From the Vault: Women in Film

This week on From the Vault, in celebration of Women’s History Month, we’ll spend some time with three women who helped shape the nature of women in the film business: Shelley Winters, Ruth Gordon, and Bette Davis. This week’s episode also serves to highlight the results of our recent collaboration with the San Francisco International Film Festival; the Festival having approached Pacifica Radio Archives in 2006 about obtaining copies of what appeared to be relatively rare recordings of notable film personalities from the 1960′s and 1970′s addressing large SFIFF audiences over the years. Upon further investigation, Archives staff discovered some real treats- magnetic audio tapes only recently rescued from a flooded basement in Berkeley, California. These recordings are part of a larger collection of recordings from the San Francisco International Film Festival, which in May 2007, celebrates it’s 50th Anniversary.

So, this week on the show, we’ll feature the Women of Film, as they appeared on stage in front of welcoming audiences in San Francisco. First, we’ll hear Shelley Winters, who passed away recently in early 2006, talk about her marriages, her unconventional looks, and her love of the craft in a memorable appearance at the Festival in 1976. Then we’ll laugh with Ruth Gordon as she chats about her playwriting, the controversial romance depicted in Harold and Maude, and working with Thornton Wilder. Finally, Bette Davis takes us out as she brings down the house with her spitfire wisecracks and wistful reminiscences of old Hollywood. Throughout the program, we’ll be joined by Marion Rosenberg, O.B.E. from the Women in Film Foundation, and Millie Gregory, author of Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood (published by St. Martin’s Press, New York).