The First of The First: Alice Guy Blache (1873-1968)
- jacquelinehamilton6
- Apr 20, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: May 11, 2021
American History textbooks tend to leave out the natural history that has been forgotten, and many of those stories that never find their way in these standardized textbooks are women. Hollywood was the place to be during the 1920s because film production companies were booming. Films went from no audio to blessing the ears of moviegoers, but most people do not know about the Golden Age of Hollywood; those who were running major film production companies, producers, directors, and even editors were women. One of those women who was the first to achieve these titles was Alice Guy Blache. Alice Guy Blache was a French filmmaker born on July 1, 1873. According to Manohla Dargis's New York Times article "Overlook No More: Alice Guy Blaché, the World's First Female Filmmaker gives readers detailed information about Blaché's early life. The article voices, "Alice Ida Antoinette Guy was born in Saint-Mandé, on the eastern edge of Paris, on July 1, 1873. Her parents, Marie and Émile Guy, were French but lived in Chile, where her father was a bookseller; Marie returned to France for Alice's birth and then left the child with a grandmother. Three years later, Marie returned for Alice, and they sailed to Chile. While passing through the Strait of Magellan, near Chile's southern tip, as she recalled in her memoir, she conjured up fairies and beasts on walls of ice — an early, whimsical prelude to her screen reveries. Assorted tragedies in Chile followed, and the Guys eventually returned to France, but over time the family disintegrated, leaving Alice to support her mother. Much of Alice's early years seemed to prepare her for a life in cinema, filled as they were with adventures, deprivations and moments of fortitude. In her first secretarial position, in an all-male factory, she recalled, she boldly stood up to a sexual harasser." Alice Guy Blaché knew what survival meant because she was stuck raising herself and taking care of her mother. Many of those elements that have been found in her earliest films stem from her childhood; even though she worked at an all-male factory, she was not only going to be boxed in, but she was going to stand up for herself when sexual harassment came towards her. Alice Guy- Blaché got her foot into filmmaking when she became the secretary for Léon Gaumont; she wanted a shot to prove to him and herself that she could do the work just like men can when it came to directing films. Using the same source, " Blaché got her start in films when she was 22 and working as a secretary in Paris for Léon Gaumont, an inventor who had begun manufacturing motion-picture cameras. To demonstrate them to clients, his company made short films that Blaché thought could be better.“I had read a good deal,” she wrote in “The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché,” which was ushered into publication posthumously in 1976 by the historian Anthony Slide. And she had done some “amateur theatricals.” She asked Gaumont if she could film a few scenes.“It seems like a silly, girlish thing to do,” Gaumont told her, Blaché recalled many decades later in a French television interview, “but you can try if you want. On one condition: that your office work does not suffer.”Armed with a cameraman, an actress and a painted backdrop, she made “La Fée aux Choux” (“The Cabbage Fairy”) in 1896, her first film. A pantomimed one-minute charmer, it shows a young woman who, with a smile and a bosom wreathed in flowers, plucks squalling naked babies from a cabbage patch constructed out of wood. Some historians believe that Blaché’s inaugural effort was “Sage-Femme de Première Classe” (“First Class Midwife”) her 1902 remake about a young couple who go shopping for a baby. (Blaché played the husband.)Gaumont soon made Blaché the head of film production at his company, where she produced and supervised hundreds of films, helped create an organized studio system years before Hollywood was a company town and trained luminaries of the art like Louis Feuillade." Blaché took the risk of acting and directing "The Cabbage Fairy," and Léon Gaumont took a huge gamble. Still, in the end, that gamble established the directory career of Alice Guy-Blaché. Who knew that Alice Guy Blaché would produce over 1,000 films she was either directing, editing, or setting up the stage for each movie, so why is she not a household name? Jazz Tangcay's Variety article, "Remembering Alice Guy Blaché, the First Female Director displays facts after Blaché found commercial success with Léon Gaumont to owning her own filming studio Solax Studios. Tangcay voices after the release of her first film, “La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) in 1896, "Ten years later, her 1906 release, “The Life of Christ,” featured over 300 extras. She was one of the first to utilize close-ups, hand-tinted style and synchronized sounds in her films. Most are unaware of her and her professional achievements. Her motto — one she hung on her walls — was “be natural”: perfect instruction to those who she put in front of the camera. Guy-Ten years later, her 1906 release, “The Life of Christ,” featured over 300 extras. She was one of the first to utilize close-ups, hand-tinted style and synchronized sounds in her films. Most are unaware of her and her professional achievements. Her motto — one she hung on her wall was “be natural”: perfect instruction to those who she put in front of the camera.Guy-Blaché had not set out to make films. Born in France, she was a stenographer until her father died. After that, she got a job at the Gaumont Film Company and made movies there. Guy-Blaché married and moved to the U.S., setting up Solax Studios, where she continued to make movies." Alice Guy-Blaché had her style when it came to directing her films, she did not only want to tell stories, but she wanted her audience to feel the realist when it came to her characters. Alice Guy-Blaché did not only want to tell the stories of everyday women, but she set out to get the point of view of different racial groups. Tangacy informs the readers, "She shot everything from Westerns to dramas to comedies. When she made “A Fool and His Money” in 1912, the pic had an entirely African American cast. While Guy-Blaché continued to make films and produce them, most of her earlier work has been presumed lost." Alice Guy-Blaché gave moviegoers a view into the life of African-American actors and actresses when many filmmakers did not want to tell other racial groups stories. Alice Guy-Blaché did it all; she had her filming studio; she started from humble beginnings and made a name for herself when women fought for their rights to vote. Alice Guy-Blaché was the first female director, but she owned her own filming company and studio called Solax.According to Britannica's biography of Alice Guy-Blaché uttered, "In 1907 Guy married cameraman Herbert Blaché and followed him to the United States, where in 1910 she established the financially and critically successful Solax Company. As president of Solax, she directed 40 to 50 films and supervised nearly 300 other productions. By 1912 the company had outgrown its original site in Flushing, New York, so she built a new, state-of-the-art studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1913, however, she and her husband established a new company, and Solax closed the next year. Guy-Blaché continued to direct for her husband’s companies, and when changes in the industry put the Blachés and other independents out of business, she worked briefly for some of the bigger studios. In 1907 Guy married cameraman Herbert Blaché and followed him to the United States, where in 1910 she established the financially and critically successful Solax Company. As president of Solax, she directed 40 to 50 films and supervised nearly 300 other productions. By 1912 the company had outgrown its original site in Flushing, New York, so she built a new, state-of-the-art studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1913, however, she and her husband established a new company, and Solax closed the next year. Guy-Blaché continued to direct for her husband’s companies, and when changes in the industry put the Blachés and other independents out of business, she worked briefly for some of the bigger studios." Like many of the Hollywood starlets found on my blog, Alice Guy-Blaché did not only finance her filming studio but also created films in her studio. After she failed marriage and her studio closed its door, she moved back to France, where she did not find the success she had in Hollywood and sadly dying and her role in the early day of Hollywood forgotten. Alice Guy-Blaché may not have been a household name. Still, her contributions to Hollywood were uttered in the documentary Makers: Women In Hollywood, which paid homage to women like Guy-Blaché, who laid down the pavement the success of Hollywood during its golden age. The story of Guy-Blaché did not stop there; her story has been made into a documentary titled Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, which can be found on the streaming platform of Sling. Alice-Guy-Blache did not only pave the way for women to take control over Hollywood, but she also showed them that hard work and the lack of confidence from male counterparts could be proved wrong when you have an idea and take the risk for that idea to become a reality.
Sources Used:
Documentary Makers: Women In Hollywood You can watch on Amazon Videos
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