A Woman to Know: Sarah Y. Mason
Unless things are rewritten, she will mostly be remembered as the wife of an early husband and wife writing team. — Pamela L. Scott
Unless things are rewritten, she will mostly be remembered as the wife of an early husband and wife writing team. — Pamela L. Scott
(image via Wikimedia Commons)
“Little Women,” “The Age of Innocence,” “Magnificent Obsession” — just a handful of the many titles Sarah Y. Mason adapted for the screen in the 1930s.
Sarah and her husband, Victor Heerman, worked as a screenwriting team in Hollywood as the industry transitioned from silent films to “talkies.” These husband-and-wife duos were common at the time and often the only way women could get credits on major films; but unsurprisingly, the wives’ work usually went unremarked upon, whereas husbands like Victor won awards and claimed “I told her what to write” (an actual quote from Victor himself).
But even before she married Victor, Sarah had an established career. She worked as a script supervisor specializing in script continuity, one of the only women in the field at the time. She wrote original comedies for stars like Fatty Arbuckle and Zasu Pitts, and she prioritized scripts and films that featured daring heroines. Her work on the “Little Women” script eventually won a screenwriting Oscar, which she shared with her husband. At the time, that win made Sarah one of the few women honored by the Academy. The statuette remains in her family today, treasured as an heirloom.
Add to your library list:
When Women Wrote Hollywood (Rosanne Welch)
Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (Jill Nelmes, Jule Selbo)
Read more:
Sarah Y. Mason (The Women Film Pioneers Project)
Portraying Little Women Through the Ages (The New York Times)
The Lost History of LA’s Women-Only Studio Club (Vanity Fair)
10 Things to Know About ‘Little Women’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
See more:
The Victor Heerman Papers (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences)
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