J. E. Smyth is professor of history at the University of Warwick. She is the author or editor of several books, including Nobody’s Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood (2018) and a new edition of Jane Allen’s novel I Lost My Girlish Laughter (2019). In 2021, she was named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• Introduction: 1943—the Turning Point1. Mary Jr.2. The Pirate3. It’s Tough Being Famous4. A Second Chance5. Bending the Codes6. Breaking the Rules7. Independence8. The Invention of Maisie9. Golden Girls and Brass Rings10. A President at War11. A Woman in the Establishment12. The Party Is Over13. Scarlet Woman14. Smaller Screens15. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made OfAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

In this brilliantly written book, Smyth restores Mary C. McCall Jr. to a male-dominated history of film from which she is glaringly absent. With encyclopedic knowledge and lively and engaging prose, Smyth crafts a thoroughgoing portrait of McCall's life and oeuvre, documenting the challenges that women screenwriters and union leaders faced before the backlash of the 1950s ended so many of their careers.

J. E. Smyth is professor of history at the University of Warwick. She is the author or editor of several books, including Nobody’s Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood (2018) and a new edition of Jane Allen’s novel I Lost My Girlish Laughter (2019). In 2021, she was named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• Introduction: 1943—the Turning Point1. Mary Jr.2. The Pirate3. It’s Tough Being Famous4. A Second Chance5. Bending the Codes6. Breaking the Rules7. Independence8. The Invention of Maisie9. Golden Girls and Brass Rings10. A President at War11. A Woman in the Establishment12. The Party Is Over13. Scarlet Woman14. Smaller Screens15. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made OfAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

In this brilliantly written book, Smyth restores Mary C. McCall Jr. to a male-dominated history of film from which she is glaringly absent. With encyclopedic knowledge and lively and engaging prose, Smyth crafts a thoroughgoing portrait of McCall's life and oeuvre, documenting the challenges that women screenwriters and union leaders faced before the backlash of the 1950s ended so many of their careers.

J. E. Smyth is professor of history at the University of Warwick. She is the author or editor of several books, including Nobody’s Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood (2018) and a new edition of Jane Allen’s novel I Lost My Girlish Laughter (2019). In 2021, she was named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• Introduction: 1943—the Turning Point1. Mary Jr.2. The Pirate3. It’s Tough Being Famous4. A Second Chance5. Bending the Codes6. Breaking the Rules7. Independence8. The Invention of Maisie9. Golden Girls and Brass Rings10. A President at War11. A Woman in the Establishment12. The Party Is Over13. Scarlet Woman14. Smaller Screens15. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made OfAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

In this brilliantly written book, Smyth restores Mary C. McCall Jr. to a male-dominated history of film from which she is glaringly absent. With encyclopedic knowledge and lively and engaging prose, Smyth crafts a thoroughgoing portrait of McCall's life and oeuvre, documenting the challenges that women screenwriters and union leaders faced before the backlash of the 1950s ended so many of their careers.