Mary Mallory is a motion picture historian. She is the author of Hollywoodland, Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays, Hollywood at Play, A Little Barn Started It All: The History of Hollywood Heritage's Lasky DeMille Barn, and Living with Grace: Life Lessons from America's Princess. She is also a blogger on Los Angeles and motion picture history for the LA Daily Mirror. She lives in Studio City, California.

"Mary Mallory has taken our ongoing study of early women filmmakers to a new height, and a new level of scholarship, with The First Women of Hollywood. Acknowledging the prominent place that women played as actors, directors, and screenwriters, she turns her attention to the work of Hollywood's female community in all manner of roles, including studio founder, stunt person, projectionist, costume designer, makeup artist, hairdresser, and animator. She identifies the first ethnic women in film and the women whose influence was crucial to the success of the new medium as critics, trade paper editors, fan magazine editors, and even archivists. The accompanying essays here are examples of scholarship at its best, readable and well documented. The First Women of Hollywood will stand the test of time as a leading reference source--and I might add as a good read."--Anthony Slide, author of The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors and editor of The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché

"Mary Mallory has written a meticulously researched, compelling history of unsung pioneering women in Hollywood. Mallory introduces us to the likes of the first set dresser and Hattie Wilson Tabourne, a black hairdresser who coiffed such stars as Valentino and Gloria Swanson. Mallory's work is eye-opening."--Susan King, writer and film historian

"An impressive work of film history that puts a well-deserved spotlight on neglected talents, adding to our knowledge of how women artisans shaped and contributed to cinema throughout the silent period and well beyond."--Farran Smith Nehme, film critic

(Praise for the author's previous book Living with Grace)
"Readers will . . . come away with a new appreciation for Kelly as an ordinary person turned starlet."
--Publishers Weekly

(Praise for the author's previous book Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays)
"Irresistible . . ."--Leonard Maltin, Indiewire.com

Publisher: Lyons Press

Pub date: 2025-03-25

Length: 304 pages