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Marian Constance Blackton

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Marian Constance Blackton
BornJanuary 18, 1901
DiedDecember 12, 1993 (aged 92)
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, actress
FatherJ. Stuart Blackton

Marian Constance Blackton (January 18, 1901 – December 12, 1993) was an American screenwriter and actress active primarily in the 1920s. She was sometimes credited as Marian Constance.

Biography

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Marian was the daughter of film producer J. Stuart Blackton and his wife, Isabelle Mabel MacArthur. Her siblings include filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton Jr., actor Charles Stuart Blackton (half-brother), and actress Violet Virginia Blackton.

She grew up on film sets, thanks to her father's career, and knew early on that she wanted to get into the industry for herself. "Location trips with my father's company were my idea of heaven," she once remarked.[1]

She got her start as a script girl for her father's films at Vitagraph, before establishing a name for herself via her adapted screenplays. She used her position to change the way women were being portrayed at the company: "They began to show some guts. They stopped fluttering. … In short, they stopped being my father's ideal woman," she'd later write.[2]

She was married twice: first to actor Gardner James,[3][4] a marriage that ended quickly in divorce;[5] and later to filmmaker Laurence Trimble, a marriage that lasted until his death.[6]

Marian Blackton Trimble wrote a personal biography of her father that was edited by film historian Anthony Slide.[7][8]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Nelmes, Jill; Selbo, Jule (2015-09-29). Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Springer. ISBN 9781137312372.
  2. ^ "7 Jun 1925, 76 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  3. ^ "27 Dec 1926, 3 - Tampa Bay Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  4. ^ "22 Dec 1926, 36 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  5. ^ "30 Oct 1928, Page 27 - Oakland Tribune at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  6. ^ "9 Feb 1954, 5 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  7. ^ Howard, Cameron (September 27, 2013). "Marian Constance Blackton". Women Film Pioneers Project. Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  8. ^ Trimble, Marian Blackton (1985). Slide, Anthony (ed.). J. Stuart Blackton: A Personal Biography by His Daughter. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810817654.
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