Cathrine Curtis
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{short description|American actress}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cathrine Curtis
| birth_name = Cathrine Taylor
| birth_date = 1889
| birth_place = Albany, New York, U.S.
| death_date = 1955
| death_place = California
| occupation = Film producer, actress, political organizer
| spouse = Joseph O'Neil, Perit Coit Myers, Jr.
}}
Cathrine Curtis (1889 - 1955){{cite book |last1=Jeansonne |first1=Glen |last2=Luhrssen |first2=David |editor1-last=Cook |editor1-first=Bernard A. |title=Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present |date=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781851097708 |pages=137–138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyZYS_GxglIC&q=%22Cathrine+Curtis%22&pg=PA137 |access-date=26 January 2019 |language=en}} was an American actress, film producer, investor, and radio personality. She was one of the first female film producers and was also a political organizer noted for her far-right and antisemitic views.
Early life
Curtis was born in Albany, New York, attended boarding school in a suburb of New York{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cq0JODUCtdcC&q=%22cathrine+curtis%22+actress&pg=RA18-PA11|title=Woman's Journal|date=1921|publisher=IPC Magazines|language=en}} and graduated from St. Agnes High School in Albany. She attended New York University but left before graduating.
Career
Curtis owned and operated a ranch in Phoenix, Arizona. She began investing in stocks at the age of 15.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womenoffarrightm00jean|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenoffarrightm00jean/page/57 57]|quote=cathrine curtis actress.|title=Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II|last=Jeansonne|first=Glen|date=1997-06-09|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226395890|language=en}} In Phoenix, one of her neighbors was the novelist Harold Bell Wright, who invited her to Hollywood to play a role in his film, The Shepherd of the Hills.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/162516858/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Who's News This Week|last=Parton|first=Lemuel F.|date=December 18, 1941|work=The Plumas Independent|access-date=January 14, 2019}}
= Hollywood career =
While working on the film, she decided that she wanted to become a producer that she would stay in Los Angeles.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/369452945/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Cathrine Curtis|date=May 25, 1921|work=The Belleville Republic County Democrat|access-date=January 14, 2019}} Her first credit as a producer was on King Vidor's 1921 silent film The Sky Pilot.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/442869216/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Cathrine Curtis to Produce Series of Movies on Home|date=June 6, 1927|work=The Post-Star|location=Glens Falls, NY|access-date=January 14, 2019}} She planned an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (ultimately released in 1925), but legal wrangling ensued over rights.{{cite web |title=Archives On The Air 172: Jurassic Conmen—Cathrine Curtis Corporation Records |url=https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/archives-air-172-jurassic-conmen-cathrine-curtis-corporation-records |website=Archives on the Air |publisher=Wyoming Public Media |access-date=8 December 2019}} She was noted as one of the only film producers of her day{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} and was notable for being the first woman in that position.{{cite journal |title=First of Her Sex in the Field of Film Production |journal=The Woman Citizen |date=February 11, 1922 |volume=VI |issue=19 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cq0JODUCtdcC&q=%22Cathrine+Curtis%22&pg=RA18-PA11 |access-date=26 January 2019}} "Curtis was if not the first, at least among the earliest of women who were only producers." Grace Kingsley's Hollywood: One hundred year old news and gossip, compiled by Lisle Foote. Adventures in Film Production: Week of August 16, 1919. https://gracekingsley.wordpress.com/tag/cathrine-curtis/ Curtis ran her own production company, The Cathrine Curtis Pictures Corporation. Created in 1919, the company had offices in New York City and Los Angeles.{{cite journal |title=Cathrine Curtis Pictures Corporation |journal=The Editor |date=September 25, 1919 |volume=51 |issue=6 |page=VII |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9hSAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Cathrine+Curtis%22&pg=RA1-PR7 |access-date=26 January 2019}} She seems to have lost interest after she married her husband, Joseph O'Neill, but continued making advertorial films through the end of the decade.
= Political leanings =
After moving back to New York City after the stock market crash, she continued investing and became a radio personality, producing a twice-weekly show, Women and Money, for WMCA, in which she began espousing a brand of feminism centered on women's financial independence. Her criticism of the New Deal eventually led to cancelation of the program.
Curtis was also a far-right activist and organizer known for her anticommunist, antisemitism, and isolationist views. She created a number of committees and organizations in her day, including the National Legion of Mothers of America and the Women's National Committee to Keep the U.S. Out of War. Her criticism of the New Deal and her lobbying on behalf of women investors{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457842093/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Congress Urged to Substitute Sound Finance Bill|date=August 4, 1935|work=The San Francisco Examiner|access-date=January 14, 2019}} led her to create the Women Investors Research Institute, a non-profit organization that grew to 300,000 members in 1939.
Personal life
Curtis was married several times; her husbands included lawyer Joseph O'Neil{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/60016196/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Pioneer Woman Movie Producer Secretly Wed|date=May 26, 1924|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|access-date=January 14, 2019}} (divorced 1929)"Catherine O'Neil Divorced: Decree Revealed by Lawyer's Suit for $5,000 for Services," New York Times, 9 Nov 1929: 40 and Perit Coit Myers Jr.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/431164568/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Thinks Public Wants More Art in Movies|date=February 26, 1926|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=January 14, 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/118951198/?terms=%22cathrine%2Bcurtis%22%2Bproducer|title=Phoenix Woman Is Head of New Film Company|date=August 23, 1919|work=The Arizona Republic|access-date=January 14, 2019}} Myers and Curtis had a daughter, Gretchen, together.
References
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Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Film producers from New York (state)
Category:American radio personalities
Category:American anti–World War II activists
Category:Actresses from Albany, New York
Category:New York University alumni
Category:American anti-communists
Category:Activists from New York (state)