How Hollywood’s most powerful woman won and lost it all
Before she was blacklisted, Mary McCall Jr. was a hit screenwriter who partied with Bette Davis while secretly working as a union organiser and transforming the US film industry.
In the 1930s, Mary McCall Jr. was a trailblazing screenwriter who partied with Bette Davis while secretly working as a union organiser, demanding contracts and pay deals for all writers. She clashed with studio bosses, and Jack Warner famously called her the ‘meanest bitch’ in town. Mary was undeterred, and by the 1940s she had become the most powerful woman in Hollywood, transforming the American film industry. But a scandalous romance and Cold War politics would leave Mary’s career and family in tatters when she was blacklisted. Her colourful, controversial life is remembered by her daughter, Mary-David Sheiner and the film historian, J.E. Smyth.
Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Mix: Giles Aspen
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
Film archive: Dr. Socrates / Warner Bros. / William Dieterle; Maisie / MGM / Edwin L. Marin; Ringside Maisie / MGM / Edwin L. Marin; All About Eve / Joseph L. Mankiewicz / 20th Century-Fox
(Photo: Mary McCall Jr looking over a script. Credit: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
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