The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood

by Frederica Sagor Maas

" Freddie Maas's revealing memoir offers a unique perspective on the film industry and Hollywood culture in their early days and illuminates the plight of Hollywood writers working within the studio system. An ambitious twenty-three-year-old, Maas moved to Hollywood and launched her own writing career by drafting a screenplay of the bestselling novel The Plastic Age for ""It"" girl Clara Bow. On the basis of that script, she landed a staff position at powerhouse MGM studios. In the years to come, she worked with and befriended numerous actors and directors, including Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Eric von Stroheim, as well as such writers and producers as Thomas Mann and Louis B. Mayer. As a professional screenwriter, Fredderica quickly learned that scripts and story ideas were frequently rewritten and that screen credit was regularly given to the wrong person. Studio executives wanted well-worn plots, but it was the writer's job to develop the innovative situations and scintillating dialogue that would bring to picture to life. For over twenty years, Freddie and her friends struggled to survive in this incredibly competitive environment. Through it all, Freddie remained a passionate, outspoken woman in an industry run by powerful men, and her provocative, nonconformist ways brought her success, failure, wisdom, and a wealth of stories, opinions, and insight into a fascinating period in screen history.

Genres: Biography, Film, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Media Tie In

296 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 1999

Reviews

[Michelle L · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an obituary of 111-year-old Frederica Sagor Maasthat led me to this book, just three weeks ago. I had no idea this intriguing and so 20th Century woman had existed. Her memoir is a fascinating reminiscence of a roller-coaster career as a reader, editor and screen writer in Hollywood, from the Twenties through the Fifties, written at the age of 98, and clearly she was still fully capable, both in her talent and her memories.

It's a perfectly organized re-telling of hope and frustration in a business where barracudas qualify as good souls. Personal references to some big names, powers behind and occasionally on,the big screen. Not muckraking, but a genuine, personal inside look, rooted firmly in the milieu's nature, but told as her - and eventually her husband's - personal journeys through Hollywood and history. From nude orgies to the Depression, World War II, and the McCarthy hearings.

What makes it particularly appealing is that despite her very clear point of view, there is an almost total lack of self-importance.

As leading film historian Kevin Brownlow suggests, this is must reading that will inform and infuriate. If the movie industry's American past is of any interest, read this eye-opening.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book a few years ago when I learned that the author -- a next door neighbor of my great, great-grandparents 1908-11 -- was still living at 102! (They are featured on pg. 6) I phoned her and had a wonderful conversation.

She had written this book three years earlier. She has some wonderful experiences, and reports them with untethered opinion and vigor. But her style -- weighed down by cliches -- fast becomes wearisome. Maybe we should give her a break --- she was 99 when she wrote this.

There is lots of interest here -- turn of the century Russian, secular Jewish life in Manhattan, early Hollywood, left-wing politics (McCarthy wasn't being paranoid about all the communists within the gates)

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would be better, with interesting info about moviemaking in the 1920's, and what writing screenplays for the silent screen entailed, but it turned out to be more of a pity party for Mrs. Maas. Hollywood (or at least many folks who have worked in the motion picture business over the years) has always done terrible things to people, including ripping them off, co-opting their ideas and taking the credit, and firing people on the merest whim. Frederika and Ernest Maas's treatment was not unique. But I got the feeling in reading this book that Mrs. Maas always felt that she was a special person, destined for great things, and maybe just a little bit better and smarter than everyone else. She dismisses her older sisters, all teachers, as mere "schoolmarms", and when she gets an early break as an assitant to the story editor at Universal, she mentions that her family "were impressed with my job and recognized that it was both unusual and important." I think she really needed to believe that. She actually did have some creative success early in her career, and there's no real knowing why it all fell apart. It probably didn't help that she seemed to think success was owed to her on account of her being so inherently wonderful. Success in the film business is not only about talent - it's also about making connections, impressing people, and not burning bridges. Also, if you're a writer, it helps to have an agent, which apparently, neither she nor her husband ever had until right at the end of their careers.
The other aspect of this book I wasn't thrilled with were the gossipy tidbits she offers throughout. As far as I can tell from the brief research I've done, many of these seem to be untrue, or unverifiable. She mentions a rumor about Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst having twin sons, spotting an unknown Clark Gable on some film lot in the mid-20's (so how would she have known who he was, or that the encounter was worth remembering?), and other assorted, usually mean-spirited mentions of people, famous and not-so. Every story seems designed to show herself in the best light. I do wish I could have liked Frederika Sagor Maas and her story better than I did. If I could go back in time, 1920's Los Angeles is one of the places I'd like to visit.

[Theobald Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood is the story of Frederica Sagor Maas’s experiences as a young woman trying to break into a career as a screen writer in silent-movie-era Hollywood. Born in 1900, she began writing scripts for silent movies in New York, went west to California in 1924, and continued in that dog-eat-dog environment with modest success. She wrote this book in the late 1990s, published it in 1999, and died in 2012 (no, your eyes are not deceiving you . . . she was 111 years old!). After becoming thoroughly discouraged with the business, she and her husband changed careers in the 1940s.

Her stories of silent-film days are fascinating: Clara Bow dancing nude on the table at a party; starlets brought in to lavish parties where they were doled out to the men for the evening. She was acquainted with people who are big names today, like Irving Berlin, Joan Crawford, Marian Davies, the Gershwins, Betty Grable, William Hart, Norma Shearer, Daryl Zanuck, and many others. What I found most useful to my writing were the many references to her clothes (“one was a beige woolen dress with a hand-crocheted neckline and jabot in a rose-colored yard, with a full-length coat to match, bordered with a band of handsome badger fur”) and the tidbits that concern scriptwriting (like, one time it took Maas 6 weeks to complete a screenplay), the stores on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1920s, and what the inside of the famous restaurant Musso & Frank’s looked like. These can be sprinkled into my work to give my Roaring Twenties mysteries some excellent period flavoring!

[Jon]

Like a lot of people, I'm fascinated by early Hollywood. I'd wanted to read an account of it by someone who was there and who could discuss it without a starry-eyed approach or the reverse, a melodramatic treatment a la Kenneth Anger's fun, but often inaccurate HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books...someone like former scriptwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, who is still alive (as of today) at 108! The title, THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM, refers to a film she wrote starring Betty Grable which, typically, was drastically changed for the worse from her original concept. Maas, the NY-born daughter of Russian immigrants, started at Universal's NYC headquarters in the silent days, moved to Hollywood and found work at MGM, and finally left the business after becoming too disillusioned with Hollywood ways. Great account of an independent-minded woman dealing with the movie world, told (mostly) without bitterness and with humor and compassion. Maas knew Joan Crawford when she was still Lucille LeSueur and met Fatty Arbuckle on his way down, but her own story is as interesting as any of her tales about famous film-world personalities. (I wonder, though, why she supported FDR for a 4th term but objected to "the government" locking up Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor--didn't it occur to her who was in charge of "the government" at the time?)

[David Freeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A one-of-a-kind glimpse of early Hollywood, from the perspective of a top female screenwriter from the glory years of silent pictures. Maas got her start in the late 1910s in New York, then found success in California through working on some of Clara Bow's most popular vehicles. She was there at the beginning of an industry and is now - at 109! - still around to talk about it. Her unique take on a devouring industry merits attention.

[Jesse]

Just found out the screenwriter of one of my very favorite silent films (the Garbo and Gilbert film Flesh and the Devil) is not only still alive, but at 111 is the 54th-oldest verified living person in the world. She published this when she turned 99. Whoa.

[UPDATE: Frederica Sagor Maas passed away on January 5, 2012 at 111 years old.]

[Beatriz Garza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si hablamos de CINE resulta imposible no referirse a Hollywood y mucho menos pasar por alto su Era Dorada. Por ello Frederica Sagor Maas (1900-2012) —una de las pocas mujeres guionistas de aquella época— es un testigo impagable para comprender cómo era ese universo de los «sueños», cómo funcionaba por dentro y por qué hoy es como es, sea lo que sea lo que eso signifique.

Resumen resumido: Frederica es la menor de cuatro hijas de un matrimonio de inmigrantes rusos afincados en Nueva York. Muestra ambición y curiosidad por el mundo que hay más allá del coto familiar y con tan solo 23 años abandonará la carrera de periodismo por su verdadera pasión: el cine, con un prometedor trabajo como asistente de edición de las oficinas de la Universal en Nueva York. Pero tras años de lucha y duro trabajo, la industria del cine la acabará decepcionando.

Lee la reseña completa en:

http://unlibroaldia.blogspot.com/2020...

[PVLD Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book about a successful screenwriter during the Silent age of the films. Miss Sagor’s candor in sharing her stories is so refreshing. She doesn’t drop names but mentions famous players of the time and how she interacted with them. It was nice to read about the early days of films and not just as stepping stone to the talkies. If you enjoy Hollywood stories this book is for you.

Reviewed by Leti, Librarian.

Find it at the library, here.

[Tollula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about a successful screenwriter during the Silent age of the movies. Miss Sagor’s candor in sharing her stories is so refreshing. She doesn’t drop names but mentions famous players of the time and how she interacted with them. It was nice to read about the early days of films and not just as stepping stone to the talkies.

If you enjoy Hollywood stories this book is for you.

[Kira Wiesinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

During my childhood, I had the honor of meeting Frederica several times before she died. She was family, she married my great grandmother's brother, Ernest Maas. Reading her book after her death opened my eyes to the struggles she and Ernest faced. Her resilience inspires me.

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is worth reading for fans of early Hollywood. It has a lot of details about being a writer in the industry, and about being a woman when women in the workplace were a rarity. Maas never had tremendous success; her name is not a household name. But she worked during a very exciting time and she fell deeply in love with a man she worked with. This is the most entertaining part of the book, the details about her relationship with her husband and her explanation of the loss of him, which are alternately exuberant and heartbreaking.

Fredricka Sagor was the daughter of immigrants, the youngest sibling and the most independent. She chose a writing career rather than a respectable lawyer or doctors life. She lucked into writing for a film studio when she had to cover for her alcoholic boss there. Before long she was running the show, and she had a very fine wardrobe to show for it. After a string of lovers and related film industry jobs, Sagor met Ernest Maas and promptly married him.

This story is fascinating not only for its glimpse into the not-often profiled writing industry of early Hollywood but for its solid writing style and critiques of an era that is often glamorized. Maas is not afraid to name names, but she does not attempt to scandalize them. She often expresses pity, even for those who stole her hard work.

In spite of the fact that the narrative wanders at times, this is a worthy read for a broad audience.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Straightforward clean writing style, fun to read about Hollywood in silent film era, and the position of women as writers and managers at that time - more opportunities than I'd thought. She's a real name dropper though (actual lists and lists), a tad self-aggrandizing, and really, really, bitter about how the film industry uses people - without shaping much of dramatic narrative beyond a series of anecdotes. (Perhaps cruelly, I start to wonder if she is still thinking of what will sell.) At the very end she focuses in about the long and lovely marriage she and her husband had, and that was very moving and seemed to come from the heart - but too little too late. But kudos for being still alive and writing it all down for us.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiography of Frederica Sagor Maas begins as an informative, entertaining portrait of a young female screenwriter in early Hollywood, replete with big names and behind-the-scenes details. After she meets her husband and becomes more disenchanted with the moviemaking business, the book became a little less interesting to me, though of course their experiences as collaborating writers whose material was stolen or mis-used were emotionally charged and revealing. Frederica was a smart and talented woman and I will be tracking down several of the films mentioned here, even if it sounds like her better ideas were often not carried over to the screen.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An autobiography from a remarkable woman who worked her way up from an assistant to a story editor at Universal to head screenwriter in early Hollywood. She was there from the time silent films gave way to talkies through till McCarthyism and blacklisting.

At nearly 100 years old, Sagor Maas looks back at the ups and downs of her career, including her many success, failures, friendships, and feuds.

Sagor Maas’s writing is excellent - very candid and funny - and shows that the machinations and fickleness of Tinseltown was not limited to the actors and actresses trying to make it big.

An fascinating book from a fascinating lady.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly entertaining memoir with a jaundiced eye. Mentions a lot of people—Clarence Brown remembered as a “cold, calculating hombre”, Charles Brabin remembered as a lecherous 60 year old (definitely not that old—you wonder how accurate her memories are), sad encounter with Mae Murray and her son in the 30s., and a butt-pinching episode with Joe Schecnk. Unlike nearly everyone else, she claims to have personally witnessed orgies.

[Larry-bob Roberts]

Heard about the writer and her book from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/t...

[Jotalrubio . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un gran libro de memorias de los primeros años del cine. Muy recomendable.

[Hala Pickford · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wrote this autobiography several years ago and its quite wonderful. Fascinating insights into behind the scenes Hollywood. I’ll forgive her Fatty Arbuckle hated for it.

[Devron Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone interested in Hollywood's early days. A particularly unique perspective on the silent era.