In 1908, Weber was hired by
American Gaumont Chronophones, which produced
phonoscènes, initially as a singer of songs recorded for the
chronophone. Both
Herbert Blaché and his wife,
Alice Guy, later claimed to have given Weber her start in the movie industry. In 1910, Weber and Smalley decided to pursue a career in the infant
motion picture industry. For the next five years, they worked and were credited as The Smalleys (but typically Weber received sole writing credit) on dozens of shorts and features for small production companies like Gaumont, the New York Motion Picture Co., Reliance Studio, the
Rex Motion Picture Company, and
Bosworth, where Weber wrote
scenarios and
subtitles, acted, directed,
designed sets and
costumes, edited films, and even developed
negatives. Weber took two years off her birth date when she signed her first movie contract.
Rex Motion Picture Company , Rex Motion Picture Company ad in Moving Picture News'', 1911 By 1911, Weber and Smalley were working for
William Swanson's
Rex Motion Picture Company, based at 573–579 11th Avenue, New York City. While at Rex, Weber gained her reputation as "a serious social uplifter and as the leading partner in the Weber-Smalley unit." At the time of Rex's merger with five other studios to form the
Universal Film Manufacturing Company on April 30, 1912, Weber and Smalley were the "
prima facie heads of Rex", and had relocated to Los Angeles.
Carl Laemmle startled the film industry with his use of and advocacy for women directors and producers, including Weber,
Ida May Park and
Cleo Madison. In the autumn of 1913, shortly after the incorporation of
Universal City, Weber was elected its first mayor in a close contest that required a recount, and
Laura Oakley as police chief. At the time, Universal's publicity department claimed Universal City was "the only municipality in the world that possesses an entire outfit of women officials". In 1913, Weber and Smalley collaborated in directing a ten-minute thriller,
Suspense, based on the play
Au Telephone by
André de Lorde, which had been filmed in 1908 as ''Heard over the 'Phone'' by Edwin S. Porter. Adapted by Weber, it used multiple images and mirror shots to tell of a woman (Weber) threatened by a burglar (
Sam Kaufman). Weber is credited with pioneering the use of the
split screen technique to show simultaneous action in this film, According to Tom Gunning, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cinema and Media at the University of Chicago, and author of
D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film, "No film made before WWI shows a stronger command of film style than
Suspense [which] outdoes even
Griffith for emotionally involved filmmaking".
Suspense was released on July 6, 1913. illustrating the challenges of
cultural assimilation, especially the generational conflict over
interfaith marriage and the second generation's abandonment of the faith and customs of their ancestors. In "the earliest portrayal of a rabbi in an American film", ''The Jew's Christmas'' told the story of an
orthodox rabbi (Smalley) who ostracizes his daughter (Weber) for marrying a
gentile, but is reconciled twelve years later on Christmas Eve when he meets an impoverished small child, who turns out to be his granddaughter. Endeavoring to combat racial discrimination and
antisemitism, the film aims to show that love is stronger than any religious ties, and that "the tie of blood overbears the pride and prejudice of religion". In its assertion of "Melting-pot idealism" by its approval of intermarriage between people of different religions, the film was considered controversial at the time of its release on December 18, 1913. and the first person who "directed the first feature-length Shakespearean comedy". In February 1914, Universal released the four-reel Rex silent film which was also adapted by Weber and Smalley, and was also produced, directed, and starred Weber as Portia, and Smalley as Shylock. The film featured
Douglas Gerrard,
Rupert Julian, and
Jeanie MacPherson, who would play a major role in cinema as Cecil B. DeMille's favorite screenwriter. A "prominent rabbi in Chicago strongly objected on the grounds that the play 'more than any other book, more than any other influence in the history of the world, is responsible for the world-wide prejudice against the Jews'", but the film was praised at the time as "a supreme adaptation of Shakespeare". Robert Hamilton Ball considered the film "careful, respectful, dignified, but lacking in passion and poetry", which he attributes to the difficulty it had satisfying the censor, and because the film was a special release rather than a release on the regular programme, exhibitors had to pay extra for it, which may have contributed to its swift demise. One film that illustrates the paradoxical nature of Weber's role and films was her 1914 film
The Spider and Her Web, where she advocates both modesty and maternalism. In this film, Weber plays "The Spider", a
vamp living the "ultra-modern high life" who seduces and ruins intellectual men until frightened into adopting an orphan baby, which results in the salvation of the lead character through motherhood. in the summer of 1914 Weber was persuaded to move to the Bosworth company by
Julia Crawford Ivers, the first woman general manager of a film studio, on a $50,000 a year contract, making her "the best known, most respected and highest-paid" of the dozen or so women directors in Hollywood at that time. In fact, by 1915 Weber was as famous as
D.W. Griffith and
Cecil B. de Mille. "Energized by
evangelistic zeal and social conscience", from early in her career Weber saw movies as "a vehicle for evangelism", and to encourage her audience to be involved in
progressive causes. In moving pictures I have found my life's work. I find at once an outlet for my emotions and my ideals. I can preach to my heart's content, and with the opportunity to write the play, act the leading role, and direct the entire production, if my message fails to reach someone, I can blame only myself.As many of Weber's films focused on a moral topic, she "was often mistaken as a
Christian fundamentalist, but she was more of a
libertarian, opposing censorship and the death penalty and championing birth control. The need for a strong, loving and nurturing home was clearly promoted as well and if there was a single maxim that underlay each film it was that selfishness and egocentricity erode the individual and community". Weber attended the Christian Science church regularly, according to
Adela Rogers St. Johns, and, in at least two of her films,
Jewel (1915) and its remake,
A Chapter in Her Life (1923), Christian Science plays a prominent role. Weber's impeccable reputation and "impressive middle-class credentials" allowed her considerable artistic freedom in her presentation of controversial issues. In 1914, Weber made her first major feature, with truth portrayed in the ghostly figure of the Naked Truth, literally shown by an unidentified nude woman (Margaret Edwards). Margaret Sinclair Edwards (born 1877, New York City – died January 14, 1929, New York City), known on the stage as "Daisy Sinclair", appeared with the theatrical companies of
Edward Harrigan,
Eddie Foy, and
Gus Edwards, among others. Her husband, John Edwards, an invalid, died the same year she did (1929). She appeared as Marguerite Edwards in
A Physical Culture Romance in 1914, and in Weber's
Sunshine Molly in 1915. Although the nudity was tastefully done (it was passed by the
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures after a two-month delay), it was still
banned in Ohio; caused riots in New York; and
James Michael Curley, the mayor of Boston, demanded that every frame displaying the naked figure of Truth be hand-painted to clothe the then unidentified actress.
Hypocrites was released finally by Bosworth on January 15, 1915, and premiered at Manhattan's prestigious
Longacre Theatre, While its
negative cost was $18,000, it earned $119,000 in sales in the United States alone and made Weber "a household name".
Universal In April 1915, Weber and Smalley left Bosworth when
the founder left the company due to ill health. Weber's first movie for Universal was
Scandal, in which both Weber and Smalley starred, that featured the consequences of gossip mongering. Universal head Carl Laemmle, "who was known more for his frugality and cunning business sense than philanthropy", said of Weber: "I would trust Miss Weber with any sum of money that she needed to make any picture that she wanted to make. I would be sure that she would bring it back." Also in 1916, Weber became the first and only woman inducted into the
Motion Picture Directors Association. In 1916, Weber explained her philosophy of directing films: "I'll never be convinced that the general public does not want serious entertainment rather than frivolous", and "A real director should be absolute. He (or she in this case) alone knows the effects he wants to produce, and he alone should have authority in the arrangement, cutting, titling or anything else that may seem necessary to do to the finished product. What other artist has his work interfered with by someone else?... We ought to realize that the work of a picture director, worthy of a name, is creative". In February 1916, Weber and Smalley were transferred to Universal's Bluebird Photoplays brand, where they made a dozen features, Russian ballerina
Anna Pavlova's only screen appearance, which was directed to Pavlova's satisfaction by Weber. Released to popular acclaim, it premiered on April 3, 1916, at the
Globe Theatre in Manhattan. Hoping to "become the editorial page of the studio", Weber specialized in making films that stressed both high quality and moral rectitude, including films of the "burning social and moral issues of the day", and alcoholism and
opium addiction in ''
Hop, the Devil's Brew'', which were all successful at the box office, Despite the predominance of strong women in her films, in 1916 Weber disassociated herself from the
women's suffrage movement. In
Where Are My Children? (
working title:
The Illborn), which was released on April 16, 1916, Weber advocates social purity,
birth control, and
eugenics to prevent the "deterioration of the race" and the "proliferation of the lower classes", and makes "an indirect case for birth control or perhaps even for legalized, and safe, abortions". The film starred
Tyrone Power Sr. and his then-wife Helen Riaume; future star
Mary MacLaren made her debut. It also makes use of several
trick photography scenes, with an emphasis on
multiple exposures to convey information or emotions visually. As a recurring
motif, every time a character becomes pregnant, a child's face is double exposed over their shoulder. In March 1916, the
National Board of Review expressed disapproval of the film for showings to mixed audiences, but later approved it for adult showings. It was banned in Pennsylvania on the grounds that it "tended to debase or corrupt morals", but Universal won a case in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1916 to show the film after the district attorney filed suit against the theater manager and the Universal exchange president. in an era where ticket prices were less than 50c each, The film spread Weber's fame internationally. For example, Kevin Brownlow indicates that this film attracted 30,000 in
Preston, Lancashire, 40,000 in
Bradford, Yorkshire, and 100,000 in two weeks in Sydney. In 2000, the
Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center copyrighted a preservation print reconstructed from several incomplete prints.
Shoes, a "sociological" film released in June 1916 that Weber directed for the
Bluebird Photoplays, was based on
Stella Wynne Herron's short story of the same name, which had been published in Collier's magazine earlier that year. Herron took inspiration from noted social reformer
Jane Addams's 1912 book
A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. The nonfiction book depicts the struggles of working-class women for consumer goods and
upward mobility and their dubious sexual activities, including prostitution. Starring Mary Maclaren as Eva Meyer, a poverty-stricken shopgirl who supports her family of five, who needs to replace her only pair of shoes, and is so desperate that she sells her virginity for a new pair, it proved to be the most booked Bluebird production of 1916. made its debut in North America in July 2011. A scene from the restored "Shoes" showing architect
John B. Parkinson's 1910 design for Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles has been used by the grassroots Pershing Square Restoration Society in promoting their campaign to restore the historic park. After another significant censorship battle, and a vigorous publicity campaign by Universal, on May 13, 1917, Universal released
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, "one of the most forceful films ever made in support of legalizing birth control", a follow-up to the previous year's top money-maker for Universal,
Where Are My Children? Directed by Weber and Smalley based on their original script, it starred Smalley and Weber, in her last screen appearance, as a doctor's wife arrested and imprisoned for illegally disseminating family planning information. Influenced by the recent trial and imprisonment of pioneer birth control advocate
Margaret Sanger, and the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals that a film on family planning may be censored "in the interest of morality, decency, and public safety and welfare". Sensitive to the opinions of local communities, and hoping to avoid powerful censorship boards in the northeast and midwest,
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was distributed primarily in the southern and western regions of the United States, with the result that it did not attain the record-breaking attendance set by
Where Are My Children? the previous year. with the financial assistance of Universal. Smalley was made
studio manager, and the Smalleys made their home on the studio lot According to film historian Shelley Stamp, while Weber and Smalley were often co-credited as directors, it was "the wife who clearly had the artistic vision to drive the business partnership forward". and Weber increasingly took credit for her contributions after 1917. Weber consciously resisted the industry's movement toward assembly-line-style studio film making. "By concentrating on only one production at a time, and mobilizing her entire workforce around that effort, Weber aimed for quality film making rather than efficient bookkeeping". Weber's independence allowed her to shoot her films in sequence, as she preferred (rather than out of order to suit production schedules). While Weber's beliefs reflected modern values, as did her career as a filmmaker that was atypical for women of her era, she had "internalized much of what the
Victorians deemed proper behavior for women", and there are "strong elements of the Victorian code of womanhood in her films". The Smalleys exemplified and promoted the Victorian ideal of marriage as companionship and a partnership. After the United States entered World War I, Weber served on the board of the Motion Picture War Service Association, headed by
D. W. Griffith and including
Mack Sennett,
Charlie Chaplin,
Mary Pickford,
Douglas Fairbanks,
William S. Hart,
Cecil B. DeMille, and
William Desmond Taylor. The Association raised funds for the construction of a thousand-bed hospital. In 1918, the
Fox Film Corporation hired Weber to direct
Queen of the Seas, in which
Annette Kellerman swam and dove naked. However, she was replaced eventually by
John G. Adolfi. In September 1918, Weber broke her left arm in two places when she slipped on the floor and fell in
Barker Brothers, a downtown
Los Angeles furniture store, forcing her to be hospitalized in the
California Hospital. Weber's arm was still causing her trouble seven months later.
Anita Stewart Productions Despite continuing to work at Universal, and renting out her studio to other independent producers, including
Marshall Neilan, Weber found it difficult to pay the bills and to find the capital to finance her own productions. In a letter to Weber, Mayer proclaimed: "My unchanging policy will be great star, great director, great play, great cast. You are authorized to get these without stint or limit. Spare nothing, neither expense, time, or effort. Results only are what I'm after." Weber made two films with Stewart as the lead:
A Midnight Romance and
Mary Regan, both released in 1919 to mixed reviews.
Famous Players–Lasky Needing finances, in July 1919 Weber signed a contract with
Famous Players–Lasky to direct five films to be distributed through
Paramount-Artcraft for $50,000 each, plus one-third of the profits, and guaranteed first-run bookings in Paramount theaters. later the home of
Preston Sturges in the 1940s. In October 1920, Weber purchased the studio facilities at 4634
Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, near Sunset Boulevard, which she had been leasing for the previous three years. By February 1921, Weber was at the zenith of her career, regarded "as fearless in the production of her pictures as she once was in her struggle for a living, and her indubitable position is that of one of the best directors of the screen." In an effort to protect the American film industry, by 1921 Weber advocated the prohibition of the importation of all European films into the United States. In May 1921, Weber anticipated the possibility of both color and "
three-dimensional films". Following "the cinematic rumination on modern marriage begun by
Cecil B. DeMille" and like other post-war filmmakers, Weber turned her attention toward marriage and domestic life to honor her deal with Famous Players–Lasky with such melodramas as
To Please One Woman, ''What's Worth While?
Too Wise Wives
, and What Do Men Want?'' but also because her "values became increasingly archaic; her moralising, propagandistic tone was unsuited to the era of the
'flapper' girl and a
hedonism that seemed all the more urgent". By this time her "morally upright films bored modern audiences", her crusading was unwanted, and her views were considered "quaint". Her fall from favor was also due to her inability or unwillingness to adapt to changing audience tastes, After an advance screening in February 1921, Paramount executives decided not to distribute the fourth film in their arrangement with Weber,
What Do Men Want? by April 1921, Lois Weber Productions collapsed, and Weber was forced to release all her contracted staff, with the exception of two novice actors. While she would direct a few other movies, effectively her career as a Hollywood director was over. Starring
Claire Windsor and
Louis Calhern,
The Blot was her masterpiece, and probably Weber's best-known film today. "Weber's basically Christian
ethos shines clearly through this plot: the text disapproves of both the new consumerist immigrant class, and the old aristocratic one". Weber advocates learning,
asceticism, and service to the needy. To tell with maximum realism this story of a college professor's family – hardworking but with only a meager income – Weber filmed in real houses, using a special
lighting rig, and gave supporting roles to non-actors. To emphasize this film was a woman-centered narrative, in a "radical departure from Hollywood practice", Weber used point-of-view cutting from the perspective of the professor's wife. For decades,
The Blot was considered a
lost film, until it was rediscovered by the
American Film Institute in 1975 and was reconstituted and restored by
Robert Gitt of the
UCLA Film & Television Archive in 1986 from an incomplete negative and an incomplete print. After the film's premiere at Manhattan's
Lyric Theatre on November 13, 1921,
The New York Times, while praising Weber for her casting and the technical aspects of the film, and also the performance of Claire Windsor, dismissed the film as a "simplified sermon" that provided "pat answers" which ignored "the real facts of life", which it considers "incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial". Soon after the New York City premiere of
The Blot, and in an attempt to salvage their troubled marriage, Weber and Smalley sailed for Europe with Weber's sister and brother-in-law, Ethel and Louis A. Howland. They ultimately traveled for six months through Europe, Egypt, China, and India. In late December 1921, they were in Rome, with plans to travel to the Orient. Weber and Smalley returned to the United States on April 7, 1922. On June 24, 1922, Weber obtained a divorce secretly from Smalley, who was described as both alcoholic and abusive, but kept him as a friend and companion. based on the 1903 novel
Jewel: A Chapter in her Life by Clara Louise Burnham, and a remake of a 1915 film called
Jewel, which she had directed previously with Smalley.
A Chapter in Her Life was part of "a slate of literary adaptations Universal released that year, headlined by
Lon Chaney's
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and marketed under the tag line "Great Pictures made from Great Books with Great Exploitation Tieups." However, according to Stamp, "Without a chain of theaters under its control, like emerging studio giants MGM and Paramount, Universal now occupied a significantly different market position than it had during the height of Weber's career there in the mid-1910s. With the bulk of urban, first-run theaters closed to Universal, the studio now relied on independent theaters mainly located in small towns and rural areas. Nor was the studio home to the female directing talent it had once been—Weber was now on her own."
Hiatus While Weber was praised for her direction in
A Chapter in Her Life, "critics felt the film's subject matter – a young girl whose love and faith transform the troubled adults in her life – was ultimately out of step with the times.
Film Daily dubbed the material 'old fashioned', with other critics objecting to the film's '
Pollyanna' themes." After suffering a nervous collapse in 1923, Weber made no movies until 1925. By the end of January 1925, Weber announced her engagement to Captain Harry Gantz (born in
Deadwood, South Dakota, on September 4, 1887; died August 11, 1949, in
Cairns, Queensland, Australia), a retired army officer who had served as a
second lieutenant in the
Philippine Constabulary from 1907 to 1911, then as a second lieutenant in company C of
the 23rd Infantry from 1912 to 1915. In October 1914, Gantz transferred from the 23rd Infantry to the
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, and became a pioneer aviator during the
Pancho Villa Expedition, making him an
early bird of aviation. On September 1, 1915, Gantz married Beatrice Wooster Miller. At the time of his engagement to Weber, Gantz was a wealthy orange rancher and the owner of the 140-acre El Dorado Ranch in
Fullerton, California. Gantz is credited with bringing Weber "out of a retirement which was more nearly a despondent withdrawal from public life".
Universal In January 1925, Weber returned once again to Universal, hired by
Carl Laemmle to take charge of all story development for a $5 million production initiative based around the adaptation of popular novels. Universal released one major big-budget film each year, including
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1923) and
The Phantom of the Opera (1925), both starring
Lon Chaney Sr. After two unsuccessful previews, in 1925 Weber and
Maurice Pivar were assigned to re-edit
The Phantom of the Opera before its ultimate release in September 1925. Another novel which Universal decided to film was ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin'', for which Weber completed an adaptation for a film to be directed in 1926 by
Harry A. Pollard, who had starred as Uncle Tom in a
1913 version and was, by 1923, Universal's leading director, with nine consecutive hits. It starred
Francis X. Bushman and brought contract player
Billie Dove to international prominence. It was released on September 12, 1926. By June 1926, Weber was signed to direct
Sensation Seekers, a romantic drama based on Ernest Pascal's novel
Egypt, that also starred
Billie Dove. However, just before her wedding, Weber replaced Pollard as director of ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin'', as he had been hospitalized in Manhattan with blood poisoning and a shattered jaw caused by the "maltreatment" of a tooth infection by a New York dentist. Weber ceased work on
Sensation Seekers and was willing to interrupt her honeymoon to travel to
Louisiana to direct the location scenes for ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. On June 15, the
Los Angeles Times reported Gantz had obtained a license to marry Weber. On June 30, 1926, a
justice of the peace married the couple in a ceremony at Enchanted Hill, the home of screenwriter
Frances Marion in
Santa Ana, California. At their wedding, Weber reduced her age by nine years to 38 to match her new husband. In 1927, Smalley married music teacher Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin. After five months during which his life was in serious jeopardy, and six jaw operations, Weber returned to direct
Sensation Seekers, which was released on March 20, 1927.
United Artists In November 1926, Weber joined
United Artists to direct a comedy film called
Topsy and Eva based on a popular play of that name written by
Catherine Chisholm Cushing, featuring the
Duncan Sisters in
blackface. Weber had adapted from
the original novel when she was attached to the Universal version of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. She attempted to make another serious adaptation, but the studio decided that it should be a comedy rather than a drama. After some shooting by Weber, she thought some of the scenes to be shot were insulting to African Americans, including such "racist humor as a stork dropping a black baby into a trash can". By 1927, Weber advised young women to avoid filmmaking careers. In 1927 DeMille Pictures signed Weber to direct her final silent movie,
The Angel of Broadway, which featured
Leatrice Joy, released on October 3, 1927. However, the advent of sound technology and the demise of silent movies, coupled with some negative reviews and poor box office receipts, ended Weber's comeback in 1927.
Nadir By February 1927, Weber owned and operated Lois Weber's Garden Village at 4633 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. In the late 1920s, Weber and Gantz sub-divided the El Rancho ranch, creating the upscale "Brookdale Heights" (now at West Brookfield Place), Fullerton, with the 300–400 residential lots advertised for $1,500 to $3,000 each, and houses priced at $8,000 to $9,000 each. On another part of their acreage, the Gantzes built a Spanish-style residence with a tower retreat for Weber at 225 W. Union Ave. When Weber was asked in April 1928 when she might direct again, she replied "when I find a producer who thinks I have intelligence enough to be let alone and go ahead with my own unit." Five years elapsed before Weber got the opportunity again. While Weber and Gantz appeared to be enjoying domestic harmony in March 1930, soon afterward Weber was separated from Gantz and was living with her mother and nephew in Los Angeles. In 1931, Gantz sold the El Dorado ranch to C. Stanley Chapman, the son of
Charles C. Chapman. By 1932, Weber was still separated from Gantz and was managing an apartment building in
Fullerton, California. In February 1932, Universal released a condensed version of
Shoes called
The Unshod Maiden, complete with satirical narration.
Final comeback Through the intervention of
Frances Marion, by early June 1932 Weber was hired by
United Artists as a
script doctor with Marion. In February 1933, Universal signed Weber to scout for new talent and to direct screen tests. Within weeks, Weber had interviewed 250 girls and young women from dramatic schools. In 1933, Universal offered Weber another directing contract, assigning her to
Edna Ferber's
Glamour, but she was removed from the project abruptly and it was transferred to a reluctant
William Wyler. Weber and Gantz spent five weeks on location in
Kauai, Hawaii, from August 24, 1933, as she had been hired by the
Seven Seas Corporation to direct
Virginia Cherrill (then the fiancée of
Cary Grant) and
Mona Maris in
Cane Fire, a tale of racial prejudice and
miscegenation on a Hawaiian sugar plantation. Made on a low budget on the plantations of the Kekaha Sugar Company and the Waimea Sugar Company and at Alexander McBryde's Lawai Kai estate, it was the first film shot on the island of Kauai. It was released as
White Heat by the Pinnacle Production Company on June 15, 1934, to limited "commercial and critical success", with Weber quoted as saying at the time that the film "was not a hit but will not lose any money".
White Heat proved to be her final film, and her only
talkie. It was shown on television on Friday, June 21, 1940, on NBC's station W2XBS, but is now considered a
lost film. ==Later years and death==