Lois Weber and Shoes
Lois Weber
1) One of America’s most prolific female directors, Lois Weber,
came to prominence in the 1910s.
2) Having started in films in 1908 as an actress and scenarist, she was directing by 1911,
often alongside her husband Phillips Smalley.
3) Few of their early films survive, but Suspense (1913) displays a remarkable visual
inventiveness.
4) It earns its title by crosscutting between a thug breaking into an isolated house and a
husband racing to rescue his wife and baby.
5) Weber went on to direct features on her own,
6) mostly literary adaptations and films on social themes, notably The Blot (1921).
7) Like Tourneur, Weber gradually lost independent control of her work and directed only
sporadically from 1923 to 1934.
8)When her career ended, she had directed well over a hundred films.
Her masterpiece remains Shoes, a film about a shop girl named Eva Mayers as she fights against poverty, captured in her struggle to simply buy a new pair of shoes.
Shoes (Lois Weber, 1916)
Notes:
look for:
Tech innovations:
Colorization of the film
Close-ups
fades, film masks to create non-rectangular images
panoramic long shots, tracking shots
complex staging
multiple angles
Close-ups
fades, film masks to create non-rectangular images
panoramic long shots, tracking shots
complex staging
multiple angles
Joseph Beil's 3 hour score. Known as first theme song from a movie
Intertitle of open book:
One girl said that she had first yielded to temptation when she had become utterly discouraged because she had tried in vain for some months to get enough money for a pair of shoes. She habitually spent two dollars a week for room...
(Unique way to show intertitles with an open book)
(That fades and the other pages show text)
...old shoes worn twice. When the shoes became too worn to endure a third soling she posessed but ninety cents toward a new pair. She gave up the struggle and to use her own contemptuous phrase, "She sold herself for a pair of shoes."
Opening shot and then it fades out.
Intertitle: Eva Mayer earned five dollars a week in the five and ten cent store.
This guy walks out of the shoe shop and checks out the women.
Intertitle:
Arriving home, Eva opened the door and walked wearily up the stairs into the dark and food-scented hall of the Mayer's flat.
(Nice angle showing her walking up the stairs - then a pan to her walking down hallway.)
intertitle:
The door of the bedroom was ajar as she passed, and, as usual, her father lay sprawled on the bed.
intertitle:
The door of the bedroom was ajar as she passed, and, as usual, her father lay sprawled on the bed.
Shoes him like a dope looking at a book with money pictures.
Intertitle: As his daughter looked at him,
((shot with intense stare))
she longed for strength to seize him, to stand him upright and make him work for his family -
she longed for strength to seize him, to stand him upright and make him work for his family -
under the lash if necessary.
frame back again to dad laying in bed.
Intertitle:
The kitchen was filled with the Saturday night smell of corned beef and cabbage - mostly cabbage.
She comes home and hands her paycheck off to her mom. The mom puts it in her bra
(tones of comedy - guy in front of shoe store - dad looking at a book with monkeys - mom tucking money into her bra)
Intertitle:
"That'll just make up the rent. The butcher will have to wait again."
"That'll just make up the rent. The butcher will have to wait again."
Frame where she looks and talks to mom
Intertitle:
"Ain't you going to let me have the three dollars, mama? You know you promised."
up to the left the basic kitchen utensils. poor house in 1916
Intertitle:
"You can get them next week - sure."
The dad comes from the other room to sit down.
intertitle:
It was Mr. Mayer's custom to prop his book against the sugar bowl and read during the meal.
It was Mr. Mayer's custom to prop his book against the sugar bowl and read during the meal.
Another great look of death - at her father when he complains that the kids are hungry and making noise while he is trying to read.
Intertitle:
Monday morning, Eva carefully cut out a pair of soles from a cardboard box and insterted them in her shoes.
Monday morning, Eva carefully cut out a pair of soles from a cardboard box and insterted them in her shoes.
On screen she is cutting them cardboard.
Her mom is making breakfast - her young sisters are wanting to be brushed my mom and fed.
cuts back to her putting the cardboard in her shoes. and trying them out.
She is wearing the same outfit - pours coffee and sugar.
Dad wakes up and puts on shoes. beer bottle under the bed. she has a little bread with coffee.
Good shot - walking towards door and entering from other side.
Intertitle:
Mother yelling
Mother yelling
"The butcher said Saturday, he won't trust us no more till you got a job."
She nags at him while he sits down to breakfast.
She walks by the shoe store again and there is a tight close up of the shoes - perfectly framed
cross cut back home -
mom helping young daughter dress and dad getting back in bed.
She brings him his clothes to get dressed while he lights up another pipe.
He throws the clothes on the bed and then asks for money.
In other room little girls are bugging mom for something and run outside.
Mom walks sadly back and gives him money and he gets dressed.
crosscut to 5 &10 the shop girls all working hard.
Eva has a worried look on her face. There is a nail in her broken show that is hurting her
"Remember that guy that rubbered at us outside the shoe store?"
"Well, I met him again yesterday, and he wants to meet you!"
Crosscut from daughter working in store to dad complaining about the price of a paperback book. beautifully framed shot.
Intertitle: That night, very delicately, so as not to strain the tender leather, Eva removed what was left of the soiled and worn bits of cardboard.
Cut to Eva taking off old shoes.
Cut to the younger girls helping mom with the dishes
Cut to Eva yelling at her mom
Cut to mom yelling back and telling little girl to go look for Eva
asks sister to get her some hot water.
cuts to sister taking kettle off the stove
cuts to Eva soaking her feet in hot water.
cut to mom in kitchen
cut back to Eva soaking her feet - reaches for more cardboard to cut insoles for shoes.
Good build up
Intertitle:
In the smoke-laden atmosphere of the 'Blue Goose,' the Folly Quartet entertains.
Her friend goes to the nightclub.
intertitle:
The next morning it began to rain.
as Eva walks to work in the rain.
Intertitle:
In a short time her fair weather soles had soaked through, peeled off, and melted away.
In a short time her fair weather soles had soaked through, peeled off, and melted away.
Close up picture of her melted away shoes tracking shot behind her.
Then a shot of her running
Intertitle:
All day she stood on her wet, swollen feet.
Nice shot - far back viewing her from in the store.
Down at the shoes.
back at her long shot - looking discouraged 22:49
Intertitle: Sadly, she imagined a different life, one filled with luxury and pleasure.
Her fiend tells her again about the night club 23:28 fade out store fade over nightclub
I will probably use this shot...
The Blue Goose - retells the story of going to the club to her friend and how great it was.
Intertiles:
Wednesday and Thursday it continued to rain.
Wednesday and Thursday it continued to rain.
(The shop girls are leaving work)
(She doesn't have an umbrella - she stops and glances at her shoes in the shoe shop
Intertitles: There they were ... Her shoes! Poor child, she knew them by heart.
Intercuts to front door of her apartment.
cuts to mom and daughter over fry pan.
Eva walks in kitchen
Mom shows her whats in the fry pan - not much
Dad comes in from rain behind them
Mom asks him if he got a job - he's coming up with an excuse.
Intertitle:
"Other men find work!" - Eva says that and father tells her to leave the room.
Intertitle:
Every
lots of crosscuts - juxtoposing the mother or Eva hard at work and the dad lounging around.
lots of intertitles. Things getting worse and worse and shorter scenes more cross cuts.
Intertitle:
Every evening she scraped the caked mud from her bare, swollen feet.
Picture of her - laying down and soaking her feet.
crosscut to mom doing laundry and feeding the kids.
She probably does laundry for pay as a job.
cut to Eva in the chair miserable
cut to mom in the kitchen putting water in the last of the milk to stretch it
and bringing in a sandwich to Eva.
Films one side and then the other side coming in.
Eva sitting exhausted in the chair.
Intertitle:
She caught a bad cold. Her throat hurt and her head ached.
She pushes the food away from her mom.
Intertitle:
Sometimes she lay awake in the night - wide-eyed - thinking of he fate of her family.
Sometimes she lay awake in the night - wide-eyed - thinking of he fate of her family.
27:47 - she's laying in bed worrying, sharing a bed with two sisters and dad smiling away reading the paper in his bed.
Surreal it looks like it says Poverty build up with music. drum. acting to an imaginary hand.
Intertile:
By Saturday she was so uttlerly miserable that it seemed she could hardly live until that night when she would get her new shoes.
cut to her with a scarf wrapped around her neck miserable at work. Pains in her face.
Friend shows her watch that the guy bought her.
Cuts to her in the coat closet getting ready to go home.
Great use of a mirror
She's on a break from lunch
Goes and walks to the park to eat. doesn't feel like eating.
Sideview and front view close up
Women walking by with beautiful new shoes - she hides hers and
goes to eat her lunch but then stops because of the pain and puts the sandwich down.
Pretty much just sits and groans there in agony
cut over to fancy ladies getting into taxi and waving goodbye to friends.
cut back to her - miserable on the bench
She looks down at her shoes again - barely holding together
cut to new shoes on her feet.
cut to old shoes on her feet.
Close up to her face in misery
cut to a clock tower showing its time to go to work
She doesn't eat her lunch - packs it away.
Here comes the answer
Intertitle:
At last it was time to receive the blessed pay envelope
At last it was time to receive the blessed pay envelope
cut to getting the envelope
cut to in the kitchen where daughters are asking mom for something
cut to dad walking in to his bedroom from outside
(Note to self - with so much cutting there is no way this could be theater this is moving pictures- quite a few sets)
Cut to outside her apartment and her walking in.
Cut to dad striking up a match and making his bed.
Pause in the doorway as she stares at her father
She walks in happily to mom and gives her the paycheck
The mom looks away sadly
Close up of her face
Her face turning sad
Mother turning around
Intertitle:
"Ain't you going to give me the three dollars, mama?"
Intertitle:
"I can't do it, child. We've got to eat and no one will let us have anything more except for cash."
"I can't do it, child. We've got to eat and no one will let us have anything more except for cash."
Close up on Eva staring down at dad in his bedroom
Intertitle:
"I've got to have a new pair of shoes."
Intertitle:
"I've got to have a new pair of shoes."
Dad kind of looks down at her shoes
Then shoes his shoes have a little tiny hole also
Nice close up
Intertitle"
"I'll be sure to find some work, and I'll give you the money then."
Then he lays back down in bed.
(The crosscuts build up the momentum)
She gives the look of death to the camera.
The mom is worried and can see something in her face.
Intertitle:
young sister to mom "We haven't tasted meat all week, mother."
Intertitle:
young sister to mom "We haven't tasted meat all week, mother."
Begging mom to open the coin purse and give them money
She nods
cut to eva in her room - pulls down frame and sits in a chair
Does the regular - take off of shoes.
Looks at her shoes
Intertitle:
It was only a matter of hours before they would literally fall to pieces. She felt that the end had come.
She goes to the drawer to pull out the cardboard to take out a pretty top.
She starts doing her hair.
cut to mom - worried in other room.
cut to her letting out her hair
cut to mom - listening at the door
cut to her looking in a broken mirror
Taking off her work outfit.
putting on a new shirt.
cut to mom trying to feed the ckids.
cut to her dropping skirt down to cover her shoes.
puts on a blazer and a hat
cut to family in kitchen
she goes in kitchen
"Give me carfare, mama. I'm going to Lil's over Sunday."
mom looks worried but give it to her.
Shot inside the blue goose
Shot outside of the door and she is going in alone.
42:50 hanging her head down as she walks in
Intertitle:
Oh, the softness and smoothness of the deep carpet against the soles of her weary feet.
trying to hide her shoes looking up at the goodlife 43:23
The singers jump off the stage and start to sing to the customers
The swarmy guy spots the girl
smiles and licks his lips 43:59
44:05 he starts putting his hands on her right away.
He goes Comes over to sit down with her. 44:45 song mom likes
He starts to put his hands on her.
Intercut to Monday night
She's outside her apartment it says Flat For Rent
She hangs her head down as she walks in and sad music plays.
Intertitle:
How she had imagine a different life...
How she had imagine a different life...
A different life - flash of her at a fancy party - meeting people.
Intertitle:
Or even if they were not wealthy, still a comfortable home and loving family.
Or even if they were not wealthy, still a comfortable home and loving family.
Version 2 of her dream - a big house with shrubbery and her and a young fellow outside.
Her hair is down and her sisters are behind the fence or her children. Her mom is in her fantasy too. Dad comes home and they're all excited. she chats with the milkman. coyly.
She looks away shyly as he touches her hand.
Intertitle:
"Papa isn't home yet. Maybe he got a job at last."
"Papa isn't home yet. Maybe he got a job at last."
Eva - close up in tears.
Close up to new shoes
Intertitle: This flower had not had a fair chance to bloom in the garden of life. The worm of poverty had entered the folded bud and spoiled it.
She lays her head down on mama's lap and cries as mam consoles her and cries too.
Cut to dad walking in with his pipe
Mama - taps her to hide.
Intertitle:
"It's papa. He'd kill you. Quick now, sweetheart, bathe your eyes so he won't think a thing."
"It's papa. He'd kill you. Quick now, sweetheart, bathe your eyes so he won't think a thing."
Dad walks in happy to the kitchen
"I got a job for this week."
Intertitle:
Whatever happened, life must go on. Whatever boats are wrecked, the river does not stop flowing to the sea.
Whatever happened, life must go on. Whatever boats are wrecked, the river does not stop flowing to the sea.
The End.
Biography of Lois Weber. Click Here
Knew Alice Guy Blache - sang songs for her.
1913 suspense.
structural complexity.
editing
intercutting cut between three poins of action.
moment to moent cuts with tension.
three lines of narrative
more than keyhold of action.
Subjective -
way of thinking
Screen can be scuplted
screen space can be...
1914 - leader of socially conscious films
Where are my children - endorsed birth control.
Women in society
societal issues.
Loise Webber productions
What Do Men Want
power imblances.
failure - cost her her distribution deals
and forewshadowed bad era for women.
Went to Europe after The Blot
New studio systerm
Small Webber studios unable to meet.
Full independence of a filmmaker.
protect final cut.
returned 1923 - just 5 more feature films.
White Heat
a talkie - film is lost -- almost forgotten when she died
most lost to history.
Pre - hollywood - was freedom - a the hollywoood
that let Weber behind.
Notes from the YouTuber
In 1914, Lois Weber became the first female director of a feature film. She was one of the first women to own her own studio. She made films that directly engaged with social issues like abortion, capital punishment, birth control, and power imbalances between men and women - all at a time before women could vote. In the 1910s and 1920s, she was one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures, but by the time of her death in 1939 she was almost completely forgotten and bankrupt. How did we forget one of the great pioneering voices in early filmmaking? Weber’s story reveals the radical independent nature of Hollywood in the pre-studio era. For a brief time, women were free to compete with men as producers, directors, entrepreneurs, and writers. Ambition, profitable work, and innovative ideas outweighed prejudices and social norms; allowing women to carve an impressive place for themselves in the origin of early Hollywood. This was a time in Hollywood’s history when 40% of scripts were written by women. June Mathis was the highest paid executive of a major studio. The majority of post-production and editing was handled almost exclusively by women. Lois Weber used that freedom to tell stories to a global audience that were socially relevant, groundbreaking, and are now completely forgotten. The erasure of the influence of women in early Hollywood reads more like a conspiracy than an accident. The discovery of the broad role of women in the origin of our industry forces you to re-examine the contemporary exclusion of women from the cinema. It isn’t simply the case that women are working to create a new place for themselves amongst the ranks of male directors, producers, writers, and studio heads. They are working to re-claim a place that was theirs from the beginning.
In 1914, Lois Weber became the first female director of a feature film. She was one of the first women to own her own studio. She made films that directly engaged with social issues like abortion, capital punishment, birth control, and power imbalances between men and women - all at a time before women could vote. In the 1910s and 1920s, she was one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures, but by the time of her death in 1939 she was almost completely forgotten and bankrupt. How did we forget one of the great pioneering voices in early filmmaking? Weber’s story reveals the radical independent nature of Hollywood in the pre-studio era. For a brief time, women were free to compete with men as producers, directors, entrepreneurs, and writers. Ambition, profitable work, and innovative ideas outweighed prejudices and social norms; allowing women to carve an impressive place for themselves in the origin of early Hollywood. This was a time in Hollywood’s history when 40% of scripts were written by women. June Mathis was the highest paid executive of a major studio. The majority of post-production and editing was handled almost exclusively by women. Lois Weber used that freedom to tell stories to a global audience that were socially relevant, groundbreaking, and are now completely forgotten. The erasure of the influence of women in early Hollywood reads more like a conspiracy than an accident. The discovery of the broad role of women in the origin of our industry forces you to re-examine the contemporary exclusion of women from the cinema. It isn’t simply the case that women are working to create a new place for themselves amongst the ranks of male directors, producers, writers, and studio heads. They are working to re-claim a place that was theirs from the beginning.
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