1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Ephemerals production of I Heart three D audio for full 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: exposure listen with that phones. Before George Milier shot a 3 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,720 Speaker 1: rocket at the moon, before Edwin Porter staged the Great 4 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:24,720 Speaker 1: Train Robbery, after Moybridge captured a horse's feet leaving the ground, 5 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: and Edison put subjects in a black box like medical specimens. 6 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: After the Lumier Brothers caught the train rolling into the station, 7 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,240 Speaker 1: but before there were any theaters to show their work, 8 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: and the movie business as we know it was only 9 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: a spark in the collective imagination. Alice Kie, the first 10 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: and for seventeen years only female film director, shot her 11 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: first picture, a fantasy landscape with babies coming out of cabbages. 12 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: She wanted to be known as the first female film director, 13 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: and she was. The Lumier Brothers projected their first motion 14 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: picture on the Wall in and she started in. My 15 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,399 Speaker 1: name is Janelle Dietrick, and I've been researching Alice Ki 16 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,199 Speaker 1: Blache for about seven years and I've written four books 17 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: about her, now five. She did the first actual story film, 18 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: which is ridiculous in a minute to do a story. 19 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: I mean, now you are used to it. You watched 20 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: the commercials on TV and it's incredible, what a story 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: they can tell in thirty seconds or a minute. But 22 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: nobody thought you could do it, and that changed the landscape. 23 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 1: Alice ki Lepronier firm Cinea Still moont Well. Alice's career 24 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: has been documented before, the details of her life had 25 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: largely gone unchecked by historians. I think she was made 26 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: into an icon and that just flattened her out. It's 27 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,880 Speaker 1: been hard for people looking through twenty century eyes or 28 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: century eyes to see her as a person. If you 29 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 1: say she was the first woman director and she directed 30 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,079 Speaker 1: a thousand films, you're really taking her out of context, 31 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: because today the director is like really important that he's 32 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,799 Speaker 1: got all the status films or two hours long or 33 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,079 Speaker 1: you know, a series or whatever. But what she was 34 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: doing was like a minute, and she did everything, the scenes, 35 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: the costumes. Wow, how did anybody ever do that? Well? 36 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:43,800 Speaker 1: She started in the beginning. Permit me to present to 37 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: you the one who has filled my life entirely, my 38 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: own Prince Chreming the cinema. He is an elderly gentleman. 39 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:58,800 Speaker 1: As you shall see. What got me started is trying 40 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: to fill in the gaps in her memoirs. Oh, they 41 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 1: are so short, there's like a hundred sixty pages. They're beautiful, 42 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: but they're cryptic. I have often been asked why I 43 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: chose so unfeminine a career. Yet I have not chosen 44 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 1: this career, no doubt. My destiny was traced before my birth, 45 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 1: and I have merely followed a will whose name I 46 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: do not know, strange fate which I shall try to 47 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: recount for you. Writing in her eighties, Alice began her 48 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: retrospective with the emigration of her parents, Mariobert and emil Key. 49 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: She says in her memoirs an aunt and uncle of 50 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: her mother's had immigrated to South America, and that had 51 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: led to her parents marriage, which was arranged. And I 52 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: wanted to know why Alice's father went to Chili. There 53 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: were revolutions all over Europe, and one third of the 54 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: foreigners who came to the California Goldish were French. Most 55 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: people don't realize that there are towns in California. They 56 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: are called like French. Correct. The American said, yeah, we 57 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: want to go for ourselves, so they kicked the foreigners out. 58 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,280 Speaker 1: My claim, I just take it out. I don't have 59 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: a proof that he came from France to California to Chile. 60 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: But it makes sense that he would have because that's 61 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: what people did who approached the latitude of Santiago. The 62 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: short towns become increasing. They have a host of Europeans 63 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: in the New World ended up in the luxurious Chilean 64 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: port city of Valparaiso. In Valparaiso, they had a international community. 65 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: There were a lot of Germans, a lot of French, 66 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 1: a lot of English. They all have their own hospitals 67 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: and their own newspapers. Alice's uncle had a soap factory. 68 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: He was very successful. I think they probably made candles, 69 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: to which you can imagine everybody needed candles and soap. 70 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: I think he bought in Melgi that bookstore in Valpariso 71 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: as part of Alice's mother's dowry. As Janelle writes, the 72 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:15,680 Speaker 1: ninete century publisher was often editor, printer, bookseller, banker, and 73 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: marketing director. Alice's childhood would for a time be full 74 00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:28,679 Speaker 1: of books. In order that one of her children be French. 75 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: My numerous brothers and sisters had all been born in Chile. 76 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: My mother had valiantly endured a sea voyage of seven weeks. 77 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 1: That's I also accomplished my first voyage between Valporriso and Paris. 78 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:46,000 Speaker 1: It was not to be my last. Her first four 79 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: years she was with her grandmother in Geneva or Carug actually, 80 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: which is a suburb of Geneva. Grown there was not 81 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,600 Speaker 1: wealthy yet in her tiny home. Despite our age differences, 82 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: everyone was her joy. We gathered around her table, where 83 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: we enjoyed the cherry soup perfumed with wine and cinnamon 84 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: or cheese she lovingly served in a bowl of cream. 85 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: She told us legends of her native broom and sang 86 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: to us in her admirable voice, a song from her youth. 87 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: Those were very happy and idyllic for her. But then 88 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: her mother came and got her, and her mother was 89 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: a stranger, so it was like a stranger kidnapping in 90 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: the railroad station. My poor grandmother wept. I cried too, 91 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: and through a tantrum, but the departure signal hastened our separation. 92 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: Drunk with tears, I slept. At last, her mother, whom 93 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: she didn't remember or no, came and just took her 94 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: away and took her to Chili. The boat ride it 95 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,960 Speaker 1: was like what six weeks, seven weeks, seven weeks, because 96 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: they had to go around the horn. There was no 97 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: Panama canaliot of this voyage. I have kept few memories, 98 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: the long gold ribbon that the moon unrolled to the horizon, 99 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: the phosphorescency, the fine fish, my own baptism on crossing 100 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: the equator. I think that was traumatic. It kind of 101 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: happened to her again. Two years later. She met her 102 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: father for the first time when she was fourth, But 103 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 1: her father brought her back to France when she's six 104 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: and puts her in the convent, so she had that 105 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: family separation trauma twice. I think it was something that 106 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:48,679 Speaker 1: formed her artistically, because she had to find fantasy and 107 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: ways to tolerate that kind of trauma. I was enrolled 108 00:07:57,240 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: as a student at the Convent of the Sacred Heart 109 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: at v on the Swiss border. I was six years old. 110 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:08,640 Speaker 1: After those two years of sun and gaiety, I seem 111 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: to have entered the world of the night birds. The 112 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: black clad nun who received me made me mountain to 113 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: send stairways traversed long vaulted, dark corridors. The silence was absolute, 114 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:28,840 Speaker 1: the cold penetrating. The methods used were without softness. For 115 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:33,079 Speaker 1: the smallest defenses, there were long periods of kneeling arms 116 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:38,319 Speaker 1: crossed in an icy corridor for braver sins, a cell 117 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 1: and dry bread and water. It was an international school. 118 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:50,840 Speaker 1: The religious community there had schools in different countries Italy, England, 119 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: and so they could just rotate the kids and they 120 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: could learn different languages. Her older sisters were there and 121 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: she knew them from her first four years prusion. But 122 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: they kept the kids apart. That's one of the ways 123 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: they raised kids. They didn't want them to form attachments 124 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,239 Speaker 1: with each other. The parents also devoided too much attachment 125 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: to the kids because you know, half the kids died. 126 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: There were no antibiotics. The birth rate was low, and 127 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: then the survival rate was not great. Childhood was very 128 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: difficult in the nineteenth century. Enforced silence was really hard 129 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,440 Speaker 1: on them. They just didn't tolerate noise. They let him 130 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: out to play for like half an hour. I don't 131 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:41,200 Speaker 1: think they fed them enough. It just was very severe. 132 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: They had to sell a lot, work a lot, pray 133 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:48,200 Speaker 1: a lot, you know, no nonsense, so I'm sure it 134 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:54,839 Speaker 1: was hard for all of them. In Paris, of the 135 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: women worked in service as maids or laundresses. The other 136 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: worked in the needle trades sewing, so what they learned 137 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: at the convent was to sew. Never forget. We had 138 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:12,559 Speaker 1: an order of workers that was considered useful skill. Then 139 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: if you did get married, then you still needed to sew. 140 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:19,439 Speaker 1: The myth is that women didn't work until after the nineties. 141 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: Women always had to work, you know, they just didn't 142 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:24,680 Speaker 1: get paid a lot and didn't have a good job. 143 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 1: Work them hard. Remember, the superior of all is a 144 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: sudden of all. I understand. The hard realities of the 145 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:45,559 Speaker 1: convent were contrasted against the sweeping beauty of the surrounding scenery. 146 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:50,640 Speaker 1: The disney castles were all found from around there that 147 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: sparks of child's imagination. In Switzerland, they had a lot 148 00:10:54,920 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: of myths, fairies, little gnomes in the ground, a fog 149 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:04,760 Speaker 1: that would come up and be an apparition. People falling 150 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 1: off the cliff were pushed by a dwarf you know, 151 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: or something you know. So I think it was like 152 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 1: a land of stories. She thrived on the stories, as 153 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: most kids do, but more particularly her. I think they 154 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 1: separated from her parents. It must be magic. Her dad 155 00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: came and got her out of the convent because he 156 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,320 Speaker 1: couldn't afford it anymore. First, he moved to a less 157 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: expensive convent, and then came and got her, and they 158 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: were all in Paris together in those years. She said 159 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:39,440 Speaker 1: they were in reduced circumstances. Though Alice would not describe 160 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,920 Speaker 1: the tragedy of her father's life, she would later elaborate 161 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: on similar themes and her films. She did a screen play, 162 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 1: or what they call them scenarios back then, of a 163 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,440 Speaker 1: gambler that gambled too much and had a problem. I 164 00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: think it was about her father. She had said, Well, 165 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 1: scenarios about that. I have another drink. I think that's 166 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: one of the problems he had. And they did that 167 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,400 Speaker 1: a lot in California and in Chile. Gambling was it. 168 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:17,240 Speaker 1: She had three older sisters and an older brother. Her 169 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:22,200 Speaker 1: older brother was thirteen when he died in eighty, and 170 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:26,839 Speaker 1: her father died in and then a sister also died 171 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: in two. From a family of seven, they were down 172 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:36,200 Speaker 1: to four. In Alice's memoir, she covers that in paragraph 173 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,440 Speaker 1: she doesn't tell you the dates, not a lot of details. 174 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: Another man five years older than her father, became an 175 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:51,960 Speaker 1: important figure in her life, famous engineer Alexander Gustave Eiffel. 176 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: To understand Alice, it's important to know a little about Eiffel. 177 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 1: I think she knew him before her father died. I 178 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:05,520 Speaker 1: think he was a friend of her father's. He solved 179 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 1: a lot of problems in engineering. Bridges that carried the 180 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: train across rivers, and skyscrapers they say were built based 181 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,640 Speaker 1: on his calculations. The Statue of Liberty was taller than 182 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: any building in New York at the time, and that's 183 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:23,280 Speaker 1: a structure holding that up that he designed. So he 184 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:28,320 Speaker 1: had a whole career of building bridges, public works. Mostly 185 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: to do public works, he had to get along with everybody. 186 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: He'd been on projects all over the world. He built 187 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: things in South America, Asia, Europe. He had to know 188 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,600 Speaker 1: those people, socialized with those people, get along with those people, 189 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,120 Speaker 1: do a good job on the last project he did. 190 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:50,600 Speaker 1: He had to be in with the people who had 191 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:54,960 Speaker 1: the purse to get those jobs. Eifel went to Chili 192 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: in seventy two, the year before Alice was born. They 193 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,320 Speaker 1: all talk in South America about bridges that Eiffel may 194 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:05,600 Speaker 1: have done in Chile, and they're going like, we can't 195 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 1: find any of that. We really can credit him with 196 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:10,760 Speaker 1: what he did as a bread and butter thing. I mean, 197 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:14,600 Speaker 1: he had big bridges and big projects. But his business 198 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: he developed these portable bridges. They were like kits, so 199 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:23,160 Speaker 1: he would ship the prefabricated parts to South America and 200 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 1: then people could build their own. I saw a bridge 201 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,200 Speaker 1: that looked like one of his bridges in Chile, but 202 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,480 Speaker 1: it's got this other guy's name on it. I'm going like, yeah, 203 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: but that's how they did it, you know, they got 204 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: the kit and then they put it together. He had 205 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 1: built forty bridges. Then in the eighties he started building 206 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was a culmination of 207 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: his engineering career that they called him an artist after 208 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:07,480 Speaker 1: he built affe tower. The newspaper Le Figaro had an 209 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:10,359 Speaker 1: office in the Eiffel Tower, so they covered him pretty regularly. 210 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: If he did something or went to something charitable, or 211 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: attended a funeral or whatever, they wrote it down. So 212 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:21,840 Speaker 1: he was famous. But then he had a scandal. In 213 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,960 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, he was at a conference talking about 214 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: building the Panama Canal. The guy that built the Panama 215 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,360 Speaker 1: Canal built the Suez Canal, and so everybody trusted him 216 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: to build the Panama Canal. But the Suez Canal was 217 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: sea level. Panama canal had to go over a mountain 218 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,680 Speaker 1: for fifty miles. They were just going to dig through 219 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:45,160 Speaker 1: that mountain. And everybody believed that this guy could do 220 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,560 Speaker 1: it because he had done the Suez Canal. So they 221 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,240 Speaker 1: all threw their money in and he couldn't do it. 222 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: It just was impossible with the equipment they had been 223 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: maybe they could do it now. Eiffel and French engineers 224 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:03,040 Speaker 1: recommended another route. He had developed the locks, and they're 225 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,560 Speaker 1: like giant bathtub that you fill up with water and 226 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: the boats go up one side of the Istmas and 227 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 1: down the other. There's like ten locks. He designed that 228 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,200 Speaker 1: and they actually used his design. The French tried to 229 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,680 Speaker 1: build it until the Americans picked it up in nineteen 230 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,040 Speaker 1: o four and finished it in nineteen fourteen, and it 231 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: was completed the same day World War One started, so 232 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:31,040 Speaker 1: there was like no celebration. The French effort failed, not 233 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 1: because of a flaw on design, but because the funding 234 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: fell through, with no canal and no payback on their investment. 235 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: The public was outraged. The Eiffel was only a contractor. 236 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,280 Speaker 1: His name was at the center of the controversy and 237 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: the public just hated him. He would probably like Bernie 238 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,840 Speaker 1: Mudoff or something. Back then, he wasn't so popular like 239 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:57,640 Speaker 1: he is now in mythology. The Panama Canal scandal effectively 240 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 1: ended his engineering career, just as the career of the 241 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: first female filmmaker was about to begin. In her memoirs 242 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:15,560 Speaker 1: and later to TV cameras, Alice described the great romance 243 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:20,439 Speaker 1: of her life to a man she never named. In print, 244 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:26,320 Speaker 1: Alice refers to this mysterious figure like cryptic initials. Peeb 245 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,359 Speaker 1: must have been seventy years old at that epoch. I 246 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:34,680 Speaker 1: was seventeen, but I was literally in love with him. 247 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: Every Thursday evening was a party from me. We passed 248 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:41,639 Speaker 1: those evenings in Peeb's home with his two daughters. I 249 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:44,920 Speaker 1: sat close to him, my hand and his while his 250 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:48,240 Speaker 1: two daughters served tea or played music, and my mother 251 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:56,280 Speaker 1: knitted or embroidered. Janelle thinks that man was efful. Piecing 252 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:59,640 Speaker 1: their two biographies together is the subject of Janelle's book, 253 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: Alice and Eiffel, a New History of early Cinema and 254 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: the love story Kept Secret first century. He was married 255 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:10,280 Speaker 1: and had five kids, and his wife died in seven 256 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,239 Speaker 1: and he never remarried. He didn't have a woman in 257 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,119 Speaker 1: his life for forty five years, but he was like 258 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:21,200 Speaker 1: the most eligible bachelor in Europe. There was this corresponding 259 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:24,479 Speaker 1: gap in his life, same as her. She had this 260 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:28,200 Speaker 1: gap of no boyfriend until she was thirty three, and 261 00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:31,879 Speaker 1: she's a beautiful woman and you're gonna I don't know 262 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: about that, you know. And then he has the same gap, 263 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,320 Speaker 1: like nobody knows what he was doing. He wasn't doing 264 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,919 Speaker 1: the Panama Canal. He was out of his business. So 265 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: once I put them together, then the chore was, well, 266 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: what evidence is there that they had a relationship. It's 267 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,120 Speaker 1: mostly based on her words, because she was still talking 268 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 1: about it when she was ninety. People expect one piece 269 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: of evidence to prove everything. They call it the smoking gun, 270 00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,680 Speaker 1: which is just a myth. There's no such thing. He 271 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:01,679 Speaker 1: never or find a smoking gun that would be catching 272 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,720 Speaker 1: somebody red handed. I like to say, each piece of 273 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 1: evidence has its own unique value. Never know what it's 274 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:14,640 Speaker 1: going to be in the end. In a few months 275 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,400 Speaker 1: after the death of a meal Key, a private company 276 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,119 Speaker 1: was formed to combat one of the greatest threats facing 277 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:29,000 Speaker 1: nineteenth century France, infant mortality. Eiffel knew everybody who founded 278 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,600 Speaker 1: Mutah to Maternelle, where her mother worked right after her 279 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:36,000 Speaker 1: father died. He wasn't one of them, He wasn't an officer, 280 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,640 Speaker 1: but he knew all those people. They were his friends. 281 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: Her mother worked there for a while, but then she 282 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: had to quit for some reason. I think they stopped 283 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:46,119 Speaker 1: paying her. Why else would she quit. Alice had to 284 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,320 Speaker 1: learn a way to make a living. A family friend 285 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,120 Speaker 1: told her mother that she should take stenography and typing. 286 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:56,760 Speaker 1: I think that was Ifel. It was Pepe who advised 287 00:19:56,800 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: my mother to have me take typing and stenography lessons, 288 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 1: a science quite new in those days. You should have 289 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: almost no movement in your wrists and forearms, she said. 290 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: Her teacher was a stenographer from the Chamber of Deputies. Well, 291 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: he knew all them too, R F four, hey, I, 292 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:23,480 Speaker 1: hey nine, D E J and and so forth. If 293 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:25,679 Speaker 1: you take your twenty century eyes and go oh, she 294 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,440 Speaker 1: was a secretary. Well now people say things like, just 295 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:32,439 Speaker 1: as secretary, I would say, Hi, Joe, I understand you're 296 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,959 Speaker 1: gonna be helping us out here. Yes, man. Secretaries were 297 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,280 Speaker 1: men because they were the protege that owner of the 298 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,639 Speaker 1: business is right hand. Mann was do Nelson. That's my 299 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:46,960 Speaker 1: first John, I had a picture of stenographers and dred 300 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: and there's all these men and two women. That's it. 301 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: It was very prestigious. The afternoon mail just came in. 302 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: You think you can handle in? Oh yeah. World War 303 00:20:57,800 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 1: One came along and the men had to go to 304 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: woll Are and women pretty much took over that job. 305 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,720 Speaker 1: We are still short millions of hands, we must call 306 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,399 Speaker 1: upon women. And then once the job gets feminized, it 307 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,920 Speaker 1: gets associated with women, then men don't want that job. 308 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 1: The same thing happened in reverse with stewardesses today joined 309 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,240 Speaker 1: me on board. Women only worked on the airplanes serving cokes. 310 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:24,760 Speaker 1: Then men start to get the job and the wages 311 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:28,560 Speaker 1: tripled just because of the status from men doing a job. 312 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,639 Speaker 1: The government's policy is that women should get the same 313 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:38,120 Speaker 1: pay that men get or similar work. First secretarial job 314 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: was at a Barnish factory in March. She gets the 315 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:44,600 Speaker 1: job at let's not go mind yet. It's called the 316 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: Comptoire General the Photography. The camera shop where Alice would 317 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 1: get her start, would in fact be purchased by Eiffel 318 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:57,720 Speaker 1: shortly after she was hired. Eiffel knew the former owner, 319 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 1: who was Felix max ra Shard, and the other former owner, 320 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,439 Speaker 1: who was Joseph Bellow. He knew both of them for 321 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:12,720 Speaker 1: years before the company changed hands. In Felix Max Ras 322 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:16,880 Speaker 1: Shard had been sued by his brother for a non 323 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,800 Speaker 1: competition agreement that he had signed. The brothers were in 324 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:26,119 Speaker 1: partnership of Shard Prayers, which was the scientific instruments. Felix 325 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,960 Speaker 1: Max Ras Shard built a weather station on top of 326 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower and he got a award for it 327 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,320 Speaker 1: from the Region of Honor and not made his brother mad. 328 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:37,879 Speaker 1: The other brother, Jules were Shard, sued Felix Max Ras 329 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:39,959 Speaker 1: Shard for buying a camera shop. That camera shop had 330 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: already existed, and then in late the court ruled against 331 00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:47,919 Speaker 1: Felix Max Ras Shard and said, yeah, you can't have 332 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:53,359 Speaker 1: a camera shop. Camera is a precision instrument. They ruled 333 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:57,320 Speaker 1: against him and he appealed in the fall of took 334 00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 1: a year and a half for that decision to come down. 335 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,680 Speaker 1: So Felix Max for Sharon is waiting to hear if 336 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:08,120 Speaker 1: he's gonna win his appeal or not. He approached Eiffel 337 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 1: and Eiffel said, get someone to manage the compto our 338 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,919 Speaker 1: general to photography, and that's when leon go Mont was hired. 339 00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,000 Speaker 1: Alice was also hired about the same time. Leon go 340 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: Mont started March first, that's his contract, has a written contract, 341 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: and I think Alice started that month because the advertising 342 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 1: changed to be more appealing to women. You don't have 343 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,880 Speaker 1: to be embarrassed to take a clumsy camera on your vacation. 344 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:37,880 Speaker 1: You can just get this little camera and they'll sit 345 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:42,359 Speaker 1: in with your outfit. So I think she was there March, 346 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,360 Speaker 1: just within a few weeks of when Gomont was there. 347 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 1: The Court of Appeal didn't render their decision until May, 348 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,200 Speaker 1: and that's when Eiffel fellow, So they're following in Biziniar 349 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,199 Speaker 1: and then Godmant wanted to get in on it. They 350 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: bought the company and formed a partnership of four partners 351 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: that was called el See. Because Eiffel was still in 352 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: scandal even in December ninety four, they were thinking of 353 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: stripping his medals away. He had all these Legion of 354 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: Honor medals and there we should take those away from him. 355 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: He was still having to lay low. Shaman would largely 356 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:30,919 Speaker 1: take the credit. He has some responsibility for creating his 357 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:35,120 Speaker 1: own image as the inventor, the genius Mr Gamant. He's 358 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:39,919 Speaker 1: the brilliant inventor that started everything. I think he just 359 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,960 Speaker 1: nosed his way in there. He was more just a 360 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,560 Speaker 1: businessman that watched everybody and made sure they did their job. 361 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 1: He was harsh. He was a harsh employer. If Leon 362 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,640 Speaker 1: Gomant's role in the history of motion pictures has been 363 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:04,399 Speaker 1: exaggerated over time, Eiffel's contributions have been chronically understated. Nobody 364 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:07,520 Speaker 1: knew about his years at Gaumont. They figured, well, he's 365 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,080 Speaker 1: just a rich guy that invested money. What they call 366 00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:12,400 Speaker 1: a silent partner. Sit down and they get you out comfortable. 367 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 1: They wait in a moment. Actually he was president. Please. 368 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,680 Speaker 1: The assumption is, well, if you're rich, why would you work. 369 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,640 Speaker 1: But working on motion pictures was interesting. He had always 370 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: he was taking pictures in the eighteen seventies. Back then 371 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 1: they were developing in themselves, and his friends were like 372 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: Jules Jansen, who did the first motion picture of an eclipse, 373 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 1: and then Mary who did sequential photography ten years later. 374 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,159 Speaker 1: He was friends with him, so he was there at 375 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: the beginning. We showed them how easy the camera was 376 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:51,560 Speaker 1: to use. I knew almost nothing of this art. I 377 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: had to familiarize myself with the sizes of plates, the 378 00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:58,439 Speaker 1: variety of papers, the chemical products, the different camera names, 379 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:04,439 Speaker 1: the qualities focus, thanks, shutters, etcetera. Happily I learned quickly 380 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: it was a camera manufacturer and cameras back then, most 381 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 1: of you just had professionals taking pictures. But the compt 382 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,800 Speaker 1: Our General to Photography was advertised as photography for amateurs, 383 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: and they gave classes every day, every day for free. 384 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,800 Speaker 1: The way he explained that it doesn't seem too hard, 385 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,360 Speaker 1: like two hours, come down and learn how to use 386 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: a camera, how to develop the film. You know, it 387 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,080 Speaker 1: wasn't just click and shoot. You had to set your 388 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: shutters and load the camera, all kinds of things that 389 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 1: you don't have to do anymore. And it sets the 390 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,679 Speaker 1: lens by itself too, so you're always ready for the 391 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,119 Speaker 1: next picture instantly. And then developing the film you had 392 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,280 Speaker 1: to buy chemicals and learn how to build a dark room. 393 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 1: They turned out great, wonderful color too. I think she 394 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: probably taught that because she said she had to learn 395 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,400 Speaker 1: all about the plates and the papers and the chemicals, 396 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,040 Speaker 1: so I think she probably had to teach that class. 397 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,119 Speaker 1: They're probably other people doing it as well, but that 398 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:08,800 Speaker 1: was probably one of the things she had to do, 399 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,240 Speaker 1: which would have prepared her for them doing more with 400 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:19,480 Speaker 1: the camera. One day in March of Augustine, Louis Lumier 401 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: stopped by the shop to see Gomont. The Gomont company 402 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: bought their chemicals or papers from Luliers, so they had 403 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,119 Speaker 1: a connection there and Gomont became good friends with the Luniers. 404 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,359 Speaker 1: They came to invite him to attend a mean of 405 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:41,920 Speaker 1: the Street Nationale where the two brothers would present new 406 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,720 Speaker 1: camera of their invention. I was present at the interview 407 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,800 Speaker 1: and they invited me also, but they refused to give 408 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: us any explication of their instrument. You'll see. They said, 409 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,360 Speaker 1: it's a surprise. They had done motion pictures, but they 410 00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: were all you know, looked through a little viewer and 411 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,199 Speaker 1: one person sees it DEMONI had one now was just 412 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,400 Speaker 1: a disc that you roll, so it was very limited 413 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,600 Speaker 1: to what you could see on the discs be like 414 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:10,600 Speaker 1: eighteen pictures on the disc and then you just turn 415 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: it and you'd see the moving picture. But the loomire 416 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: has put it on a roll of film then projected 417 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:21,639 Speaker 1: on the wall, and it just astounded everybody. March, they 418 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,760 Speaker 1: showed it to their professional peers. First they had several 419 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:31,080 Speaker 1: other showings in June, and then in December they had 420 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 1: the first screening for the public, and the public was 421 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: totally woud just to see people on the wall or 422 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,959 Speaker 1: on the screen larger than life. It was astonishing at 423 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,560 Speaker 1: the beginning. We're so used to it, but we're still 424 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: very thrown by images. I think images are powerful. They 425 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,040 Speaker 1: had been created a little laboratory for the development and 426 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:02,320 Speaker 1: printing of short shots parades, station's portraits of the laboratory personnel, 427 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:07,520 Speaker 1: which served as demonstration films. But we're both brief and repetitious. 428 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:11,280 Speaker 1: Daughter of an editor. I had read a good deal 429 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,920 Speaker 1: and retained quite a bit. I had done amateur theatricals, 430 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 1: and I thought that one might do better than these 431 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: demonstration films. Gathering my courage, I timidly proposed to Gorman 432 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,959 Speaker 1: that I might write one or two little scenes and 433 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:30,240 Speaker 1: have a few friends performing them. Yeah, yeah, that's silly, 434 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:34,120 Speaker 1: But go ahead if you if you like so, on 435 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: your own time. If the future development of motion pictures 436 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: had been foreseen at this time, I should never have 437 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:46,760 Speaker 1: obtained his consent. My youth, my inexperience, my sex all 438 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: conspired against me. I was given an unused terrace with 439 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: an asphalt floor, which made it impossible to set up 440 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,800 Speaker 1: a real scene in shaky glass ceiling overlooking a vacant law. 441 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: It was in this palace that I made my first efforts. 442 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,040 Speaker 1: A backdrop painted by a fan painter and fantasist from 443 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: the neighborhood, made a vague decor with rows of wooden 444 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: cabbages cut out by a carpenter. Costumes rented here and 445 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 1: there around the Porte Saint Marcain as actors, my friends, 446 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,160 Speaker 1: a screaming baby, an anxious mother leaping to and fro 447 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,800 Speaker 1: into the camera focus, and my first film, La Fiacho 448 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: was born. I should exaggerate if I told you it 449 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: was a masterpiece, but the public bend was not jaded. 450 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: The actors were young and pleasing, and the film had 451 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:52,960 Speaker 1: enough success that I was allowed to try again. Version 452 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,320 Speaker 1: of La fiare scho, like so many early films, is 453 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:00,960 Speaker 1: now lost. Historians still quibble with whether this film actually existed, 454 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: suggesting ms Key simply misremembered. Even in her posthumously published memoirs, 455 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: there is an asterisk disputing this claim. But Alice held 456 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,960 Speaker 1: firm on this point, and you think she'd remember she 457 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:20,840 Speaker 1: remade La fier Schou In nineteen two. Janelle has an 458 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:25,240 Speaker 1: entire book on the subject, Lafia Shou Alice Key's Garden 459 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: of Dreams. In this business, you're just happy to find 460 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:32,720 Speaker 1: a fragment. I would love to just have a fragment 461 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: of the first Laftio shoe, and it may be found 462 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:46,120 Speaker 1: somewhere sometime. Alice described as having a honeymoon couple a farmer. 463 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,080 Speaker 1: They go out to find a baby in the cabbage patch, 464 00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,080 Speaker 1: and they asked the farm. When the farmacists go ahead 465 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,280 Speaker 1: and they look for babies and they find a baby. 466 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:59,959 Speaker 1: There was no fairy in Alice's scenario. There's a lot 467 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,080 Speaker 1: out of cabbage patch baby postcards from that period. There 468 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:08,760 Speaker 1: are babies in the cabbages, but there's no fairy. Alice says, 469 00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: the mother of the baby kept jumping into the field 470 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,840 Speaker 1: of focus to tend the baby. So I think it 471 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:19,160 Speaker 1: just happened that the mother became the fairy. That one 472 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,080 Speaker 1: minute of film costs like eight days of her salary, 473 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,040 Speaker 1: so you know, she wasn't like, well, let's just do 474 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 1: it over. It was thought for a long time that 475 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: was a copy of the one is just a single. 476 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,160 Speaker 1: The fairy is picking up babies out of the cabbages, 477 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:45,000 Speaker 1: and then there's another one called Sage Fem Premier Class midwife, 478 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:49,200 Speaker 1: first class. Alice hated that title. Later on, she said, 479 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,560 Speaker 1: I would never have called it that. I found it 480 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: in the newspaper when it came out in nineteen o two, 481 00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: it was called a Fao shoot, but Gomant I think 482 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: uged the name because in the later catalogs that's called 483 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: Sam the premiere class. And the third one, honeymoon couple 484 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,400 Speaker 1: goes to a baby market. It's like a garden that's 485 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 1: a market, and they look at seven or eight babies 486 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,480 Speaker 1: and then they pick one. So that's completely different from 487 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 1: the first one and the second one. They're all three different, 488 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 1: but she called them all lafo shoe. A play does 489 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 1: a production, it's called the same thing every time, but 490 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:29,680 Speaker 1: every time they produce a play, they make changes, new actors, 491 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:37,400 Speaker 1: new costumes, new set. They put their own spin on it. 492 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,520 Speaker 1: I think that's what she was thinking. She's just like, yeah, 493 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,560 Speaker 1: they're all ufo shoe, but they're different iterations of the 494 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:50,040 Speaker 1: same idea. Back then, films weren't the main feature, you know, 495 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: they were only a minute long. They were just side shirts. 496 00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: You showed films in the store you pay nickel and 497 00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:03,320 Speaker 1: just see the film for a minute, or they showed 498 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 1: him at the fair, just had people in and out 499 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:11,120 Speaker 1: seeing the same film. You know, they didn't have theaters 500 00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,759 Speaker 1: to show movies in. There were theaters for plays, but 501 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,759 Speaker 1: there weren't theaters from movies. And it was a one 502 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 1: minute format, so it's like, what are you gonna do 503 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 1: with that? I think fo shoot was paired with a 504 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:36,680 Speaker 1: play called Lommie Fritz. Lommie Fritz was called the National 505 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:46,440 Speaker 1: novel because it was about Franceny day, France had a 506 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:52,400 Speaker 1: really terrible birth rate and infant mortality rate. It's just 507 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,640 Speaker 1: a romance. Older bachelor doesn't want to get married, but 508 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: he meets this young woman and they fall in love 509 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,400 Speaker 1: and finally, in the end of the play they kiss 510 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: and they're engaged, or they hug and they're engaged. That's 511 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,399 Speaker 1: the end of the play. That play had been playing 512 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,400 Speaker 1: in Paris for twenty years, so it's like a classic. 513 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:15,480 Speaker 1: It's like the Nutcracker. People would go see it from 514 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,359 Speaker 1: summer to Christmas, and they played it on Christmas Day. 515 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: You're not the reference I have in a newspaper puts 516 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: them in the same paragraph lomm Me Fritz and this 517 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,880 Speaker 1: wonderful chromo landscape of babies being pulled out of cabbages 518 00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: to have it paired with a very famous play, and 519 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: it hit on a national theme. After seeing the couple 520 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:40,880 Speaker 1: apart the whole play, and then they get together at 521 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: the end, but they don't get married, they don't have 522 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: a baby. This little film about the honeymoon couple finding 523 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 1: a baby in a patch. I'm sure it was just wonderful. 524 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 1: Eiffel was good friends with the administrator of the comedy 525 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:00,080 Speaker 1: front Stays, and that's where I think they showed it it. 526 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,239 Speaker 1: She was still doing office work, but when they saw 527 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,719 Speaker 1: that the first film made money, they let her do 528 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:14,440 Speaker 1: more films. She was making films from on. She was 529 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:20,560 Speaker 1: in charge of production at Gramont from six She was 530 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: over at the studio more than at the office. They 531 00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: were about five miles apart, and that was a long trip, 532 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: you know, enforcing buggy. She ended up moving up close 533 00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:36,720 Speaker 1: to the studio. But it was all experimental. They didn't 534 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,919 Speaker 1: know what they were doing, which makes it so much fun. 535 00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 1: Every Monday we discussed the week's work together. The studio 536 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: became a hive of activity, that's what we made a 537 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:53,919 Speaker 1: series of comic films, pursuits, tumbles, clashes, acrobatics, what one 538 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:00,279 Speaker 1: calls slapstick. They started with chase scenes with dogs loose 539 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,800 Speaker 1: on his leash and upsets of baby carriage and everybody 540 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:09,040 Speaker 1: chases the dog. That's kind of thing. She used some acrobats. 541 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,000 Speaker 1: They do these clown like scenes where they fall and 542 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:25,320 Speaker 1: they climb and they drop in two. The Gaumont company 543 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,560 Speaker 1: also developed an earlier method of sync sound. The chronophone, 544 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:33,600 Speaker 1: used a turntable and switchboard to synchronize a recorded disc 545 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:39,160 Speaker 1: with the film strip. She started doing scenes from the 546 00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 1: opera in different plays, just scenes with the musical number 547 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,799 Speaker 1: that was recorded separately. The actor's with lip sync at 548 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:53,160 Speaker 1: while they played recording. I think it was exciting. They 549 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,480 Speaker 1: were just looking for new ideas all the time that 550 00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: the public was so hungry for everything. Everybody wanted something 551 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,800 Speaker 1: new every week, so they just had to keep producing. 552 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,479 Speaker 1: And then the film technology got better. It went from 553 00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: one minute to five minutes to twelve minutes, and then 554 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: they started doing, you know, three reels of fifteen minutes 555 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,239 Speaker 1: each that was like a feature length. They were all 556 00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:18,239 Speaker 1: in competition with each other looking for a novelties to 557 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:22,319 Speaker 1: make their work stand out. It was while working at 558 00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,520 Speaker 1: Goma that Alice was introduced to a certain young Englishman. 559 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,880 Speaker 1: Herbert Blasch had been working for the London Goldmont branch 560 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,919 Speaker 1: since nineteen at least in nineteen o six, he comes 561 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,960 Speaker 1: to Paris. Alice's cameraman was sick and she had to 562 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,280 Speaker 1: go to the south of France to do this film 563 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:45,600 Speaker 1: called Murray, which was a Nobel Prize winning poem and opera. 564 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,000 Speaker 1: Herbert Blasch a got a sign to go with her, 565 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:51,880 Speaker 1: learned the camera and all that, so they went to 566 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:56,320 Speaker 1: the south of France. It was romantic, the story was romantic, 567 00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,879 Speaker 1: the place was romantic. But when he went home, she's 568 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,239 Speaker 1: that I've never thought i'd see him again. But then 569 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: Gomant sent her to Berlin, where he had gone to 570 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:11,000 Speaker 1: help with clients of Gomants. There. She spent some weeks 571 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,680 Speaker 1: with him there in Berlin, he asked her to marry 572 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,799 Speaker 1: him there and she said, I have to think about it. 573 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,319 Speaker 1: Every man I talked to you says that means no. 574 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,080 Speaker 1: They did end up getting married about nine months later 575 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,719 Speaker 1: in March, and one of her interviews somebody asked her, 576 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:34,200 Speaker 1: so you got married because Gomant sent you to the US, 577 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,360 Speaker 1: and she said no, I was married, and then he 578 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:46,280 Speaker 1: sent us to the US two months later, three days married. 579 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:49,760 Speaker 1: I left my family and my country with a heavy heart, 580 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:55,279 Speaker 1: persuaded that I was abandoning my fine Mattie forever. We 581 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,320 Speaker 1: arrived in New York at four o'clock in the morning. 582 00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:00,560 Speaker 1: The view of Liberty light in the world, the side 583 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,320 Speaker 1: of skyscrapers, and the fog could not chase my sadness. 584 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,560 Speaker 1: I saw all that through tears, which I tried in 585 00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,440 Speaker 1: vain to stop. All around me, I heard exclamations and 586 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 1: enthusiasm in a language of which I understood not one word. 587 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:21,440 Speaker 1: Alison Herbert were sent to Cleveland to hawk the company's 588 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 1: chronophone technology. Gomant wasn't in the US yet. The US 589 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,279 Speaker 1: was making movies, and Gomant was going to try to 590 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:40,319 Speaker 1: sell his synchronized sound theaters in the US. They did 591 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 1: sell something, but that wasn't successful. Then he had Herbert 592 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:48,720 Speaker 1: set up an office in New York. The first Godmont 593 00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,520 Speaker 1: office opened in New York. They're trying to sell into 594 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:59,360 Speaker 1: strident films, but then the Edison Trust starts. Thomas Edison, 595 00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:03,560 Speaker 1: an aasty businessman, set up the motion Picture Patents Company 596 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:09,279 Speaker 1: a k a. The Trust to ruthlessly sue manufacturers, distributors, 597 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:12,279 Speaker 1: and exhibitors of films that did not license trust the 598 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:17,160 Speaker 1: equipment and pay the MPCC fees. It seems illegal, and 599 00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:23,520 Speaker 1: it was. My husband was anti trust lawyer. I said, 600 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,440 Speaker 1: why do they monopolize? He goes to crush the competition. 601 00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,840 Speaker 1: That is what they're there for, crushing the competition. Everything 602 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:34,000 Speaker 1: they do is to crush it. All these film businesses 603 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,520 Speaker 1: were startups, all the film companies. There were probably a 604 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,720 Speaker 1: hundred film companies and Edison got it down to like five. 605 00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 1: He was put out of business finally by the court 606 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,480 Speaker 1: in n but he did so much damage before that, 607 00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:49,960 Speaker 1: creating a business environment where they couldn't work, where they 608 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,160 Speaker 1: couldn't produce, where they couldn't sell their product to theaters. 609 00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:59,800 Speaker 1: Had a camera that was patented that was different than Edison's, 610 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:02,480 Speaker 1: so he could have sold his camera to independence and 611 00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,560 Speaker 1: carved out his own market. Instead of doing that, he 612 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:08,000 Speaker 1: tried to get in the Trust and they just dangled 613 00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:10,239 Speaker 1: him for two or three years and then they cut 614 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,800 Speaker 1: him off. Janelle thinks that Alice was working during this time, 615 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,040 Speaker 1: but across the board of early cinema. It's hard to 616 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:23,080 Speaker 1: track people's filmographies. There wasn't credits and movies then, right, 617 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:27,040 Speaker 1: And you know why, painters who had long educations learning 618 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:31,960 Speaker 1: how to paint like photographs so in photography came in. 619 00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,160 Speaker 1: They didn't think photography was art. He said the machine 620 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:37,759 Speaker 1: did it. You know, the camera did the work. So 621 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:42,359 Speaker 1: they didn't give photographers credit at first. That carried over 622 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:44,959 Speaker 1: into movies. It's like, the camera did it. You didn't 623 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:46,920 Speaker 1: do it, You just pointed the camera. It took a 624 00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:53,680 Speaker 1: long time to give them credit. Studying this early period 625 00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:57,600 Speaker 1: in movie history is right with complications. The films are 626 00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:03,680 Speaker 1: often fragmented, damaged or lost, and almost entirely uncredited, sometimes misattributed. 627 00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,840 Speaker 1: The best insight is often from the fledgling trade journals 628 00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:11,360 Speaker 1: of the time, which printed synopsis of the newest films. 629 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:16,840 Speaker 1: The audience wasn't expected to get it from the film. 630 00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,520 Speaker 1: They would already know the story because say they were 631 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:24,960 Speaker 1: doing a story everybody knew, or they would publish the 632 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,440 Speaker 1: story in a magazine in the month before the film 633 00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: came out, so people would read the story before they 634 00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:38,280 Speaker 1: saw the film. Ironically, the day Alice left France, moving 635 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: picture World was started in New York. Their first issue, 636 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,879 Speaker 1: it's like sixteen pages. I think in the first issue 637 00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,040 Speaker 1: they say, Okay, if you're in the movie business, just 638 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:50,920 Speaker 1: send us what you got and we'll put it in. 639 00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:54,640 Speaker 1: It was really advertising. It was really the movie business 640 00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:57,319 Speaker 1: reporting on what they were doing. And so it had 641 00:43:57,360 --> 00:43:59,480 Speaker 1: a few synopsis in it, and it was just you know, 642 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,600 Speaker 1: add and we're selling this, and we're selling that, and 643 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:05,799 Speaker 1: we're working on this, and it just expanded until I 644 00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:08,640 Speaker 1: think in the h each issue was like a hundred 645 00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:13,680 Speaker 1: fifty pages. Janelle's book, Illuminating Moments the Films of Alice 646 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,279 Speaker 1: ki Blache organizes the write ups of seven hundred and 647 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:22,920 Speaker 1: twenty five productions. I had typed up all her synopsis 648 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,680 Speaker 1: to her scenarios because I thought that was important. Even 649 00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,600 Speaker 1: if all you have is a title, you have something, 650 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:33,280 Speaker 1: You have something to research. She did songs in movies, 651 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:39,160 Speaker 1: she did poems, she did children's stories, novels, plays, operas, 652 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:42,960 Speaker 1: so you have something to look at that tells you 653 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: something about her and her time. Many people who have 654 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:52,200 Speaker 1: never set foot in the studio before and perhaps even 655 00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:55,560 Speaker 1: since then, believe that we used to work without scenarios. 656 00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:59,920 Speaker 1: Nothing could be more false except for the earliest films 657 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,200 Speaker 1: twenty or twenty five ms. Everything was prepared in advance, 658 00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:08,160 Speaker 1: the story written with care, the cast decor, the costumes 659 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:12,000 Speaker 1: repaired in detail and distributed at each shooting. Otherwise, how 660 00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,960 Speaker 1: could we have avoided going down and disorder? Even if 661 00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:16,960 Speaker 1: we didn't have a script, girl line that actually was 662 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:22,560 Speaker 1: your line to Gomant studio was not being used. Alice said, well, 663 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,880 Speaker 1: maybe I can use the studio and make some films. 664 00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:29,080 Speaker 1: So she started making films there in She had a 665 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:34,000 Speaker 1: two year old by then. July thirty one, nineteen eleven, 666 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:38,040 Speaker 1: Alice and Herbert went to Europe. There's a picture of 667 00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:43,239 Speaker 1: them at Eiffel's lake house in Viva, Switzerland, and they're 668 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:48,959 Speaker 1: both there and Alice was really happy. Then Herbert comes 669 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,160 Speaker 1: back to New York on a different ship, so that's weird. 670 00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:57,399 Speaker 1: So they were separated for like sixteen days, and then 671 00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:01,759 Speaker 1: she came back to New York. She talks to the 672 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:05,440 Speaker 1: trade journal and says, well, I'm going to improve the 673 00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:10,040 Speaker 1: Gomant studio. Gomant owned that studio. Eiffel was part of Gomont. 674 00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,560 Speaker 1: I think she went to Eiffel to say, you know, 675 00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:16,480 Speaker 1: can you help improve the Goldmant studio in New York. 676 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,879 Speaker 1: It would have been his studio, but I think he 677 00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:28,240 Speaker 1: did give her some money to invest in her own studio. 678 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,880 Speaker 1: Alison Herbert founded their own company and called it so Lax, 679 00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:37,440 Speaker 1: the logo a son on the horizon. Less than two 680 00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:40,239 Speaker 1: years later, she had built her own studio in Fort Lee, 681 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:43,640 Speaker 1: New Jersey. She had been through building a studio in 682 00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:47,880 Speaker 1: Paris because Gomont built a huge studio. She witnessed that 683 00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:50,120 Speaker 1: studio being built. She probably had something to do with 684 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:56,480 Speaker 1: that too, so she knew what she wanted. So Lax 685 00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,680 Speaker 1: was the biggest fanciest studio of its time, full of 686 00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:03,960 Speaker 1: state of the art technology, a removable ceiling, multiple stages, 687 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,800 Speaker 1: one made of glass, wide gardens for exterior shooting, a 688 00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,839 Speaker 1: laboratory on the premises, costume and set fabrication departments with 689 00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:16,279 Speaker 1: expansions being added all the time. Their films were made 690 00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:20,440 Speaker 1: on Bell and Howe cameras with Eastman Kodak film. It 691 00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:28,719 Speaker 1: had everything. It was like her fantasy studio. She said 692 00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:32,600 Speaker 1: it cost a hundred thousand dollars to build. She later 693 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,920 Speaker 1: said that she got fifty thousand dollars, which was a 694 00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:40,160 Speaker 1: million too in profit sharing, but there was no profit 695 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:46,200 Speaker 1: sharing at Gomant. It was a four partner partnership. They 696 00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:50,120 Speaker 1: didn't incorporate until janu seven, and she left in March 697 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,560 Speaker 1: nineteen o seven. The truth is she only had a 698 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:56,040 Speaker 1: hundred shares of Golmont stock, so she didn't get fifty 699 00:47:56,080 --> 00:48:00,920 Speaker 1: grand for a hundred shares. Just call it profit sharing. 700 00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:04,440 Speaker 1: You were in on it. It's yours. That's what I 701 00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:09,560 Speaker 1: think happened. Okay, here is set. It's so lacks. Alice 702 00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 1: no longer had anyone to report to but herself. The 703 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:15,600 Speaker 1: decision of what to make and the burden of how 704 00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:18,960 Speaker 1: to finance were hers alone. These are the programs that 705 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:23,960 Speaker 1: America listens to. In her own company, she did three films. 706 00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,760 Speaker 1: A lot of them were the shorter version five twelve minutes, 707 00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:33,200 Speaker 1: but she had twenty or twenty five feature length films. 708 00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:35,799 Speaker 1: She wrote most of those two she bought some, but 709 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: why should she? She she found it easy to write, 710 00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:40,960 Speaker 1: so why should she pay someone ten dollars for a 711 00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,880 Speaker 1: scenario when she can just write it up herself. And 712 00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:47,360 Speaker 1: she had to rewrite everything she bought. She said, you 713 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,600 Speaker 1: wouldn't recognize it after I got done with it. So 714 00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:51,600 Speaker 1: I think she wrote most of those, but she didn't 715 00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:57,520 Speaker 1: claim it. She needed that camouflage to express herself. There's 716 00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:01,239 Speaker 1: a funny one called Sticky Woman. She's looking stamps in 717 00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:05,200 Speaker 1: a post office. I can't tell if it's her playing 718 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:08,640 Speaker 1: the woman who's doing this or not. I'll go out 719 00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:12,279 Speaker 1: on a limb. I definitely think it's her, But she's 720 00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:14,960 Speaker 1: looking stamps and this guy comes into the post offs 721 00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:16,919 Speaker 1: and he gets all excited about her because she's looking 722 00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:19,480 Speaker 1: her lips, and he grabs her and kisses her, and 723 00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:22,720 Speaker 1: they get stuck together with all the glue from the stamps. 724 00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,319 Speaker 1: And then somebody has to come over and cut his 725 00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:27,759 Speaker 1: mustache offs so that separate, and then she has a 726 00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:32,319 Speaker 1: mustache that relates to the convent because the nuns told 727 00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:34,359 Speaker 1: the girls that if you kiss a boy, you'll get 728 00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:42,319 Speaker 1: a super mustache. Then there's the consequences of feminism. I 729 00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:43,920 Speaker 1: think she's in that one too. I like the ones 730 00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:46,719 Speaker 1: that she's in. She's wearing like a bare coat and 731 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:49,960 Speaker 1: carries a rifle. They throw the men out of the 732 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,880 Speaker 1: bar and the women are all sitting there and drinking. 733 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:58,239 Speaker 1: So that's a fun one. And there's another one where 734 00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,280 Speaker 1: she drops in a cabbage patch and has a baby. 735 00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:05,320 Speaker 1: That's her too, that one's called Madame has her cravings. 736 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:10,400 Speaker 1: The madame, as portrayed by Alice Ki, also steals candy 737 00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,960 Speaker 1: from a baby, absent from a distracted diner, a herring 738 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,880 Speaker 1: from a beggar, and a salesman's pipe before having her baby, 739 00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:21,279 Speaker 1: and a roadside cabbage match. It is a wacky and 740 00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:26,200 Speaker 1: wonderfully weird five minutes. So these you can see on YouTube, 741 00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:31,200 Speaker 1: but there is no extant film. More associated with Alice 742 00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:37,640 Speaker 1: kis Falling Leaves. The published scenario is unique among her catalog. 743 00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:42,399 Speaker 1: Falling Leaves is the only one that says Alski blush 744 00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,480 Speaker 1: on it that I can find. I have found any 745 00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:48,759 Speaker 1: other stories with her name on it. The star of 746 00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,160 Speaker 1: it is a little girl, and it's from the point 747 00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:54,560 Speaker 1: of view the little girl. When the cameras watching the scene, 748 00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:58,000 Speaker 1: the little girl will be behind somebody, but then she 749 00:50:58,040 --> 00:50:59,799 Speaker 1: comes out so you can see her face, so we're 750 00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,200 Speaker 1: all was looking at her face to see what she's thinking. 751 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:06,680 Speaker 1: She looks like she's six. She has an older sister. 752 00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:10,080 Speaker 1: It looks like she's seventeen or eighteen, but she's coughing. 753 00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:13,759 Speaker 1: The doctor tells the mother that when the leaves saw 754 00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:19,160 Speaker 1: off the trees, she'll be gone. The little girl hears it, 755 00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:21,680 Speaker 1: and then she looks at the leaves and she goes like, 756 00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,239 Speaker 1: I can do something about this. So she gets some 757 00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:33,040 Speaker 1: string and she ties the leaves on the trees. While 758 00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,480 Speaker 1: she's tying the leaves on the trees at night, some 759 00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:40,360 Speaker 1: famous inventive doctor comes by and she says, you're a doctor, 760 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:42,719 Speaker 1: come in and see my sister. And he has this 761 00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:50,799 Speaker 1: elixir that he's just developed. He cures her and they 762 00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:55,239 Speaker 1: get married. So you know, that's the story, but it's 763 00:51:55,239 --> 00:51:58,359 Speaker 1: about the little girl. I think Alice did that a lot. 764 00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,439 Speaker 1: She took a sad story and even a happy ending, 765 00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:06,879 Speaker 1: and that was just her way of coping. I think 766 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,279 Speaker 1: she drew on her personal experience because she wrote a lot. 767 00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:12,200 Speaker 1: She had to write on demand, like every day, producing 768 00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:15,959 Speaker 1: those films at Gomant and then again at her own company. 769 00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:18,919 Speaker 1: You accuse writers of that, and they go like, no, no, no. 770 00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:22,440 Speaker 1: You can't tell which exact detail of the story is 771 00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:25,560 Speaker 1: from her life, but some of them are details from 772 00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:29,200 Speaker 1: her life. You find this, you find this analysis scenario 773 00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:31,880 Speaker 1: is a little six year old girl who's that, you know. 774 00:52:33,719 --> 00:52:36,160 Speaker 1: I think her whole life is about what happened to 775 00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:37,799 Speaker 1: her when she was a little girl. A lot of 776 00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:40,480 Speaker 1: her stories were about these problems come to the family, 777 00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,160 Speaker 1: but then the family and is reunited. I think that 778 00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,600 Speaker 1: was one of her driving creative forces because her family 779 00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,960 Speaker 1: was broken up. I mean, if you have a you know, 780 00:52:50,040 --> 00:53:00,080 Speaker 1: easy life, why would you produce art? What for and 781 00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:03,880 Speaker 1: had conspired for, Alice was not to last. A series 782 00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:08,200 Speaker 1: of ambitious films like the nine feature Dick Whittington and 783 00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:12,399 Speaker 1: his Cat lost money for the Soulax studio. The War, 784 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:17,040 Speaker 1: the changing industry, even factors more personal could have had 785 00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:20,239 Speaker 1: their impact on the company's downfall. But at the end 786 00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:23,720 Speaker 1: of the day, what happened to Solas is anybody's gas. 787 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:27,200 Speaker 1: I have my own business for a few years, and 788 00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:30,640 Speaker 1: I was amazed. You know, when you start your business, 789 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:33,400 Speaker 1: people come in and go like, how's it going like 790 00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:36,200 Speaker 1: the first day, and you realize right away that you 791 00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:38,799 Speaker 1: have to say it's great every day, no matter how 792 00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:42,480 Speaker 1: it is, because people won't patronize you if they don't 793 00:53:42,520 --> 00:53:45,000 Speaker 1: think you're successful. So even from the first day, you 794 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:48,279 Speaker 1: have to say it's going great, everything's great, And then 795 00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:51,720 Speaker 1: the littlest thing can push you over the edge. Bad weather, 796 00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:57,279 Speaker 1: an uninjured loss, sick for a week, I mean, you 797 00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:02,920 Speaker 1: can't recover. When things got tight in like nineteen the 798 00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:06,440 Speaker 1: studio is a nice asset for them. They rented it 799 00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:13,799 Speaker 1: to other film companies. Solax transformed again and became for 800 00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:16,800 Speaker 1: over eighteen months under the name of Popular Plays and 801 00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:22,480 Speaker 1: Players as a player for Universal World, Metro Path and others. 802 00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,560 Speaker 1: We were rightly called suckers fish who take not only 803 00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:32,399 Speaker 1: the bait but the hook. Herbert and Alice were still 804 00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:35,319 Speaker 1: working there making films for the other companies, but they 805 00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:38,399 Speaker 1: were renting the studio to the other companies. I don't 806 00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:40,839 Speaker 1: know if there's a Solax film after nineteen fourteen that's 807 00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:44,840 Speaker 1: called the Slax film. But she was making films after 808 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,040 Speaker 1: just they were under names of different companies. But that 809 00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,799 Speaker 1: studio had a fire in nineteen nineteen and then she 810 00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:57,160 Speaker 1: sold it in bankruptcy in ninete. I think Herbert had 811 00:54:57,160 --> 00:55:01,400 Speaker 1: come to Hollywood en for record. He ran off with 812 00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:06,120 Speaker 1: this leading lady she came in about. She worked on 813 00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,840 Speaker 1: a couple of films with him. Tarnished Reputations was the 814 00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:13,880 Speaker 1: last film that she's listed as director on, so was 815 00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:16,960 Speaker 1: the last for her. I don't think she liked Hollywood, 816 00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:22,720 Speaker 1: so that's when she decided to go back home America. 817 00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:28,160 Speaker 1: They say, always takes back anything she gives you. Completely discouraged. 818 00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:38,239 Speaker 1: I resolved to return to France with my children. Just 819 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:39,719 Speaker 1: look at it from her point of view. You know, 820 00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:42,560 Speaker 1: her mother was getting older. She had a couple of 821 00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:45,960 Speaker 1: sisters left in France. They've gotten through the war. She 822 00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:48,399 Speaker 1: probably didn't see them for four years during the war. 823 00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:51,120 Speaker 1: I think she just wanted to go home, and you know, 824 00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,879 Speaker 1: her marriage broke up and that was hard for her, 825 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:57,040 Speaker 1: and then she couldn't get work. So you know, who 826 00:55:57,080 --> 00:55:59,520 Speaker 1: likes that, and she's in a foreign country. Why not 827 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:04,400 Speaker 1: go home? The film industry and France did not recover. 828 00:56:05,120 --> 00:56:08,920 Speaker 1: Gomant made like three films, so there was no place 829 00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:12,799 Speaker 1: for her in the film industry in France. So she 830 00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:15,880 Speaker 1: started writing until her daughter started working, and she managed. 831 00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:17,319 Speaker 1: But I don't I don't think she had a lot 832 00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:24,040 Speaker 1: of money in the rest of her life. There's not 833 00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:26,480 Speaker 1: a lot known about after she goes back to France. 834 00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:30,480 Speaker 1: William Fox was a friend of hers, and she worked 835 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:35,280 Speaker 1: for Fox making film scripts into novels that could be sold. 836 00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:38,200 Speaker 1: She did that in the late thirties. By then she 837 00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:41,239 Speaker 1: was sixty something, and then she wrote her memoirs in 838 00:56:41,280 --> 00:56:45,600 Speaker 1: the nineteen forties early fifties, she got interviewed a lot. 839 00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:56,040 Speaker 1: In the fifties and early sixties, her daughter and son 840 00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:58,399 Speaker 1: were here in the US, so she came back here 841 00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:02,279 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, and she died in the US. 842 00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:07,919 Speaker 1: In of the over one thousand films that al Ski 843 00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:11,719 Speaker 1: is credited with directing, most of which she wrote, produced, 844 00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,319 Speaker 1: and occasionally even start in, less than a quarter are 845 00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:19,480 Speaker 1: thought to survive. When she returned to America, she went 846 00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:23,760 Speaker 1: to look for her films, confident that she could find them. 847 00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:27,920 Speaker 1: She never did. Alice went to the Library of Congress 848 00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:30,880 Speaker 1: and wrote letters to film archives, but she was only 849 00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:37,720 Speaker 1: able to find two or three of her films. Even 850 00:57:37,720 --> 00:57:41,919 Speaker 1: in her nineties, Alice, cryptic as ever, described the love 851 00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:46,440 Speaker 1: she left behind. She wrote about it in her memoirs, which, 852 00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:50,160 Speaker 1: despite her efforts, she could not get published during her lifetime. 853 00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:54,320 Speaker 1: In a newspaper interview in ninety three, she let slip 854 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:59,200 Speaker 1: the words my faithful Gustav and no one knew who 855 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:04,080 Speaker 1: she was talking about. Uh. Interviewed by her granddaughter in 856 00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:09,200 Speaker 1: front of French TV cameras, in Alice says, I'm glad 857 00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:47,680 Speaker 1: they would have married him. Oh. Ephemeral is written and 858 00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:51,600 Speaker 1: assembled by and produced by Any Reese, Matt Frederick, and 859 00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:57,480 Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. Our American Eliski was portrayed by Victoria Temple. 860 00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:02,040 Speaker 1: Janelle Dietrich is the author five books on Elie k Blache, 861 00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:06,360 Speaker 1: including the novel Mademoiselle Alice and her newest work, The 862 00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:10,560 Speaker 1: Famous Boarding School at fair Yer. Find them wherever books 863 00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:51,480 Speaker 1: are sold, and find us at ephemeral dot show next 864 00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:56,120 Speaker 1: time on Ephemeral. My grandfather, William gret Still is commonly 865 00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:59,880 Speaker 1: known as the Dean of African American composers. That's mos 866 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:02,400 Speaker 1: sleep because he has a very long list of first 867 01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:06,120 Speaker 1: like he was the first black man to conduct a 868 01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:10,480 Speaker 1: major radio orchestra. He could get so irritated that people 869 01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:12,960 Speaker 1: were always calling him a black composer because he was like, 870 01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:15,320 Speaker 1: what do you call Copeland a Jewish composer every time 871 01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:18,520 Speaker 1: you introduce him. We need to just stop treating it 872 01:00:18,600 --> 01:00:24,000 Speaker 1: like black music. Stop only performing the Afromaerican Symphony, stop 873 01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:27,320 Speaker 1: only performing it during Black History Month, start playing the 874 01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:39,240 Speaker 1: freaking music. Support Ephemeral by recommending an episode, leaving a review, 875 01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:44,320 Speaker 1: or dropping this a line at Ephemeral Show. More podcasts 876 01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:47,120 Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 877 01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:50,920 Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, 878 01:00:52,000 --> 01:01:00,200 Speaker 1: and learn more at ephemeral dot show