LOST WOMEN OF HOLLYWOOD

The reason I still hold on to my printed reference books is to not lose the pleasure and sometimes enlightenment to be had from wandering across the page from one entry to another.

One thing that has struck me while doing this in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion is that the careers of women acting in movies tend to be shorter than those of the men. They usually start younger, but don’t last as long. Of course, there are notable exceptions such as Davis, Stanwyck, and Crawford: driven women surviving whatever changes in the nature of film production. But most of the women in film (this may be changing in our time)...