A screenwriter, novelist, labor leader, Hollywood insider, and feminist, Mary C. McCall Jr. was one of the film industry’s most powerful figures in the 1940s and early 1950s. She was elected the first woman president of the Screen Writers Guild after leading the fight to unionize the industry’s writers and secured the first contract guaranteeing a minimum wage, credit protection, and pay raises. Her advocacy was not welcomed by all: To screenwriters McCall was an “avenging goddess,” but to studio heads she was, in the words of one Hollywood executive, “the meanest bitch in town.” And after a clash with the mogul Howard Hughes in the blacklist-era 1950s, she disappeared from the pages of Hollywood history.

J. E. Smyth tells McCall’s remarkable story for the first time, putting the spotlight on her trailblazing career and crucial influence. She explores McCall’s life and work, from her friendships with stars such as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney to her authorship of the hit Maisie series about a working-class showgirl’s adventures. Analyzing McCall’s deft political maneuvering, Smyth offers new insight on screenwriters’ struggle for equality and recognition. She also examines why McCall’s legacy is unrecognized, showing how the Hollywood blacklist and entrenched sexism obscured her accomplishments. Colorful and compelling, this biography provides a powerful account of how one extraordinary woman shaped golden age Hollywood.

"Though McCall is likely unfamiliar to most readers, her wit and swagger will grab their attention . . . Smyth makes a strong case that McCall’s contributions to the film industry have been unjustly overlooked. It’s a commanding reconsideration of a largely forgotten Hollywood power player." - Publishers Weekly

"Accessible and well-researched . . . Smyth deftly spotlights a sardonically witty woman and film pioneer whose contributions are little known. Film students and biography readers will be delighted." - Library Journal, starred review

"Smyth’s essential biography restores McCall to her rightful place as a trailblazer in the annals of Hollywood history." - Booklist

"A deeply researched account of not only the remarkable life of an early Hollywood screenwriter and organizer, but of Hollywood itself before and after unionization, a story of particular interest today amid the film industry’s current upheavals over technological change and declining working conditions." - Jacobin