Working on an article about a newly identified film directed by Dorothy Arzner and I kinda wish I had been on set this day. #dorothyarzner #directedbywomen #cats #hollywoodhistory
Marsha Gordon
@marshagordon.bsky.social
Film historian, professor, writer, doc filmmaker, lover of nature, travel, and good food. Latest book, "Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott." Next book: a bio of Dorothy Arzner. https://www.marshagordon.org
I'm super stressed abt #AI in the classroom in the fall + abt the fact that my state, #NorthCarolina, still doesn't have a budget for the fiscal year that ends in 2 weeks 😵💫, BUT at least the book chapter I'm now writing is about Trouble in Paradise. Ernst #Lubitsch is literally saving my soul.
I enjoyed being interviewed abt Hollywood history for this @theguardian.com article + I love that they hotlinked to the 1929 Motion Picture Magazine article I cited at @archive.org! Welcome to the joys of archival research, Guardian readers! And thank you IA! www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
‘The face doesn’t move’: Hollywood’s obsession with cosmetic surgeries has led to stiffer looks – and performances
With procedures like filler and Botox becoming commonplace, audiences are lamenting the smoothed-out, uncanny faces now rampant in major pictures
theguardian.com
I loved touring the National Film Archive of Japan a few weeks ago. Getting to see Japanese print media about American stars like #BetteDavis and #ClaraBow was super cool, as was their open-to-the-public exhibition about Japanese film history. Highly recommend a stop to anyone traveling to Tokyo!
USC film archivist Dino Everett + I just dropped a new entry on the short-lived, three-column 22mm film format in The Film Atlas. If you are a photochemical film fan, this is a doozy! www.filmatlas.com/entry/54 #filmhistory #22mm #smallgauge #edison
I got asked to talk about my 5 favorite films of 1912--that doesn't happen every day! Thanks @ettletodd.bsky.social for giving me a chance to talk about #filmhistory and some interesting movies from more than a century ago. 🙌 open.spotify.com/episode/65FU...
1912 E4 - Marsha Gordon
open.spotify.com
Love this video featuring @themorbidzoo.bsky.social that @ncstate.bsky.social created. Mariana graduated with an MA in English with a film studies concentration and she's been rocking her #YouTube #videoessay channel ever since it started as her thesis project! ❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA15...
Turning Horror Film Analysis Into Popular Youtube Channel
YouTube video by NC State CHASS
youtube.com
Psyched to be returning to Hollywood to introduce my favorite Ursula Parrott adaptation, "Next Time We Love" (1936), with #JimmyStewart + #MargaretSullavan @tcmtv.bsky.social TCM Film Festival on May 1st. It's a gorgeous Universal Archives #35mm print, too! ❤️ #ursulaparrott #hollywoodhistory #35mm
Happy Birthday to best-selling Jazz Age author Ursula Parrott on what would have been her 127th birthday, although I have no doubt that she would have shaved at least 3-5 years off!!!! 😇 Enjoy the only known moving image footage of Ursula! #ursulaparrott #bestseller #jazzage #exwife
Tomorrow Monday March 23 at 3pm EST @themorbidzoo.bsky.social will be giving an ITRL talk @ncstate.bsky.social in Caldwell G107 about her "The Morbid Zoo" #videoessay YouTube Channel and how she started it when she was an MA student here! If you are remote, you can livestream it 😎 bit.ly/4sKDwo5
Research report from special collections @uclalibrary.bsky.social where I learned that Dorothy Arzner was paid $30k (to Katharine Hepburn’s $15k) for directing “Christopher Strong” in 1932. That’s some serious Depression Era $$$. #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #katharinehepburn
Dorothy Arzner research pilgrimage report #2: I got to sit at the desk she used to write at in her Hollywood Hills home, which she shared with her partner, the choreographer Marion Morgan. It had a secret compartment. More to come! #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #marionmorgan
Dorothy Arzner research pilgrimage report #1: I got to hold her viewfinder in my very own hands, and of course look through it! #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #biography #hollywood
I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of Christa Fuller, who was so generous with me when I was researching + writing my book about her husband, filmmaker #SamFuller. Christa was outspoken, funny, a great hostess, and a ferocious tender of Sam's legacy. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
Christa Lang, Actress, Producer and Widow of Samuel Fuller, Dies at 82
She appeared in French New Wave movies for Roger Vadim, Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard before marrying the iconic American filmmaker in 1967.
hollywoodreporter.com
Revisiting a past publication in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social about women "camera crankers" working in cinema's first decades. If it's new to you, enjoy! lareviewofbooks.org/article/ligh... #womenmakemovies #cinematography #cinematographers #womenfilmpioneers #filmhistory
“Lights, Camera-maids, Action!”: Women Behind the Lens in Early Cinema | Los Angeles Review of Books
Gordon and Grimm consider how the camerawoman fought for relevance and visibility in the days of early cinema and ask why we continue to forget her.
lareviewofbooks.org
If you live in #NorthCarolina, you can catch a new take on #UrsulaParrott on Jan 18th at 4pm at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough. It's my first return to the stage since I last stepped off as Laurie in Oklahoma in 6th Grade. 😅
Everything you've ever wanted to know about "The Divorcee" (1930) starring Norma Shearer in her Academy Award-winning role but have been afraid to ask 🥰, on the new episode of the "Front Row Classics" #podcast: linktr.ee/FrontRowClas... #normashearer #thedivorcee #exwife #ursulaparrott
I loathe the way #AI is creeping into research tools with misinformation. This #ancestry detail has #DorothyArzner marrying Rosalind Russell in 1930, living in #Hollywood FL, with two kids, Ruth Chatterton and Frederic March. It would be funny if it wasn't so awful. 😣
Grateful to Indy Weekly for the nice write-up of "In Search of Thoreau's Flowers," currently on view at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design at NC State. If you are in #Raleigh between now and the end of January 2026, come see the show! #art #climate #interactivemedia #thoreau #walden
“Thoreau was doing early climate research,” Sobsey explains. “He kept detailed notes about when things were flowering, and that’s the data set that now they’re looking at, in terms of how things have changed.”
Perhaps in the mood for a story about flowers and literature and an interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, sciences, and humanities @ncstate.bsky.social? #thoreau #flowers #art #flowerart #pressedflowers #flowerpower chass.ncsu.edu/news/2025/09...
Flower Power
CHASS faculty highlight their interdisciplinary expertise and connect with the community through two exhibits that fuse art, science and the humanities.
chass.ncsu.edu
The new French translation of Ursula Parrott’s “Ex-Wife” that just got delivered is très belle! #ursulaparrrott #exwife
Talked about #UrsulaParrott in Hollywood, #DorothyArzner, my favorite childhood movies and stars, teaching film studies @ncstate.bsky.social, and much more on episode #101 (like the freeway) of "From Beneath the Hollywood Sign" #podcast! Stream it at bit.ly/4mMCLHo
If u r in the triangle, stop by the Gregg Museum to see the “Plants in Art” exhibit. I collab’d w/Robin Vuchnich on a botanical portrait of their pollinator garden, a little respite from so many things right now. They have a drawing table set up for botanical art therapy too!
🚨 Early Bird Pricing ENDS tomorrow July 31 – Bastard Film Encounter 5.0 Awaits 🎬 Oct 8–11, 2025 | Columbia, SC Bold films, unfiltered stories, no pretension. Just one unforgettable encounter with cinema’s wild side. 👉 Grab Your Early Bird Tickets Now bastardfilmencounter.com/bfe-5-regist...
THE FUR COAT CLUB and THE CASE OF THE ELEVATOR DUCK — both directed by Joan Micklin Silver — are also online thanks to Skip Elsheimer of @avgeeks.bsky.social! @marshagordon.bsky.social wrote about them both for Salon a few years ago! Link to her essay ⬇️ www.salon.com/2021/03/13/j...
Joan Micklin Silver in Salon
I wrote an article for Salon, with streaming 16mm films provided by AV Geeks, about Joan Micklin Silver's 1970s New York City short films, "The Fur Coat Club" and "The Case of the Elevator Duck."
marshagordon.org
Being on the @infinite-women.com podcast, which reminds us that "well-behaved women rarely make history," was a bright spot in the midst of a dismal time. Thanks for letting me talk about #UrsulaParrott from yet another angle! bit.ly/4nZROik #podcast #exwife #divorcee #women
This week on the podcast, @marshagordon.bsky.social , Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, tells us about the brilliant writer at the heart of her book Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott. creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...
Dr Marsha Gordon on Ursula Parrott by Infinite Women
Dr. Marsha Gordon, Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, tells us about the brilliant writer who is the subject of her book, Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forg...
creators.spotify.com
Feel like nominating a film to the Library of Congress National Film Registry today? May I suggest The Divorcee (1930), starring Norma Shearer in her only @academyawards.bsky.social winning role? It just takes a minute + anyone can nominate. The form is here: bit.ly/4kSEutG #divorcee #normashearer
I thoroughly enjoyed talking abt F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"--espec. the female characters, Gatsby as a romance novel, and as it relates to Ursula Parrott's "Ex-Wife"--on this just-dropped podcast episode. open.spotify.com/episode/2aTP... #gatsby #fitzgerald #ursulaparrott #1920s
*The Great Gatsby | E5: Miss Daisy Drives Herself
Lit Talk* · Episode
open.spotify.com
Grateful to #newyorkpubliclibrary for the treasure trove in their Marion Morgan papers. MM was Dorothy Arzner’s life partner as well as artistic collaborator, and she had a significant and fascinating career as a Hollywood choreographer. #dorothyarzner #marionmorgan #nypl