Frederica Sagor Maas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frederica Sagor Maas
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Photograph from a 1925 magazine
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| Born |
Frederica Alexandrina Sagor
July 6, 1900 |
| Died | January 5, 2012 (aged 111 years, 183 days) |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1918–1954 |
| Spouse(s) | Ernest Maas (1927–1986, his death) |
Frederica Alexandrina Sagor Maas (born July 6, 1900 – died January 5, 2012) was an American writer. She wrote plays, movie scripts, and a book about her life. She was the youngest daughter of immigrants from Russia.
Maas was famous for her detailed book about working in early Hollywood. She lived to be very old, over 111 years! She was one of the oldest people from the silent film era.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Frederica's parents, Arnold and Agnessa Zagorsky, came from Moscow, Russia. They changed their last name to Sagor. Her mother was a successful midwife, helping families with new babies.
Frederica was one of four daughters. She was born in New York City on July 6, 1900.
She studied journalism at Columbia University. During a summer, she worked at the New York Globe newspaper. In 1918, she left college before finishing. She took a job at Universal Pictures in New York. She earned $100 a week.
By 1923, Maas was in charge of the story department at Universal. A year later, in 1924, she decided to leave Universal. She then moved to Hollywood to work on movies.
Working in Hollywood
In Hollywood, Frederica Maas signed a contract with Preferred Pictures. Her job was to turn a novel called The Plastic Age into a movie script.
Because of this work, she got a three-year contract with MGM. She earned $350 per week. During this time, she wrote scripts for silent films like Dance Madness.
Maas found it hard to deal with how things worked in the big movie studios. Her contract with MGM was not renewed. From 1925 to 1926, she wrote stories and scripts for Tiffany Productions. These included popular comedies like That Model from Paris and The First Night.
On August 5, 1927, she married Ernest Maas. He was also a screenwriter and producer. Before they married, they sold story ideas together, like Silk Legs. Many of their ideas were never made into movies. They called these unproduced scripts "swell fish."
In 1927, Maas worked for Paramount Pictures. She said she helped write scripts for films like Clara Bow's It and Red Hair. She was credited for writing the story for Louise Brooks' film Rolled Stockings.
After a long trip to Europe in 1928, it was hard for her to find steady work. Ernest stayed in New York. When a story they wrote was used without their permission, he left his studio.
The couple returned to California in 1929. By 1934, they were not doing well in Hollywood. They mostly found short jobs fixing other people's scripts. They could not sell their own stories.
Life After Hollywood
The Maas couple lost money in the stock market crash. They moved back to New York. From 1934 to 1937, they reviewed plays for The Hollywood Reporter.
They moved back to Hollywood again. Maas worked as an agent, selling writers' stories to studios. After a year, they both got writing contracts at Paramount.
During World War II, they struggled to find work. They also wrote for political campaigns. In 1941, they wrote a story called Miss Pilgrim's Progress. This story later became the movie The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. The story was sold for very little money. It was not made into a movie until 1947. The film version was very different from their original story.
The Maas couple continued to have a difficult time in Hollywood. They were even questioned by the FBI. This was because they subscribed to two magazines that were thought to be linked to communism. Frederica Maas said, "I'm always for the underdog." She remembered marching in a parade for women's voting rights when she was young.
Frederica Sagor Maas had enough of the movie business. In 1950, she started working as a typist for an insurance company. She quickly became an insurance broker. Ernest started writing business articles and editing stories. Ernest passed away in 1986 at age 94.
Her Autobiography
In 1999, when she was 99 years old, Maas published her life story. It was called The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood. A film historian named Kevin Brownlow encouraged her to write it.
The book was well-liked. It is still an important book for learning about early Hollywood history.
A review from the Library Journal said her book was valuable. It showed how women worked in Hollywood. Maas did not like how studios did things. She paid a price for being different. The book has many interesting stories from the past. It shows her frustration with Hollywood, which often used the same old ideas to make movies.
Kevin Brownlow said that Maas was "ignorant of studio politics." This meant she didn't understand how things worked behind the scenes. She was called a "troublemaker." After she married Ernest Maas, they survived many challenges. These included the arrival of sound films, the Great Depression, and earthquakes. But their ideas were often stolen, and they didn't get credit. This led them to leave the movie business.
Maas wrote that she said goodbye to Hollywood in 1950. She felt the industry had trapped her with its promises. She also wrote about famous Hollywood people. For example, she remembered Louis B. Mayer as "a very fearful, insecure man."
Some people say her story should be read carefully. They say that by the time she wrote her book at 99, she was very bitter about Hollywood. They believe she enjoyed describing the studio bosses as bad people.
Maas defended her book. She said, "I know I've been hard on the motion picture industry [in the book]." But she said the facts and stories she told were true. She wrote about her ideas being stolen and how writers were treated. She felt she could get her "payback" by telling the truth. She lived to be 99, while many of the people she wrote about had passed away. She quit the business when she was 50.
Filmography
- The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) (story)
- Piernas de Seda (1935) (story 'Silk Legs')
- The Farmer's Daughter (1928)
- Red Hair (1928) (uncredited)
- Hula (1927) (uncredited)
- Silk Legs (1927)
- The Way of All Flesh (1927)
- Rolled Stockings (1927)
- The First Night (1927)
- Flesh and the Devil (1926)
- That Model from Paris (1926)
- Dance Madness (1926)
- The Plastic Age (1925)
- His Secretary (1925)
- The Goose Woman (1925)
See also
In Spanish: Frederica Sagor Maas para niños
