Lois Weber facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lois Weber
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Weber in 1916
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| Born |
Florence Lois Weber
June 13, 1879 |
| Died | November 13, 1939 (aged 60) Hollywood, California, U.S.
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| Occupation | Actress, film director, film producer, screenwriter |
| Spouse(s) |
Phillips Smalley
(m. 1904; div. 1922)Harry Gantz
(m. 1926; div. 1935) |
| Awards | Hollywood Walk of Fame – Motion Picture 6518 Hollywood Blvd |
Florence Lois Weber (born June 13, 1879 – died November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director. She was one of the most important and successful film directors during the silent film era. Many film experts say that Lois Weber, along with D. W. Griffith, was one of the first true "auteurs" in American cinema. This means she was involved in every part of making a movie and used films to share her own ideas and beliefs.
Weber made many films, possibly between 200 and 400, though only about twenty have been saved. She used her movies to talk about human kindness and social fairness. IMDb says she directed 135 films, wrote 114, and acted in 100. She was also one of the first directors to face movie censors in early Hollywood.
Lois Weber was a pioneer in filmmaking. In 1913, she helped create the split screen technique to show different actions happening at the same time in her film Suspense. Working with her first husband, Phillips Smalley, she also experimented with sound in 1913, making some of the first sound films in the United States. In 1914, she became the first American woman to direct a full-length movie, The Merchant of Venice, which she co-directed with Smalley. By 1917, she was the first American woman director to own her own film studio.
During World War I, Weber became very successful by mixing smart business ideas with her belief that movies could teach important lessons. At her peak, few directors, male or female, had as much control over their films as Lois Weber did. By 1920, she was known as the "top woman director" and producer of some of the highest-earning films in movie history.
Some of Weber's famous films include: the thought-provoking Hypocrites (1915); Where Are My Children? (1916), which was added to the National Film Registry in 1993; her adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes for the very first Tarzan of the Apes film (1918); and The Blot (1921), which is considered one of her best works.
Weber also helped many women actors become stars, including Mary MacLaren, Mildred Harris, Claire Windsor, Esther Ralston, Billie Dove, Ella Hall, Cleo Ridgely, and Anita Stewart. She also inspired screenwriter Frances Marion. For her important work in movies, Lois Weber received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960.
Contents
Early Life and Beginnings
Florence Lois Weber was born on June 13, 1879, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. She was the second of three children. Her parents were Mary Matilda Snaman and George Weber, who was an upholsterer and decorator. Her family was a religious, middle-class Christian family with German ancestry.
Lois was seen as a very talented child, especially as a pianist. Music was her passion, and her most prized possession was a baby grand piano. She left home around age 19 and worked for two years as a street evangelist and social activist. She preached and sang hymns on street corners and played the organ in rescue missions in Pittsburgh and New York.
By 1903, Weber was performing as a soprano singer and pianist. She toured the United States as a concert pianist until 1904. After a piano key broke during a performance, Weber stopped playing in public because she lost her confidence.
Theater Career and Marriage
Around 1904, Lois Weber decided to become an actress. She moved to New York City and took singing lessons. She felt that the theater world needed someone to share good messages, so she joined the stage hoping to inspire her fellow actors.
For five years, Weber worked as an actress in different theater groups. In 1904, she joined a touring company called "Why Girls Leave Home." She became a leading actress in musical comedies and melodramas, receiving good reviews for her singing.
The lead actor and manager of the troupe was Phillips Smalley (1865–1939). He was a lawyer from New York who had started acting in 1901. After knowing each other for a short time, Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley got married on April 29, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois. She was almost 25, and he was 38.
After touring with her husband for a while, Weber stopped her theater career around 1906 to focus on her home life in New York. During this time, she started writing movie scripts as a freelancer.
Entering the Film World
In 1908, Lois Weber was hired by American Gaumont Chronophones, a company that made early sound films. She started as a singer for their recorded songs. Soon, she was writing scripts and directing English-language sound films at the Gaumont Studio in Flushing, New York.
By 1910, Weber and Smalley decided to work full-time in the new movie industry. For the next five years, they worked together, often credited as "The Smalleys." Weber usually received the sole writing credit. They made many short films and features for smaller companies like Gaumont, New York Motion Picture Co., and Rex Motion Picture Company. Weber did many jobs: she wrote stories and titles, acted, directed, designed sets and costumes, edited films, and even developed film negatives.
In 1911, Weber and Smalley joined William Swanson's Rex Motion Picture Company. Here, Weber became known for making serious films that aimed to improve society. In 1911, she acted in and co-directed her first silent short film, A Heroine of '76, with Smalley and Edwin S. Porter. When Rex merged with other studios to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912, Weber and Smalley were leading the Rex studio. They moved to Los Angeles.
Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal, was known for supporting women directors and producers, including Lois Weber. In 1913, Weber was even elected the first mayor of Universal City, a film studio town.
In 1913, Weber and Smalley directed Suspense, a ten-minute thriller. Weber starred in it as a woman threatened by a burglar. This film is famous for pioneering the use of the split screen technique, showing different actions at the same time.
Later in 1913, they made The Jew's Christmas, a film about the challenges faced by Jewish families trying to fit into American society. It showed a rabbi who disagreed with his daughter marrying a non-Jewish person but later reunited with her. The film aimed to fight against discrimination and show that love is stronger than religious differences. It was considered controversial at the time.
In 1914, Weber directed 27 movies. That year, she co-directed an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Smalley. This made her the first American woman to direct a full-length feature film in the United States. Weber also starred as Portia, and Smalley played Shylock. This film is now considered a lost film.
Working with Bosworth and Universal
In 1914, Lois Weber moved to the Bosworth company, where she became the highest-paid woman director in Hollywood, earning $50,000 a year. She believed movies were a way to share important messages and encourage people to support good causes. She once said, "In moving pictures I have found my life's work. I can preach to my heart's content."
Many of Weber's films focused on moral topics. She was often seen as a Christian fundamentalist, but she was more of a libertarian, meaning she believed in individual freedom and opposed things like censorship and the death penalty. She strongly promoted the idea of a loving home.
In 1914, Weber made her first big feature film, Hypocrites. This was a four-reel drama that she wrote, directed, and produced. It explored social themes and moral lessons that were quite daring for the time. The film was praised for its use of special effects and editing. It cost $18,000 to make but earned $119,000 in the U.S. alone, making Weber very famous.
In April 1915, Weber and Smalley returned to Universal Pictures. Weber's first film for Universal was Scandal, which she and Smalley starred in. It showed the bad effects of gossip.
By 1916, Weber was Universal Studios' highest-paid director, earning $5,000 a week. She had complete freedom over her films, choosing stories and actors, writing scripts, and directing. Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal, trusted her completely with any amount of money for her films.
Weber believed that a director should have full control over their work, like any other artist. She said, "A real director should be absolute."
Bluebird Photoplays
In 1916, Weber and Smalley moved to Universal's Bluebird Photoplays. They made many features, including The Dumb Girl of Portici, which starred the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.
Weber focused on making films that were high quality and had strong moral messages. She tackled "burning social and moral issues," like in Where Are My Children? (1916). This film discussed social purity and preventing the "deterioration of the race." It used special effects like multiple exposures to show emotions.
Where Are My Children? faced censorship and was banned in some places, but this controversy actually helped it become a huge box office success, earning over $3 million. This film made Weber famous around the world.
Another important film was Shoes, released in June 1916. This "sociological" film was about a poor shopgirl who struggles to support her family and needs new shoes. It was one of Bluebird's most popular films that year. A restored version of Shoes was shown in North America in 2011.
In 1917, Universal released The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, a follow-up to Where Are My Children?. Weber and Smalley directed it, and Weber also starred in her last screen appearance. She played a doctor's wife who is arrested for sharing family planning information. The film supported "voluntary motherhood."
Lois Weber Productions
In June 1917, Lois Weber became the first American woman director to start and run her own movie studio, Lois Weber Productions. Universal helped her financially. She had offices, dressing rooms, and a large shooting stage. Smalley became the studio manager, and they lived on the studio lot.
Even though Weber and Smalley were often credited as co-directors, it was clear that Weber was the main artistic vision behind their work. Critics and journalists started focusing more on Weber as the dominant filmmaker.
Weber did not like the assembly-line style of filmmaking that was becoming common. She preferred to focus on one film at a time to ensure quality. Her company made movies cheaply by filming on location and using small casts.
Weber's films in the 1910s were successful because they showed the conflicts between traditional views of women and the new freedoms of the "New Woman" and consumer culture. Weber herself was a mix of these ideas: a stage performer and filmmaker, but also a middle-class wife who seemed to "radiate domesticity."
In 1917, Weber was the only woman allowed to join the Motion Picture Directors Association. She also supported the Hollywood Studio Club, a home for young aspiring actresses. During World War I, she helped raise money for a hospital.
In 1918, Weber broke her left arm, which caused her problems for months.
Later Work and Challenges
Despite her own studio, Weber found it hard to pay bills and get money for her films. By December 1918, she left Universal and signed a contract with Louis B. Mayer to direct Anita Stewart for $3,500 a week. She made two films with Stewart: A Midnight Romance and Mary Regan (1919).
In July 1919, Weber signed a deal with Famous Players-Lasky to direct five films for $50,000 each, plus a share of the profits. By 1921, Weber was at the peak of her career, seen as one of the best directors. One newspaper said, "Lois Weber is not only the foremost woman director – she's the whole works."
However, as the 1920s began, Weber's style started to seem old-fashioned. Her films often taught moral lessons, which audiences of the "flapper" era found boring. She also refused to use big stars or show off consumerism in her films.
After a preview in February 1921, Paramount decided not to distribute her fourth film, What Do Men Want?, and canceled their deal with her.
By April 1921, Lois Weber Productions closed down. Although she would direct a few more movies, her career as a major Hollywood director was mostly over.
The Blot and Hiatus
After reading articles about how poorly paid teachers and clergy were, Weber decided to make a film about it. With writer Marion Orth, she created The Blot. This film, starring Claire Windsor and Louis Calhern, is considered her masterpiece and best-known film today. It criticized the idea that people's worth is measured by their wealth.
In The Blot, Weber filmed in real houses and used non-actors in supporting roles to make the story feel very real. She also used extreme close-ups and an ending that left some questions unanswered.
Because her deal with Paramount fell through, Weber had to distribute The Blot through a small independent company. The film was released on September 4, 1921, but it did not do well at the box office and soon disappeared. For many years, The Blot was considered a lost film until it was rediscovered in 1975 and restored in 1986.
After The Blot, Weber's films did not make much money. In an attempt to save their marriage, Weber and Smalley traveled through Europe, Egypt, China, and India. They returned to the U.S. in April 1922. On June 24, 1922, Weber secretly divorced Smalley, but they remained friends.
When Weber returned to Hollywood, the film industry was changing. Many independent filmmakers, including women directors, were struggling. In November 1922, Weber returned to Universal and directed A Chapter in Her Life, a remake of her 1915 film Jewel. The film was released in September 1923.
Critics felt that A Chapter in Her Life's story was "old fashioned." Weber then left Universal, saying she would not make films for a while. She traveled to Europe again and complained about the control of big studios and the strict censorship rules. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1923, Weber did not make any movies until 1925.
In January 1925, Weber announced her engagement to Captain Harry Gantz, a retired army officer and wealthy orange rancher. They married on June 30, 1926.
Final Films and Later Life
In January 1925, Weber returned to Universal again. She was hired to manage story development for new films. She also helped re-edit The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
In 1926, Weber signed a new distribution deal with Universal, making her one of the highest-paid women in the business. One of her "comeback" movies was The Marriage Clause, released in September 1926.
In June 1926, Weber was set to direct Sensation Seekers. She was also asked to take over directing Uncle Tom's Cabin because the original director was ill. She even interrupted her honeymoon to work on it. However, the original director recovered, and Weber returned to direct Sensation Seekers, which was released in March 1927.
In November 1926, Weber joined United Artists to direct a comedy called Topsy and Eva. She wanted to make a serious adaptation, but the studio wanted a comedy. She felt some scenes were disrespectful to African Americans, so she was replaced as director.
By 1927, Weber advised young women to avoid filmmaking careers. Her final silent movie was The Angel of Broadway, released in October 1927. The arrival of sound films and negative reviews ended her comeback.
By 1927, Weber owned and operated Lois Weber's Garden Village in Los Angeles. She and Gantz also developed a housing area called "Brookdale Heights."
In 1933, Universal offered Weber another directing contract for Glamour, but she was removed from the project.
Weber's final film was White Heat, made in 1934. It was her only talkie. It was filmed in Hawaii and was about racial prejudice. The film had limited success and is now considered a lost film.
Later Years and Death
Weber and Gantz divorced around 1935.
In November 1939, Lois Weber was admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in critical condition due to a stomach illness. She died almost two weeks later, on November 13, 1939, at the age of 60. She was in poverty when she died. Her sister and friends were with her.
Her death was largely unnoticed by the public. Her obituary in Variety was very short. However, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wrote a more detailed tribute in the Los Angeles Times.
More than 300 people attended Weber's funeral, which was paid for by her friend Frances Marion. After the funeral, Weber was cremated, and the location of her remains is unknown.
Weber wrote a memoir called The End of the Circle, but it was never published and was later stolen. For her contributions to the film industry, Lois Weber received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960.
Legacy and Recognition
The Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival gives out the Lois Weber Award in her honor since 2017.
A one-woman play called Tea with Lois is based on Weber's talks at the Hollywood Studio Club.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission placed a historical marker for Lois Weber in front of the Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny.
A 6-minute documentary called Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber was released in 2017. It explores Lois Weber's career and won an award at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.
Images for kids
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Lois Weber at the piano (1912)
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Wendell Phillips Smalley in 1915
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A Heroine of '76, Rex Motion Picture Company ad in Moving Picture News, 1911
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Poster for The Jew's Christmas (1913)
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L to R: Phillips Smalley as Shylock and Weber as Portia in The Merchant of Venice (1914)
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Weber in Hypocrites (1915)
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The Eye of God, co-directed in 1916 by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber
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Newspaper advertisement for Where Are My Children? (1916)
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Mary MacLaren in Shoes (1916)
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Coming attraction card for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1917)
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Lois Weber Productions promo
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Lois Weber Productions ad (1921)
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Lois Weber (1922)
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See also
In Spanish: Lois Weber para niños
