Leading the fight for gender equity in Hollywood since 1973.
WIF’s History is a Timeline of Historic Activism and Hollywood Firsts
Joan Micklin Silver, who began directing in the 1970s.
Barbra Streisand, who made her directorial debut with Yentl in the 1980s.
Julie Dash, whose 1991 film Daughters of the Dust was the first feature directed by an African American woman to be theatrically released in the U.S.
Lilly Wachowski, who along with her sister Lana transformed the Hollywood blockbuster in the 2000s.
Ava DuVernay, who began directing films in the 2010s and has turned into a producing powerhouse.
Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win the Best Directing Oscar for 2020’s Nomadland.
1970s
1973: Women In Film founded by Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter
1977: Women In Film launched the Crystal Awards to honor outstanding women who, through the excellence of their work, helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. At the first Crystal Luncheon, honorees included Lucille Ball, screenwriter Eleanor Perry, actress and director Nancy Malone, and attorney Norma Zarky.
1978: Nancy Malone creates The Zarky Award for a man who “significantly helps women to achieve their goals, or whose own work celebrates achievements of women.” Gareth Wigan (agent, producer and influential Sony Pictures executive) received the first award.
1980s
1980: A standing committee, made up of Barbara Boyle, Margot Winchester, Meredith MacRae, and Bonny Dore, was formed to create the Women In Film Foundation, which was finalized in 1982.
1984: The Crystal Humanitarian Awardfor Women of Courage was created by Nancy Malone, recognizing women whose achievements go beyond career goals to issues—such as poverty, education, or medical advances.
1984: TheFilm Finishing Fundis created by Diane Asselin, Phylis Geller and Mollie Gregory, providing annual cash awards and in-kind production services to ensure that innovative films could be completed and seen by audiences worldwide.
1990s
1993: A Mentoring Program, where members have the opportunity to discuss career objectives and strategy with peers and entertainment leaders, and WIF Internships were developed.
1994: The Lucy Award for innovation in television was established to pay tribute to the great star, comedienne, producer, director, studio owner, and creator—Lucille Ball. The first awards were given to Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Gary David Goldberg, and Susan Lucci.
1998: Nancy Malone and Barbara Streisand create The Dorothy Arzner Directors Award, given at the Crystal Awards show, to highlight women directors.
2000s
2008: The first Women In Film Oscar Nominees Eventis held, celebrating all the women nominated for Academy Awards, in order to foster community and collaboration between women, behind and in front of the camera.
2010s
2015: The ACLU asked the EEOC to investigate gender discrimination in Hollywood using research commissioned by Women In Film and Sundance as the basis for their letter to the EEOC asking the Commission to investigate systemic failure to hire women directors at all levels of the film and television industry. Once the investigation was open, WIF referred filmmakers and executives for interviews with the EEOC.
2015: Women In Film and Sundance Institute, led by Cathy Schulman and Keri Putnam, launch the Systemic Change Project (later named ReFrame), gathering 44 industry elites at a two-day summit in Los Angeles. The program’s goal is to provide research, support, and a practical framework that can be used by partner companies to mitigate bias during the creative decision-making and hiring process, celebrate successes, and measure progress toward a more gender-representative industry on all levels.
2017: In the wake of #MeToo, the WIF Help Line is founded to address sexual harassment and misconduct in the industry.
2020s
2020: Women In Film rebrands as WIF in order to become more inclusive, and debuts new logo, branding, and website.
2020: WIF launches the Hire Her Back initiative; a pandemic program that provided financial assistance to women who were out of work and encouraged entertainment employers to achieve gender and racial equality in hiring and re-hiring as they move toward returning to film and television production.
2020: WIF creates the Black Member Forum, a program supporting WIF’s Black members’ wellness and professional development in the entertainment industry.
2022: WIF announces Entrepreneurial Pathways Initiative; releases study highlighting grave disparities in funding for women entrepreneurs in the screen industries.
2023: WIF launches a 50th Anniversary Campaign to honor its legacy and lay the groundwork for its future as a continued leader in the fight for gender equity.
For more WIF history, read Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood (2003), written by former Women In Film Board President Mollie Gregory (1937–2022).
Cathy Schulman, a Best Picture Academy Award® winning producer and veteran film executive, is the president and CEO of Welle Entertainment, a film and television production and finance company that opened its doors in 2017. Schulman was most recently the Head of Production for STX Entertainment. Having joined the company as one of its initial senior executives, Schulman managed an annual twelve picture slate. Recent films under Schulman’s purview include the Summer 2016 hit Bad Moms, written and directed by The Hangover’s Jon Lucas and Scott Moore and starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate; and the critical darling The Edge of Seventeen, written and directed by Kelly Freemon Craig, and starring Woody Harrelson and Hailee Steinfeld, for whom it garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Under her own Bull’s Eye Entertainment banner, Schulman produced Crash, directed by Paul Haggis and starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard. In addition to Schulman receiving the film’s Best Picture Oscar in 2006, Crash received Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. Among many of the notable films Schulman has produced are Horns, Voices, Bernie, Soul Surfer, Thumbsucker, and The Illusionist. She also developed and arranged the financing for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.
Schulman was the Board President of Women In Film, the industry’s leading advocacy organization for women in media, from 2011 through 2018, and in 2019 she received WIF’s Crystal Award for Advocacy. Schulman is also a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a USC Stark Program producer’s mentor and has taught graduate level film producing at UCLA and the Dodge College of Film Media and Arts at Chapman University, where she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. She has also served as a judge for the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards. She is a notable industry spokesperson and public speaker and most recently gave the 2016 media address for International Woman’s Day at the United Nations. Schulman is a graduate of Yale University, with a double major in Theater Studies and History of Art. She is the mother of one daughter and resides in Los Angeles, California.
Jane Fleming is a founding partner with Mark Ordesky in Court Five, a multi-platform media company focused on developing and converting diverse intellectual property and brands into bold filmed entertainment for distribution in all media worldwide. Over the last three years, she has been a prolific producer of films and television, including Lovely Molly, The Frozen Ground, #RealityHigh, and the critically acclaimed ABC series The Quest.
Ms. Fleming forged her career as a senior executive at New Line Cinema, ultimately holding the position of Senior Vice President, Business Development. From 2006-2010, Ms. Fleming served as President of Women In Film and continues to serve as its President Emeritus and co-Treasurer. She is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.
CiCi Holloway is an innovative People & Talent leader who has successfully led the HR and D&I efforts in some of the most visible brands in America. She has worked directly for CEOs in notable Fortune firms such as Viacom, Spelling Entertainment, UBS, and LFM Atlanta Falcons Radio. She has led global teams for Showtime, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Viacom Radio, Big Ticket Television, Virgin Interactive, CBS, and Paramount Pictures. She has chaired strategic committees for the Executive Leadership Council, and has penned her strategic vision of how to reap the bottom-line benefits of an inclusive workforce in The Handbook for CEOs: Secrets to Diversity Success—People, Performance, and Profits.
Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); and Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door); John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem); Danny Glover (Buffalo Soldiers) and Jimmy Smits (The Cisco Kid). She spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.
Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She is currently the President of GreenLight Women and is a Board Member for Film2Future. She has won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, also receiving an Emmy nomination for the same. She has also received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah, and NOW.
Hollace Davids has spent most of her career planning and executing events – from dinner parties for 10 to premieres for 8,000. Currently, she serves as Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures in the Feature Marketing Department. She is responsible for planning and implementing all Universal premieres, including the recent “Lone Survivor,” “Neighbors” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” She also works on the Awards campaigns, Motion Picture Group parties, dinners, retreats, Exhibitor Relations Meetings and CinemaCon.
Davids began in the entertainment business at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition as Filmex Society Coordinator, becoming a publicist at Columbia Pictures, moving on to Vice President, Special Events at TriStar Pictures and then a special events consultant through her own company.
A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she served on the Publicity Coordinating Committee for the Academy Awards. She served as President of Women In Film from 2000 to 2003 and now serves on the Board of the Women In Film Foundation.
With her husband, Paul Davids, she has written seven books, including “Star Wars” novels. She was associate producer of “Timothy Leary’s Dead,” producer of “Starry Night” and “The Sci-Fi Boys” and executive producer of “Before We Say Goodbye” and “The Life After Death Project.” Davids has an A.B. in Psychology, Cum Laude from Goucher College in Baltimore, and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); and Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door); John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem); Danny Glover (Buffalo Soldiers) and Jimmy Smits (The Cisco Kid). She spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.
Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She is currently the President of GreenLight Women and is a Board Member for Film2Future. She has won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, also receiving an Emmy nomination for the same. She has also received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah, and NOW.
A pioneer in the entertainment business, Joan Hyler was the first woman to become a vice president at the William Morris Agency, having hustled her way from secretary to super agent. As a talent agent she had represented some of the most iconic names in show business, including Madonna, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Meryl Streep in the 1970s and ’80s. By the mid-’90s, she owned and operated Hyler Management, a boutique management company with a small, loyal base of clients like Lane, Alfred Molina, Amber Tamblyn, and Bruce Vilanch.
Patricia Barry was a prolific stage, film, and television actress who received three Emmy Award nominations.
Outside of her acting carer, Barry supported and served in a variety of educational foundations, charities, professional organizations, and women’s advocacy groups. She was a charter member of WIF who helped to promote the establishment of other WIF chapters throught the United States and then, in the 1990s, in other countries through the creation of Women in Film and Television International.
In addition to her work on behalf of WIF, Barry was the founding president of the American Film Institute Associates and served on boards and committees for Stephens College, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the John Tracy Clinic.
Billie Beasley Jenkins is a pioneer for professional working women and African-Americans in the entertainment industry. She has been involved in many aspects of film and television including acquisitions, business affairs, human resources, and casting, to executive in charge of production for movies made for television pilots, series, and theatrical films. Her public service activities included involvement with organizations and institutions such as The American Film Institute Gary Hendler Minority Filmmaker Program, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, and the Boy Scouts of America Women of Excellence committee, among others.
Marcy Kelly spent much of her career working in the fields of media policy research and public health communication, namely at the Food and Drug Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the White House Domestic Policy Staff, and Mediascope.
She then switched gears and began writing fiction and screenplays, and became the Vice President of Night Hawk Productions based at Universal Studios, where she was responsible for developing film and television projects. Her volunteer work includes Soule Kindred in America, the Beverly Hills Women’s Club, where she serves as a curator, and the Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Rees started out at Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin’s Tandem Productions, where she was an associate producer on the pilots of “All in the Family” and “Sanford & Son.” In 1981, she formed her own independent production company, a move that was rare for a woman at that time. She was a mentor to many in the business.
Rees served as a vice president of the TV Academy and the Producers Guild of America—which honored her with the prestigious Charles B. FitzSimons Award—and was a two-time president of Women In Film.
Rees was a two-time Emmy winner, who in 1981 formed Marian Rees Associates. “It was so much more important to me not only to tell the stories I wanted to tell, but also o own those movies,” she said. “I knew enough to know that that’s where the real security was.”
Her colleague and producing partner Anne Hopkins was her longtime companion.
Fern Field began her career at Norman Lear’s Tandem Productions, working as assistant to the Executive Producer of the sitcom “Maude.” She produced the hit television series “Monk,” and other credits include children’s programming, sitcoms, dramas, television movies, and miniseries.
She has been honored with a primetime Emmy, two Peabody Awards, two HUMANITAS awards, the NAACP Image Award, and an Oscar nomination, as well as the Distinguished Service Award for her work with people with disabilities, from President Reagan.
Also an author, Field’s books include Letters To My Husband…, Producers Don’t Cry (based on her professional experiences), an autobiography entitled My Accidental Life, and They Call Me Destiny—a book she says her cat wrote in Italian and which she translated.
Irma Kalish’s credits as a television writing duo with her husband Austin (“Rocky”) include “F Troop,” “Family Affair,” “My Three Sons,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” “Bob Newhart,” “All in the Family,” “Facts of Life,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and more.
At a writers luncheon held in her honor, Kalish said, “I want to say how happy I am to see so many women sitting at this table. When I started writing it wasn’t so. They said women weren’t funny. Women could make you cry, but they weren’t funny. I was married, so I knew I could make a man cry. But I knew that I was funny too. Fortunately I married the right guy, who was a big supporter, and we became a great team. But I believed all along that sure, God made man before woman, but you always make a first draft before you do the final.”
“[Rocky] sent me off to do things on my own. That’s how I joined Women In Film. I eventually became president. I was a member of Women in Radio and Television; I was a member of Women in everything. I also ran for the board of the Writers Guild, and I was elected. In due time, I became vice president, and served two terms. Then I decided, well, can’t always be a bridesmaid, gotta be a bride, so I ran for president.” The year was 1985 and, “I lost by four fuckin’ votes.” Kalish served two terms as WGA Vice President.
Mary Ledding has served as the senior vice president of motion pictures business affairs at MGM, as well as senior vice president of legal affairs at Universal Pictures. She is currently a sole practitioner at the Law Office of Mary Ledding, and a speaker at the USC Gould School of Law.
Phyllis Geller is president of Norman Star Media, a production and consulting company in Washington, DC. Geller has been a producer and media executive for over thirty years. She has overseen programs in all genres, including history, science, drama, performance, and children’s programs. She has been nominated for a primetime Emmy, a daytime Creative Arts Emmy, and two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
Mollie Gregory began as a documentary filmmaker who wrote a book about her experiences, whose work as a fiction and non-fiction writer has led her to become a sought-after speaker, particularly on the role and treatment of women in Hollywood.
Her works include Making Films Your Business, Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story, and Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation Stormed Hollywood.
Gregory is a member of the Writers Guild of America, a past president of PEN America, and a U.S. Vice President of the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers. As a trustee of the Women In Film Foundation, she created its History Preservation Plan, and chaired “For the Record,” a program that compiled a history of the organization to expand and encourage Women In Film and other women’s groups to preserve their history.
Bonny Dore was a producer and executive whose early credits included programming such as “American Bandstand,” “Scooby Doo,” and “Schoolhouse Rock.”
After her time as a creative executive at ABC, she became executive vice president of development and production for Krofft Entertainment, where she developed and produced children’s programs, variety shows, specials, made-for-TV movies, and feature films. With her own company, Dore produced comedy specials and television movies.
She was also active in various entertainment industry organizations, including the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, which she serves as co-chair from 2005–2007. In addition, she was a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which she served as a member of the Producers Peer Group Executive Committee. Other professional affiliations included the Producers Guild of America and the National Cable Academy. Her numerous honors included two CableACE Awards and four International Television Movie Awards.
A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Barbara Boyle began her career in the entertainment industry as an attorney, and quickly moved into financing and production. She co-founded Sovereign Pictures in 1990, with offices in Los Angeles and London. Sovereign Pictures financed, produced and distributed such films as My Left Foot, Cinema Paradiso, and Reversal of Fortune. Her films have been nominated for 22 Academy Awards, winning several. Boyle also served as president of Valhalla Entertainment Group.
Boyle was executive vice president of production for RKO Pictures, and from 1982 to 1986, Boyle was senior vice president of worldwide production at Orion Pictures Corp., where she supervised such hits as Desperately Seeking Susan, The Terminator, and Robocop. Earlier, she led Roger Corman’s New World Pictures as its chief operating officer and executive vice president.
She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and its Foreign Language committee. She currently serves as a committee board member of Film Independent’s Project Involve Foundation; sits on the UCLA School of Law Entertainment Advisory Council; and is a member of the Women in Film Foundation Committee. Boyle has lectured extensively around the world and served as a jury member for numerous film festivals. She is a past president of both Film Independent and Women in Film. Boyle has received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the UCLA School of Law, the Vision Award from Film Independent, and the Crystal Award from Women in Film.
From 2003 to 2012, she served as chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She was promoted to Associate Dean of Entrepreneurial Activities and Special Initiatives in July 2012.
As [The Hollywood Reporter‘s] editor and publisher, Wilkerson Kassel quickly moved daily coverage in new directions, opening bureaus in New York, Paris and Tokyo and making the television industry a prominent reporting beat. In 1988, she launched an electronic version of the paper, intended primarily to give members of the Hollywood community access to the day’s headlines while they traveled.
She was creative in marketing the paper and circulation grew to more than 20,000 before she sold the paper to BPI Communications, according to Robert J. Dowling, who replaced her as editor and publisher in 1988.
From her earliest days at the Reporter, Wilkerson Kassel was infatuated with the movie business and critical of it. “We don’t think of ourselves as a gossip sheet but as a service to the industry,” she said in an interview with [The Los Angeles Times] in 1965. Personally, she said, “I love everything about Hollywood. That’s my problem.” Professionally however, she added, “We can’t worry about stepping on people’s toes. If you do that, you haven’t got a trade paper.”
… As an editor, she organized Women In Film, prompted by a 1973 article in her paper about the scarcity of jobs for women in Hollywood. The article noted that women wrote only 2% of all television series scripts.
… “Tichi opened doors for so many women,” Iris Goodman, [then] president of the organization and a talent agent with International Creative Management, said in an interview this week. “By the time I came into the business I never doubted that I’d succeed, but 30 years ago women did doubt.”
As [The Hollywood Reporter‘s] editor and publisher, Wilkerson Kassel quickly moved daily coverage in new directions, opening bureaus in New York, Paris and Tokyo and making the television industry a prominent reporting beat. In 1988, she launched an electronic version of the paper, intended primarily to give members of the Hollywood community access to the day’s headlines while they traveled.
She was creative in marketing the paper and circulation grew to more than 20,000 before she sold the paper to BPI Communications, according to Robert J. Dowling, who replaced her as editor and publisher in 1988.
From her earliest days at the Reporter, Wilkerson Kassel was infatuated with the movie business and critical of it. “We don’t think of ourselves as a gossip sheet but as a service to the industry,” she said in an interview with [The Los Angeles Times] in 1965. Personally, she said, “I love everything about Hollywood. That’s my problem.” Professionally however, she added, “We can’t worry about stepping on people’s toes. If you do that, you haven’t got a trade paper.”
… As an editor, she organized Women In Film, prompted by a 1973 article in her paper about the scarcity of jobs for women in Hollywood. The article noted that women wrote only 2% of all television series scripts.
… “Tichi opened doors for so many women,” Iris Goodman, [then] president of the organization and a talent agent with International Creative Management, said in an interview this week. “By the time I came into the business I never doubted that I’d succeed, but 30 years ago women did doubt.”
Miss Borie started on the city desk of The Hollywood Reporter in 1972, where she worked until her death. During her career with the trade paper, she held the positions of special issues editor, executive editor, editor and director of communications.
She penned the biography “Jack Benny,” and wrote two books about the history of The Hollywood Reporter. She also wrote for Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and McCall’s magazines and held editorial positions with Photoplay, Coronet and British Photoplay.
Author Sue Cameron gives new meaning to the name writer-journalist. Since her graduation from USC’s Journalism School she has been a daily columnist and TV editor for The Hollywood Reporter, columnist for TV Guide and HAMPTONS, a newspaper editor, director of daytime program development for ABC Network, and is an original founder of Women in Film. She has written over 2500 columns and interviews reporting on Hollywood celebrities and business stories.
Georganne Aldrich Heller is the president of Irish Theatre & Film Production. … She was one of the original co-founders of Women In Film, as well as owning a very successful PR agency with clients such as Burbank Film Studios and Cal Arts University. Georganne serves on the Board of Directors to The Irish Arts Center in New York where she has worked as an independent producer for over twenty years.
Nancy Malone [was] a child model in the 1940s who became a successful actress as an adult before moving to the other side of the camera as a television producer and director at a time when few women in Hollywood held those positions…
“She did it all, but she had to fight for it all—all the way,” the actress Tyne Daly, a longtime friend, said…
At one point she juggled the role of Robin on the soap opera “The Guiding Light” with another on the police drama “Naked City,” in which she played Libby, an aspiring actress whose boyfriend was a detective. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress for that role, but she wanted more complicated parts.
“I watch the show regularly when it’s on the air, and I’m terribly dissatisfied with what I’m doing,” she said of “Naked City” in an interview with The New York Times in 1962. “I seem to repeat myself; it seems to be in the same area all the time. I’ve told the producers how I feel, but I realize there isn’t very much they can do. It is, after all, a show about detectives, and I’m not one of the detectives.”
By the early 1970s, even as her acting career was thriving, she had grown more frustrated by its limitations.
“I just can’t wrap my mouth around ‘How do you want your coffee, darling?’ once more,” she told Tom Moore, then the president of ABC, according to the 2002 book “Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood,” by Mollie Gregory.
Mr. Moore, who was starting his own production company, Tomorrow Entertainment, invited her to join it, and she eventually did. Within a few years she had formed a company of her own, Lilac Productions, and begun producing television movies, including “Winner Take All,” starring Shirley Jones as a woman with a gambling addiction. By 1975 she had moved to 20th Century Fox, where she became its first female vice president, helping oversee new television shows. By the end of the decade she had moved again—into directing.
As was the case with her acting career, her projects as a director ranged widely over the next two decades. They included episodes of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Melrose Place,” and “Dynasty.”
She shared a producing Emmy in 1993 for the special “Bob Hope: The First 90 Years” with Don Mischer and Hope’s daughter Linda, a longtime friend.
… In the early 1970s Ms. Malone helped found Women in Film, a support and advocacy group. In 1977, she was among the first to receive the organization’s Crystal Award, for increasing opportunities for women in the entertainment industry.
In the 1980s Ms. Malone was one of the directors of “Cagney & Lacey,” the long-running series about two female detectives that starred Ms. Daly and Sharon Gless. When Ms. Daly was later cast on “Judging Amy,” she suggested to a producer that he hire Ms. Malone as a director.
“He said, ‘Oh, not in the first season,'” Ms. Daly recalled…. “That translates to ‘the men have to establish what the thing is before letting the women get involved.'”
Ms. Nelson became a cabaret legend in the 1950s with her appearances in clubs like Café Society, the Blue Angel and the Bon Soir. She also appeared in five feature films, her most famous role being Sister Berthe in “The Sound of Music.” She was in the original cast of the 1954 musical “The Golden Apple” and many years later had a long-running role as Mrs. Gurney, a nanny, on the television soap opera, “All My Children.” She also found the time to work as vocal coach for stars like Jane Russell and Rock Hudson.
… Ms. Nelson was a prolific songwriter whose most famous composition, “Make a Rainbow,” was sung by Marilyn Horne at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural ceremony. The song was originally written for a 1969 NBC special, “Debbie Reynolds and the Sound of Children” and dedicated to Ms. Horne at the birth of her daughter. The many other singers who have performed or recorded her songs include Tony Bennett, Michael Feinstein, Dianne Reeves and Barbara Cook.
Françoise Wizenberg was born in Paris on April 4, 1937, the daughter of Icek/Izek (Yitzhak) Wizenberg, an industrialist, and his wife, the former Maria Wilczuk, both of whom were Polish-born Jews. Icek was murdered in 1942 by the Nazis, but there’s no way of knowing where and under what circumstances. … Hasya survived World War II under a false identity with a Christian family with which her mother places her. According to several testimonies, Maria instructed her daughter not to forget her past or deny her Jewish origin.
… In the summer of 1948, an 11-year-old Hasya began her journey from Europe to Israel, via Germany and France. Here she lived in an immigrant refugee camp in Netanya, and according to acquaintances, she later moved to a kibbutz… Maria Wizenberg also made her way to Israel during the same months, though it is not known whether she came with her daughter or separately. … After a brief sojourn in Canada, mother and daughter later moved to the United States and settled in New York.
… Her second husband, Albert Ruddy, was also quite successful. Ruddy was a Jewish, Canadian-born movie producer who won his first Oscar in 1973 for “The Godfather.” (He received his second Oscar for co-producing “Million Dollar Baby,” together with Clint Eastwood, who also directed and starred in the 2004 film.) In the Washington Post interview, Hasya claimed to have been involved in the film’s production.
… In the 1970s, during an organized tour of India, Hasya visited Osho’s ashram in Pune and was wholly captivated. … [In 1985, Hasya] embarked with Osho on a worldwide “performance tour,” visiting Nepal, Uruguay, Crete and Portugal, among other places. … Osho and Hasya returned in the end to Pune, and the guru—who spoke about the need for women to be freed from their social conditioning—instructed Hasya to begin a “workshop for women’s freedom.”
Norma Zarky worked as a lawyer in the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, dealing with violations of Child Labor laws. She also served as a lawyer for the Railroad Retirement Board, and during World War II she was employed by the Office of Price Administration, enforcing price regulations in the clothing industry. She worked for a number of lawyers, including Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., a prominent civil rights lawyer, and for Arthur Goldberg. She so-authored a number of briefs with Rauh on civil rights cases during the 1950s.
In 1961, Zarky joined the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, becoming the first woman partner in 1968. She practiced primarily in the field of entertainment law. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, and was influential in establishing Public Counsel, which is now “the largest pro bono public interest law firm in the world.” She was a founder of California Women Lawyers.
Zarky was particularly active in the fight for legalized abortion. She was “one of the two leading California attorneys” strategizing the legal battles. She authored the ACLU’s amicus brief in People v. Belous, in which the Califonria Supreme Court upheld a women’s right to abortion. She wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the American Association of University Women in Roe v. Wade.
Zarky was a recipient of the Ernestine Stahihut Award from the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, given annually to someone who has “attained the respect, admiration and affection of the Bench and Bar by her outstanding character, her dedication to service and her significant contributions to the cause of justice; a person who has challenged women in [the] profession to excel, and who has been an encouragement to young women in our society to seek the law as a profession.” She was also a recipient of Women In Film’s first Crystal Award, “given to honor outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work in film, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.”
In 1979, Women In Film established the Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award, which “is presented to individuals who, like Ms. Zarky herself, have demonstrated enlightened support for the advancement of equal opportunity for all and devotion to the improvement of the human condition.”
The University of Southern California awards the Norma Zarky Memorial Award, which was established by the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp and is awarded to the student who has excelled in the field of entertainment law. At UCLA, the Michell Silberberg & Knupp, Edward Rubin & Norma Zarky Endowed Scholarship Fund was established to financially assist socio-economically disadvantaged students attending the School of Law in celebration of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp’s Centennial and to honor the memories of Zarky and Rubin, described as “two seminal figures in the history of the firm.”
