In the development of the 1925 epic film of Ben-Hur, June Mathis, played a critical role until she was removed from the project early in the filming. After the replacement of Ms. Mathis women did not play a significant role in upper management in the film industry for almost 30 years. As it turns out, while she was the last woman to play a significant role in the movie industry for many decades and she was an early leader, she was not the first woman to play such a role in the industry or in the filming of Ben-Hur.
The first filming of Ben-Hur was done in 1907 by the Kalem Studio of New York and Gene Gauntier played a critical role. Gene Gauntier (born Genevieve Gauntier Liggett in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri) was the middle child of three children born to James Wesley and Ada J. Gauntier Liggett. At the age of 19, in 1904, she began her career in the theater in New York. She used the name Gene Gauntier on stage and began acting in early films while still active on the stage.
As she wrote in her 1928 autobiography Blazing the Trail, “My funds were running low, and in a vague way I thought of the new opening for actors – moving pictures, but, like the rest of the legitimate profession, I looked on them with contempt and felt sure that my prestige would be lowered if I worked in them.” She began her film career in 1906, when she was hired as a daredevil stunt actor for Biograph Studio’s film The Paymaster. It was a one-reeler where she played a damsel in distress thrown into a river. Of more lasting importance to Gauntier than the film itself, was her introduction to Sidney Olcott and Frank Marion. Both men became long-time associates.
In 1907, she began working as an actress for Kalem Studios, quickly becoming one of their stars, dubbed the “Kalem Girl.” In 1907, Tom Sawyer became the first of over 300 screenplays that Gene wrote. Also in 1907, she wrote the script for The Days of ’61, the first film ever made about the Civil War, and she wrote the screenplay for and reportedly acted in the first filming of Ben-Hur. The 1907, Ben-Hur, was groundbreaking in ways planned and unplanned! As she wrote, “I was not familiar with Ben Hur and the mere reading of the book would take two days. But this time my self-confidence [in writing] was unlimited and I promised. What is more by dint of working nearly two nights I turned in the script on schedule…and we turned out the greatest spectacle and money-maker up to that time.”
When Ben-Hur was released in 1907, it was a great success, but Henry Wallace, Lew’s son, who controlled his father’s estate was not pleased. There were no copyright laws to protect authors and Gene admitted in later years that the film industry infringed upon everything! Henry Wallace, together with the book’s publishers Harper & Brothers, and the stage producers Klaw and Erlanger filed suit to shut the film down. Gauntier was included in this lawsuit. Kalem counter sued and the case travelled through the court system all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Wallace estate. It settled the question of American copyright law for the film industry and the settlement was an expensive loss for Kalem.
While the Ben-Hur litigation was working its way through the legal system, Gene continued working with Sidney Olcott and became the studio’s most productive screenwriter. As Gene wrote: In addition to playing the principal parts, I also wrote, with the exception of a bare half-dozen, every one of the five hundred or so pictures in which I appeared. I picked locations, supervised sets, passed on tests, co-directed with Sidney Olcott, cut and edited and wrote captions (when in the United States), got up a large part of the advertising matter, and, with it all, averaged a reel a week. It was work in those days—but creative work, blazing the trail. We were always discovering new possibilities, and each little success or surprise fed our enthusiasm. Mr. Olcott and I had no one over us. I scarcely ever submitted a scenario and never while abroad. The Kalem [Studio] never knew what our picture was to be until they saw the first run in the projection room. We would have risked our lives (and did many times) out of sheer love for, and loyalty to the Kalem. For four years the same friends were together and we were known as the O’Kalems, and later, during the oriental tour, as the El Kalems.
In 1910, she appeared in The Lad from Old Ireland, considered the first film shot on location outside of the United States. Among her most significant films was From the Manger to the Cross in 1912. Turner Classic Movies considers this the most important silent film to deal with the life of Jesus and it has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In this film, Gene portrayed the Virgin Mother, Mary. Her husband, Jack Clark portrayed John the Apostle. The movie was filmed in Egypt and Palestine and when released it netted Kalem approximately one million dollars. In 1912, You Remember Ellen by Gauntier was also released after having been filmed in Ireland. Many of the Kalem films at this time were filmed overseas.
In late 1912, frustrated with increasing oversight and perhaps as a result of the Supreme Court ruling on Ben-Hur, Gauntier left the Kalem Company and started her own independent firm, Gene Gauntier Feature Players Company along with Sidney Olcott and her actor husband, Jack Clark. While unusual, she was not the only woman to start her own independent company in the 1910s—a time when some women were able to control aspects of the film industry. Sidney Olcott left Gene’s company after little more than a year to start his own company. Her company continued for just another year, closing in 1915.
Notable films she created with her company included, The Civil War (1912), A Daughter of the Confederacy (1913) (adapted from Wallace Reid’s stage play), Mystery of Pine Camp (1913), When Men Hate (1913), For Ireland’s Sake (1914), A Daughter of Old Ireland (1914), and The Eye of the Government (1914). These are just a few of the hundreds of movies she was involved with creating.
When her company closed, Gene moved to Hollywood and signed on with Universal Pictures. Her relationship with Universal was very brief and she worked much less in the coming few years. In 1918, she divorced Jack Clark, and it seems her enthusiasm for the film industry waned. This combined with less and less control over her career in Hollywood led Gene to basically quit the industry in 1920 at the age of thirty-five. In 1924, she said, “I was worn out and had lost enthusiasm, without which we cannot, of course, progress. My work in pictures had been too difficult, my strength was sapped, and it had become drudgery, especially the new way in which they were produced […] After being master of all I surveyed, I could not work under the new conditions. Domestic tragedy [her divorce] was the finishing touch and I was glad to get out while I could still retain some pleasant memories of the good old days.”
For a woman as driven and independent as Gene, leaving the film industry allowed her to pursue other interests. Her sister, Marguerite, was an opera singer in Europe who trained and worked in Germany. Gene was visiting Marguerite when World War I broke out and was trapped in Germany for part of the war. This may have also contributed to her lack of interest in returning to Hollywood. In 1909, Marquerite had married, Axel Wenner-Gren, who became one of the wealthiest men in the world in the 1930s with his diverse business interests. (Note: Axel is worth a Google search!)
When Gene returned to the United States she worked as a film and drama critic for the Kansas City Post for a short time and then returned to Europe where she remained for several years and wrote her autobiography, Blazing the Trail. The Woman’s Home Companion magazine serialized her autobiography in 1928 and 1929. She also wrote a couple of novels. She passed away in 1966 in Cuernavaca, Mexico at the age of 81 and was buried next to her sister and brother-in-law in Sweden.
June 11, 1914, was declared Gauntier Day at the International Exposition of Motion Pictures because of Gene’s contribution to the industry. By the time of her passing she had been out of the film industry for over 40 years and her contributions were largely forgotten. After her time “… the new way in which they [films] were produced” left women relegated to lesser roles in the industry. Her leadership and that of June Mathis, among others, was seldom noted. Gene was interviewed for a Photoplay magazine article on women in the early film industry published in 1924 entitled: Unwept, Unhonored, and Unfilmed—they may have expressed it best.
