Silent Film Stars and napping on the job...

I am a research assistant for one of my professors. Technically, I am an editorial assistant on a book that is forthcoming on women silent film pioneers. No, no, no, not actresses, but writers and directors and producers and other such positions of power that most people assume only men held in those days...it turns out there were waaaaaay more women working in the silent era of film, than in the 30s, 40s or 50s! If you're sort of curious what it is all about, you can get an idea by clicking here (this is the old site, the professor I work for recently recently left Duke):
http://literature.aas.duke.edu/wfp/index.html

There are also lots of fabulous pictures too, like this one of Natacha Rambova, who was a rumored lesbian, professional dancer, production and art designer, married to Valentino and born in Salt Lake City!

She also designed one of the most visually sumptuous and yet utterly stilted and boring films ever, Nazimova's SALOME (which featured an all gay man cast, which Nazimova said was a tribute to Oscar Wilde). Rambova's style in this particular film looked like a Beardsley drawing come to life and remains one of the best art nouveau designed films ever.

She is just one example of many. When I go home for Christmas I will likely spend some time at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU which has a huge repository of film ephemera, including Cecil B. DeMille's papers. He hired and used (in more ways than one if you get my drift) numerous women to write the scenarios for his silent films. So, over the holiday I'll be collecting documents and photographs. I mean really, what can be more fun than doing research for your Christmas holiday?

I keep falling asleep on the job. It's not cause it's boring. It's cause I'm not sleeping enough at night. Which is to say, I am trundling off to slumberland RIGHT NOW!