Mary C. McCall Jr.: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Most Powerful Screenwriter

In the 1930s and ’40s, screenwriter Mary C. McCall Jr. (1904–86) was a big name among Hollywood’s film elite, whose biggest box office success came from the B-level Maisie film series about a working-class showgirl. McCall was also a staunch feminist who broke down barriers and became the first woman president of the Screen Writers Guild (now the Writers Guild of America), where she diligently pursued fair wages for all screenwriters, to the displeasure of several studio heads. However, with a reputation as a labor union rabble-rouser and, later, rumors of being a communist sympathizer, McCall became a pariah within the industry by 1950. Smyth’s (Nobody’s Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood) accessible and well-researched biography highlights McCall’s personal life too; she was the daughter of New York socialites and endured a lofty first marriage and a tumultuous second one. Smyth also name-drops actors, directors, and producers from Hollywood’s Golden Age, many of whom either adored or detested McCall.