THE JOURNALISTIC SORORITY
THE SISTERS OF SIGMA OMEGA BETA (SOB)
By Richard R. Ness
Richard R. Ness and IJPC
2003©
Richard R. Ness, Assistant Professor at Western Illinois
University, is the author of the definitive book on journalists
in film, From Headline Hunter to Superman: A Journalism
Filmography (Scarecrow
Press) and the only book on the director Alan Rudolph:
Romance and a Crazed World (Twayne) as well as articles
and reviews in the Hitchcock Annual, Quarterly Review of
Film and Video, and The International Dictionary of Films
and Filmmakers. His current project is gender and motion
picture musical scores.
As titles such as A Female Reporter (1909), The
Girl Reporter (1910), and The Girl Reporter’s
Big Scoop (1912) indicate, the female journalist has
been a fixture of films about the press as long as her male
counterparts. Even before women in the United States had earned
the right to vote they were being provided with images of
strong, independent, working females through films about the
press. In many cases the women in these films were shown to
be capable of holding their own against the men they encountered
and in some cases even gained the upper hand. For example,
in the 1913 film How Men Propose, by female director
Lois Weber, the heroine encourages proposals from three men
in succession, then reveals that she is not actually interested
in marrying any of them but is only conducting research for
an article she is writing on the title subject.
Film viewers with at least a passing acquaintance with
journalism films probably will be able toidentify such representatives
of sob sisterhood as Lois Lane, Torchy Blane, Brenda Starr
(although the character has had less success in films than
as a comic book heroine), and the journalistic heroines
of Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940),
George Stevens’ Woman of the Year (1942),
and Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
(1936) and Meet John Doe (1940).
In the following list I have attempted to identify some
less well-known female practitioners of the profession who
provide interesting images of the working female journalist.
I also have included a list of some of the less successful
screen depictions of women in the field.
A BAKER’S DOZEN NOTABLE FILMS
FEATURING FEMALE JOURNALISTS
THE OFFICE SCANDAL (1928) – Heroine
Jerry Cullen (Phyllis Haver) refers to herself as “the
world’s greatest sob sister” and obviously finds
nothing derogatory about that title. Jerry constantly spars
with her editor over her insistence that a woman can do
as good a job as a man, and finally proves the point when
she demonstrates that an actress killed her husband in self-defense
because he had been whipping her. In the end Jerry’s
editor tells her to write the story, adding “”If
you think you’re man enough,” and Jerry responds,
“Say, I’ll be the head man of your sheet yet.”
DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE (1931) – Suddenly
penniless heiress Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford) turns down
a marriage proposal in favor of getting a “man-sized
job,” and eventually goes undercover to expose gangsters.
While her decision to reconcile with her boyfriend and leave
the paper at the end of the film might seem like a step
backward, the fact that the final embrace takes place in
the newsroom indicates that she at least has forced him
to meet her in her territory.
PLATINUM BLONDE (1931) -- Although not
as well known as many of Frank Capra’s other films,
this entertaining production anticipates a number of elements
in the director’s later works, including his image
of the working press. Gallagher (Loretta Young) serves as
a forerunner of Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) in Mr. Deeds
Goes to Town and Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) in Meet
John Doe. Perhaps the highest complement Gallagher is paid
in the film is that the male reporters think of her as just
one of the guys (although the hero eventually comes both
to recognize and to appreciate her feminine qualities).
MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) –
Glenda Farrell provided a warm-up for her later Torchy Blane
character in this horror melodrama. As Florence, Farrell
established her image as the fast-talking, wisecracking,
tough girl reporter. The character is established almost
immediately, as Florence walks into the police station,
slaps one of the officers on the back, and asks, “How’s
your sex life?” And if Florence settles for marriage
at the end, at least it’s with the down-to-earth editor,
rather than the wealthy playboy.
A WOMAN REBELS (1936) – Katharine
Hepburn’s Pamela Thistlewaite offers a rare image
of a strong-willed female editor. Pamela rebels against
the conservative policies of the women’s magazine
where she works in Victorian England and begins to write
pieces taking on such issues as unwed mothers, child labor,
and whether a woman can have both a family and a career.
The fact that the film could include considerations of illegitimate
children and suicide at a time when the Production Code
was in place in itself constitutes a kind of victory for
women in a male-dominated social system.
WOMEN ARE TROUBLE (1936) – Ruth
(Florence Rice) must battle the sexist attitudes of her
editor, who believes “there’s no such thing
as a female reporter.” Despite the film’s title,
Ruth emerges as a more aggressive and successful journalist
than her male colleagues, and ultimately represents the
kind of old-fashioned reporting her editor has been demanding.
ARISE, MY LOVE (1940) – Some sources
have suggested that heroine Augusta Nash (Claudette Colbert)
was modeled after Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn.
Although the film fluctuates between romantic comedy and
wartime drama, the character of Augusta demonstrates the
growing importance of women reporters internationally and
in covering events that once were the exclusive domain of
male journalists.
THE TRESPASSER (1947) – This programmer
crime drama is of interest for the character of Stevie Carson
(Janet Martin), a recent college graduate who gets a job
on the Evening Gazette. Carson represents a generation of
women who gained independence as a necessity of the Second
World War and has no intention of giving up a career to
become a homemaker. Her independence is demonstrated when
she refuses to respond after a male colleague calls her
“girl” and informs him, “My name is Stevie
Carson. In the future please remember that.”
THE LAWLESS (1949) – Joseph Losey’s
film is interesting for its depiction of a Spanish language
newspaper. Editor Sunny Garcia (Gail Russell) must battle
racism in her small town, as well as the initial indifference
of fellow journalist and rival editor Larry Wilder (Macdonald
Carey). Eventually Larry joins the crusade and when his
newspaper office is destroyed by an angry mob, Garcia joins
forces with him to put out another edition.
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957) – Radio
reporter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) discovers folksy
philosopher Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith) and makes him
a media star, but gradually comes to realize she has created
a megalomaniacal monster. She finally destroys him by turning
on his mike after one of his programs and broadcasting his
comments about his gullible public.
A WORLD APART (1988) – Although
the profession of South African newspaper writer Diana Roth
(Barbara Hershey) is only briefly addressed, much of the
film concerns the imprisonment and suffering she is forced
to endure because she refuses to compromise her beliefs.
HERO (1992) – Television reporter
Gale Gatley (Geena Davis) questions the ethics of her own
profession and the extremes to which she herself is willing
to go in pursuit of ratings. The film’s attitude toward
journalism is summed up in a speech Gale makes at an awards
ceremony in which she compares the pursuit of a story to
the peeling away of layers of an onion. While Gale seemingly
aspires to something more noble, this nobility ultimately
takes the somewhat questionable form of concealing the truth
in favor of perpetuating a myth.
DEEP IMPACT (1998) – This action
drama involving reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni) uncovering
the story of a comet on a collision course with Earth earns
a place in this list because in the early scenes Jenny demonstrates
that one of the most important skills a journalist can have
is the ability to listen. Although she initially believes
she is pursuing a story on a political sex scandal, Jenny
does not immediately blurt out what she thinks she knows
when talking to various officials. As a result, she gradually
picks up bits and pieces of additional information and begins
to realize she is on to something of, well, much deeper
impact.
