Victoria Sturtevant is an associate professor of film and video studies at the University of Oklahoma.

• Acknowledgments   ix1. Tillie's Punctured Romance: Genre and the Body   12. Breaking Boundaries: The Unruly Body   303. Politics and Prosperity: The Body Politic   604. Min and Bill and Tugboat Annie: The Mythic Body   935. Emma and Christopher Bean: The Sexual Body   126Conclusion Dinner at Eight: The Unclosed Body   161 Notes   173Filmography: Dressler's Feature Films   185Index   187

“An eminently good read.”--The Bay Area Reporter “[An] excellent, superbly detailed and illustrated book. . . . Highly recommended.”--Choice "An important, groundbreaking work. In reminding us of the stardom of Marie Dressler--the most significant female box-office star of the early sound era in Hollywood--Sturtevant not only tells the definitive story of this unjustly forgotten figure, but calls into question the very idea that stardom is simply an 'industry of desire.'"--David Desser, coeditor of Hollywood Goes Shopping "Rich with archival materials, this marvelous study of Marie Dressler's film career deranges the norm, questions critical assumptions, and challenges our historical comprehension of the period."--Jennifer M. Bean, coeditor of A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema

Victoria Sturtevant is an associate professor of film and video studies at the University of Oklahoma.

• Acknowledgments   ix1. Tillie's Punctured Romance: Genre and the Body   12. Breaking Boundaries: The Unruly Body   303. Politics and Prosperity: The Body Politic   604. Min and Bill and Tugboat Annie: The Mythic Body   935. Emma and Christopher Bean: The Sexual Body   126Conclusion Dinner at Eight: The Unclosed Body   161 Notes   173Filmography: Dressler's Feature Films   185Index   187

“An eminently good read.”--The Bay Area Reporter “[An] excellent, superbly detailed and illustrated book. . . . Highly recommended.”--Choice "An important, groundbreaking work. In reminding us of the stardom of Marie Dressler--the most significant female box-office star of the early sound era in Hollywood--Sturtevant not only tells the definitive story of this unjustly forgotten figure, but calls into question the very idea that stardom is simply an 'industry of desire.'"--David Desser, coeditor of Hollywood Goes Shopping "Rich with archival materials, this marvelous study of Marie Dressler's film career deranges the norm, questions critical assumptions, and challenges our historical comprehension of the period."--Jennifer M. Bean, coeditor of A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema

Victoria Sturtevant is an associate professor of film and video studies at the University of Oklahoma.

• Acknowledgments   ix1. Tillie's Punctured Romance: Genre and the Body   12. Breaking Boundaries: The Unruly Body   303. Politics and Prosperity: The Body Politic   604. Min and Bill and Tugboat Annie: The Mythic Body   935. Emma and Christopher Bean: The Sexual Body   126Conclusion Dinner at Eight: The Unclosed Body   161 Notes   173Filmography: Dressler's Feature Films   185Index   187

“An eminently good read.”--The Bay Area Reporter “[An] excellent, superbly detailed and illustrated book. . . . Highly recommended.”--Choice "An important, groundbreaking work. In reminding us of the stardom of Marie Dressler--the most significant female box-office star of the early sound era in Hollywood--Sturtevant not only tells the definitive story of this unjustly forgotten figure, but calls into question the very idea that stardom is simply an 'industry of desire.'"--David Desser, coeditor of Hollywood Goes Shopping "Rich with archival materials, this marvelous study of Marie Dressler's film career deranges the norm, questions critical assumptions, and challenges our historical comprehension of the period."--Jennifer M. Bean, coeditor of A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema