Frances Marion was Hollywood's most highly paid screenwriter from 1917 until the 1930's. She wrote films for the likes of Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow. She won two Oscars, and also found time to marry four times, work as a correspondent in the First World War and play the piano to concert hall standard.
Frances Marion was just one of a number of powerful women who shaped Hollywood in its early days. We'll be hearing about her life, and asking whether women have an equal position in today's film industry. Cari Beauchamp, Frances Marion's biographer joins Martha to talk about this extraordinary woman's life, and ask whether women have an equal position in today's film industry. A Frances Marion evening is presented by Cari Beauchamp at the NFT on Sunday 13 October at 6pm. Further information: 020 7902 1234 Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp in paperback from University of California Press ISBN 0520214927
