of Movie Queen Eastport Sentinel, September 11, 1936, 8. 5 Karan Sheldon, Meeting the Movie Queen: An Itinerant Film Anchored in Place. Unpublished. July 2009, Ibid, 2. 7 Sheldon, 2. 2

3 narrative. The camera is democratic, capturing every aspect of the town and its citizens. Proprietor L. K. Woods stated bluntly that the film was the primary draw for audiences, and thus was clearly meant to entice audiences to attend the stage performance. A large amount of actuality footage threads the narrative. Cram s films reinforce a critique often leveled against amateur film and articulated in an Eastman Kodak guide to making such films, that most [amateur] cinematographers are not interested in the complex phases of cinematography. 8 However, the films very loose adherence to a narrative and the focus, instead, on capturing snapshots of individuals (almost as if they were posed for a photograph) reinforce the documentary-like quality of the films. The camera in the 1930s was, as William Stott describes in his book Documentary Expression and Thirties America, a crucial reporting tool the camera is a prime symbol of the thirties mind because the mind aspired to the quality of authenticity, of direct and immediate experience. 9 Despite the intentionally implausible narrative and the actors exaggerated characterizations in the Movie Queen films, the towns and their people are always central. The Movie Queen productions draw directly from the growing popularity of what were called home talent shows. 10 These began to prosper in the late 1880s and varied in form and genre but included plays and musicals, minstrelsy and pageants or sometimes a combination. 11 Lorelei Eckey s book 1001 Broadways is one of the only books to describe home talent shows in the early twentieth century. The book focuses on one company in particular, the Universal 8 Eastman Kodak Company, How To Make Good Movies: a non-technical handbook for those considering the ownership of an amateur movie camera and for those already actively engaged in movie making who want to improve the interest and quality of their personal film records (Rochester: Eastman Kodak Company, 1938), William Stott, Documentary Expression and Thirties America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), In a longer version of this paper, I draw connections between home talent shows and women s increased participation in amateur theatricals from Lorelei Eckey, Maxine Allen Schoyer and William Schoyer, 1001 Broadways: Hometown Talent on Stage (Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1982), x. 3

4 Producing Company, which was based in Fairfield, Iowa, and produced thousands of home talent shows throughout the country from 1928 to The company, started by the four Stewart brothers from Fairfield, was immensely successful nationwide: their productions would play in literally thousands of towns, including every one that was county seat size and larger in the United States and Canada. They would draw audiences of up to ten million. Their dramatic coaches would direct perhaps a half-million amateur actors. 12 The scale, scope and success of the Universal Producing Company in just over seven years of business were extraordinary, and yet they were only one of many companies around the country producing and directing local theater productions Broadways recounts how it became increasingly hard for Universal to book shows as the Depression wore on, but identifies one booking agent who had little trouble no matter what the conditions were. Eckey writes, The outstanding booker was L. K. Woods, who worked primarily in New England. One season he booked 143 shows more than twice that of any other Universal booker. He was said to have been able to sign anyone. 13 That L. K. Woods, who became the proprietor of the Amateur Theatre Guild just a few years later, was an immensely successful booking agent for the Stewarts sheds important light on some of the motivations for the Movie Queen films. Though concrete evidence hasn t been found to prove it, the similarities in production processes and booking practices between the Guild and Universal, and the dates of the two organizations productions, suggests that L. K. Woods drew heavily from his experiences with the Stewarts. The timing suggests that the Movie Queen productions started shortly after the demise of the Stewarts enterprise. 12 Eckey, Eckey, 33. 4

5 Margaret Cram also fits into a tradition of itinerant filmmakers, who with the invention of 16mm cameras and safety film could affordably and with greater mobility travel the country and film various subjects. There is growing evidence of filmmakers like Cram who auditioned and directed local productions, often referred to as our town pictures, which they would screen locally for profits. These productions were intended to garner almost universal town participation and/or attendance at the performance, and advertising usually emphasized that cast members could see themselves in pictures. In recent years (and particularly in the last decade) more scholarly attention and institutional support has been devoted to the study of amateur film and itinerant filmmakers like Cram. The Movie Queen films, and some of the productions by other itinerant filmmakers, also blur the purportedly demarcated lines of professional film as profitable and amateur film as a leisure activity or hobby. A large portion of each Movie Queen film documents the economic livelihood of the towns as the protagonist tours the local businesses and industries, and in most locations is given a gift by the proprietor. Information in the Amateur Theatre Guild s 16-page manual given to directors suggests that each town s proprietors paid to appear on film, a somewhat interesting practice considering that advertising would have been unnecessary in most of the small towns. The productions clearly enabled the townspeople to come together and celebrate their community, particularly the businesses and industries that made their towns thrive. The plot shots, that is, the scenes involving the kidnapping and rescue of the Movie Queen, were included not only to create a loose narrative and be humorous, but also to break up the shots of businesses and industries. The use of the plot shots, the manual stated: creates a story running throughout the film which tends to make the film much more interesting and also makes the paid shots more worthwhile to the merchants as they 5

6 keep the advertising light and bring in to the audience in a more subtle manner, so it does not smack so much of the commercial. 14 It appears from this statement that the narrative was actually used in service of the actuality footage of the businesses. The community focus of the Movie Queen productions doesn t negate the commercial interests of both the townspeople and the Guild. The Amateur Theatre Guild was not alone in its use of commercials in local productions. Itinerant film director H. Lee Waters would create commercials for proprietors to show during the silent screenings of his local films in the 1930s and early 1940s. 15 The local businesses would pay Waters extra to have the commercials made and shown; some of which were fairly elaborate, including lengthy depictions of people at work. As with home talent shows, the profits from the Movie Queen performances were split, and each town s sum usually went to a charitable organization such as the Kiwanis or Lions Club. The Guild s meticulously organized and detailed operations, and the apparently large scale of its business, suggest a goal of fairly large profit margins. The Guild s 16-page director s manual, which includes sections with the headings Movie Queen Daily Procedure and Film Data for Movie Queen Directors, conveys the intricate planning that went into each production and performance. 16 The elaborate scheduling framework established for each production and the amount of time directors were intended to spend finding sponsors, advertising, and establishing ties in the communities evidence the commercial intentions of the Amateur Theatre Guild. As mentioned above, directors were expected to arrive on location two to three weeks in advance and follow a daily schedule that ranged in specificity and task from forming committees 14 Movie Queen Daily Procedure, Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University. This document, along with several others, was found by Karan Sheldon in the summer of Sheldon was only allowed to make copies of a few sources, so most of what I looked at were photocopies of the originals. 15 The Cameraman Has Visited Our Town. Film by Tom Whiteside, Folkstreams.Net (accessed April 24, 2010). 16 Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University, pink sheets. 6

7 (parade, ticket, advertising and property committees are mentioned) to having the publicity chairman get tennis net. 17 All the work was to be done by a single, female director, 18 who was expected to be able to teach and direct the local cast in the community production and film the movie component. The work was obviously grueling, and the directors were booked for an entire year. As stated in the 16-page document, All contracts are booked in advance by the booking staff so that each director has continuous year round work As soon as one production is finished she is immediately routed to another production. 19 Marion Howlett worked with the Amateur Theatre Guild from , and though she never directed a Movie Queen production, her records provide insight into the business operations of the Guild and the quality of work for directors. Howlett kept copies of the scripts she worked with, and a note in one of her script files captures the demands and potential rewards of the job: this is a very hard-sell proposition which definitely will work and [be] successful IF all the rules are followed exactly. Almost impossible to do in small towns BUT FUN. 20 The practices of the Amateur Theatre Guild also raise some interesting gender implications. By all accounts the directors were young females, and this job would have afforded them a rather unusual amount of independence, both in terms of mobility and in the nature of the work. Once the contract was booked (usually months in advance, it appears), these women were on their own, and were in control of every facet of the production, including establishing contacts and garnering attention for the production. Though it is not explicitly clear why the Guild used all female directors, it is quite possible that proprietor L. K. Woods was working off 17 Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University, In the 16-page manual, all the directions use the pronouns she or her, implying that all of the directors were female. Also, all the local cast members who have described their experiences reference a sole, female director. 19 Description of the Work of a Director. Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University, Script Note, Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University 7

8 the Stewarts home talent show model which, as mentioned above, only used female directors. The Amateur Theatre Guild was almost certainly drawing from the larger tradition of amateur theatrical clubs and societies, which in the late 1800s and early 1900s were predominantly comprised of women. That the directors of the Movie Queen productions like Margaret Cram were also in charge of filming adds another dimension, albeit one that is not entirely surprising when considering amateur film s early connections to the home and the emphasis placed on women as potential filmmakers. Cram and her Movie Queen compatriots were far from the only itinerant filmmakers touring America in the years before World War II. In his article Itinerant filmmakers and amateur casts, Dan Streible asserts that itinerant filmmakers made hundreds if not thousands of amateur films featuring local casts. 21 Unfortunately, the vast majority of these films have not been found, and Streible explains that, this scarcity has made the genre even less understood than the small-gauge amateur film, for which there are at least sufficient primary materials to study (published journals, manuals, guide books and extant celluloid). 22 H. L. Waters films, though made at the same time as Cram s, stand out because of their lack of narrative, their ethnographic style, and the diversity of the subjects captured. More adherent to documentary style than the other directors, Waters was able to capture rare moments of people opening up and being natural in front of the camera. Waters made hundreds of films called Movies of Local People in the South between 1936 and 1942 to supplement his income as a photographer during the Depression. Over the course of six years Waters shot over 100 hours of film; most of the 21 These itinerant filmmakers are in many ways descendants of the traveling exhibitors that Charles Musser describes in his book High Class Moving Pictures, who moved from displaying other media (like the phonograph) in the mid to late 1800s to exhibiting moving pictures around the turn of the century. Charles Musser, High Class Moving Pictures (Princeton: Princeton university Press, 1991). 22 Dan Streible, Itinerant filmmakers and amateur casts: a homemade Our Gang, 1926 (Film History, Vol. 15, ),

9 short silent films were made in North Carolina, but a few others were made in South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Waters often incorporated trick shots into his film to impress his audiences, including iris effects, split screen shots, dissolves and reverse and slow motion shots. 23 Unlike Cram and the other directors for the Amateur Theatre Guild, H. Lee Waters was the consummate independent, itinerant filmmaker, personally undertaking every aspect of his projects from production to distribution to exhibition. 24 Yet even Waters, whose amateur films had no explicit connection to Hollywood, noted the potential association for the participants and audience members. Waters stated, It came to my mind that they d like to see themselves on the screen in a movie along with movie stars out of Hollywood. 25 Many of the local stars would have been seeing themselves on screen for the first time, and the chance to watch themselves and their neighbors in a large theater, and see their production s title on the box office marquee (often alongside Hollywood titles), would likely have induced connections to Hollywood. In referencing and drawing inspiration from Hollywood films, amateur productions also promoted the idea that local performers could be Hollywood stars. In Cram s productions, a local young woman would play the Movie Queen, who returns to her hometown after making it in Hollywood. Most towns kept the identity of the Movie Queen secret to build suspense around the reveal, which led some townspeople to think that the woman was actually a real Hollywood star. A song used in the Movie Queen stage production titled You Oughta Be in Pictures celebrates a local star s chances of becoming famous. The song had been a popular Broadway hit from The Ziegfield Follies of 1934 and was recorded by Rudy Vallee in the same 23 The Cameraman Has Visited Our Town. Film by Tom Whiteside, The largest collection of Waters films are held at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University. The University of South Carolina at Columbia and the State Archives in Raleigh, NC also have collections. 25 The Cameraman Has Visited Our Town. Film by Tom Whiteside,

10 year. The lyrics romanticize the path the local performer can take to stardom, suggesting instant gratification: You oughta be in pictures/ Oh what a hit you would be!/ Your voice would thrill a nation/ Your face would be adored/ You d make a great sensation/ with wealth and fame your reward. 26 While the common catch phrase used for these local films see yourself in pictures - literally enticed audiences to come to the local screening to see themselves on screen, it also made an implicit connection to Hollywood stardom. In small towns all over the country individuals had access to amateur and professional performances every day, and they could be active participants, connected audience members or both. In an oral interview with Karan Sheldon in 1989, Jimmy Simmonds, who played the hero in Movie Queen, Lubec, discussed the success of the production and the popularity of local performers in the town. Simmonds explains, It seems like all the locals were in on something, out to the Grange or after school. We were active in that sort of thing and I guess they kind of figured we had the talent for it. 27 The popularity of amateur endeavors in the 1930s epitomized an expanding notion of audience and a repudiation of art being characterized solely as elitist. As Tom Whiteside puts it in his documentary on H. Lee Waters, in local films the subject is the audience and the audience is the subject. 28 One can argue that the Movie Queen productions represent a microcosm of 1930s popular culture in at least the following ways: their availability to all and the fact that attendance was expected by almost the entire community; the importance placed on communal and therefore unified production and reception, and the celebration of the amateur as a respectable performer. 26 Rudy Vallee. You Oughta Be in Pictures, Dancing in the Moonlight, Entertainers, Sheldon, The Cameraman Has Visited our Town. 10

11 Works Cited The Cameraman Has Visited Our Town. Film by Tom Whiteside, Folkstreams.Net (accessed April 24, 2010). Eastman Kodak Company. How To Make Good Movies: a non-technical handbook for those considering the ownership of an amateur movie camera and for those already actively engaged in movie making who want to improve the interest and quality of their personal film records. Rochester: Eastman Kodak Company, Eckey, Lorelei, Maxine Allen Schoyer and William Schoyer. 1,001 Broadways: Hometown Talent on Stage. Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, Jones, Janna. From Stump to Ship: Forgotten Film to the Formation of Film Archives. Film History, Vol. 15, No Lubec s The Movie Queen. Northeast Historic Film press release. June 15, Movie Queen Daily Schedule. Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University. Movie Queen. Eastport Sentinel. September 11, 1936, 8. Movie Kodak Made For Individual Users, Special to The New York Times. New York Times. January 9, 1923, 10. Musser, Charles. High Class Moving Pictures, Princeton: Princeton University Press, Script Note, Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University. Sheldon, Karan. Meeting the Movie Queen: An Itinerant Film Anchored in Place. Unpublished. July Sheldon, Karan and Dwight Swanson, The Movie Queen: Northeast Historic Film, Mining the Home Movie, Karen L. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmerman, eds. Berkeley, University of California Press, Small-Gauge and Amateur Film Bibliography, Film History, Vol. 15, No Streible, Dan. Itinerant filmmakers and amateur casts: a homemade Our Gang, Film History, Vol Stott, William. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. New York: Oxford University Press,

12 Thomas, Jack Our Towne. The Boston Globe. July 20, Vallee. Rudy. You Oughta Be in Pictures. Dancing in the Moonlight. Entertainers, Films The Movie Queen (Bar Harbor, Maine) NHF. Bar Harbor Collection. VHS. The Movie Queen (Newport, Maine) NHF. Newport Historical Society Collection. VHS. The Movie Queen (Lincoln, Maine) NHF. Lincoln Memorial Library Collection. VHS. The Movie Queen (Lubec, Maine) NHF. Lubec Collection. VHS. The Movie Queen (Middlebury, Vermont) NHF. Sheldon Museum Collection. VHS. The Movie Queen (Van Buren, Maine). Ca NHF. Daniel LaPointe Collection. DVD. 12