Lit. Women of Silent Film runs October 14-16, 2022.

A series of linked events highlights three Ithaca women writers—Grace Miller White, Maude Radford Warren, and Ruth Sawyer—whose literary works inspired silent films during the early days of the film industry.

An opening reception, downtown theater tour, panel presentations, and a silent film screening focus on the critical role women played in the early movie business, not only as writers, but as directors and producers, and of course as serial queen stars and movie ticket buyers.

Lit. Women of Silent Film Events

  • Lit. Launch Party

    FRIDAY, 10/14/2022 @ 6:00-7:30 PM

    Odyssey Bookstore, 115 West Green Street, Lower Level, Ithaca, NY

    An opening reception introduces the “Lit. Women of Silent Film” weekend and its focus on three Ithaca women writers—Grace Miller White, Maude Radford Warren, and Ruth Sawyer—whose literary works inspired silent films during the early days of the film industry. The informal meet-and-greet format encourages conversations about the critical role women played in the early movie business, not only as writers, but as directors and producers, and of course as serial queen stars and movie ticket buyers.

    FREE, but space is limited, so registration is recommended.

    RSVP

  • Downtown Ithaca Historic Theater Tour

    SATURDAY, 10/15/22 @ 10:30-11:30 AM

    Meet at the “Biggest Little Movie City” panel at Harold Square on The Commons, Ithaca, NY

    In the mid-1910s, Ithaca could well have been called the Biggest Little Movie City. The Wharton, Inc. Studios cranked out silent serial moving pictures at Renwick Park (now Stewart Park). An avid movie-going public made weekly visits to The Star, Lyceum, and other “movie palaces” to follow the serial exploits of their marquee idols. Explore some of these sites—a few still extant and others captured only by photographs and memories—on a guided downtown tour with historic preservationists to recapture the heyday of Ithaca’s movie-palace era.

    Tickets $12 per person.

    TICKETS

  • From Novel to Screen: Ithaca's Literary Women and Silent Film

    Presentations and Q&A

    SATURDAY, 10/15/22 2:00-3:30 PM

    @ Marcham Hall (Village of Cayuga Heights municipal building across from Community Corners), 836 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca, NY

    In the early days of the film industry, independent studios cranked out hundreds of silent films every year to an avid moviegoing public. Many of these films were made to appeal to women, and the work of women writers was a natural source of screenplays. Join film scholar Barbara Tepa Lupack, writer Aoise Stratford, and local historian Patricia Longoria for a discussion of the extraordinary lives of three Ithaca women writers—Grace Miller White, Maude Radford Warren, and Ruth Sawyer—whose books were adapted into silent films at a time when the political and social roles of women were undergoing dramatic changes.

    FREE, but space is limited, so registration is recommended. A Zoom option is available.

    Click the IN-PERSON* or ZOOM button below to RSVP for the panel presentation.

    *A Zoom link will be sent to all registrants in case circumstances arise on the day of the event that prevent attendance for in-person registrants.

    IN-PERSON
ZOOM

Presenters

  • Barbara Tepa Lupack

    Barbara Tepa Lupack, former professor of English and academic dean at SUNY, was Fulbright Professor of American Literature both in Poland and in France. From 2015-2108, she served as New York State Public Scholar. She was also the Helm Fellow at Indiana University (2013), the Lehman Fellow at the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies (2014), and the Senior Fellow at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA (2017-2018). She is author or editor of more than twenty-five books, including Literary Adaptations in Black American Cinema: From Micheaux to Morrison (University of Rochester Press, 2002; expanded ed., 2010), Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking (Indiana University Press, 2013), Early Race Filmmaking in America (Routledge, 2016), Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and The Magic of Early Cinema (Cornell University Press, 2020), and Being There in the Age of Trump (Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books, 2020).

  • Aoise Stratford

    Aoise Stratford is a dramaturg, writer, and lecturer at Cornell. Her plays have won several awards and been produced around the world, including at National Theatre London, The Seymour Center in Sydney, InspiraTO Festival, Solo Chicago, Centenary Stage, and others. Her play, The Unfortunates, won the 2012 Susan Glaspell Award and was a Time Out NY Critics Pick. Locally, she has co-authored two walking headphone plays for The Cherry Arts, adapted A Christmas Carol for The Hangar Theatre, written short pieces for the Kitchen Theatre's One Minute Play Festival, and written original short screenplays for Acting Out New York. She serves as the Cherry's Director of Education and Artistic Engagement and works regularly in script development for various conferences, committees, colleges and theatre festivals nationwide.

  • Patricia Longoria

    Patricia Longoria is a writer, editor, and local historian who, along with Wharton Studio Museum Executive Director Diana Riesman, is co-producing the Lit. Women in Silent Film Weekend. She served as Deputy Historian of the Village of Cayuga Heights during the 2015 centennial of Village incorporation and collaborated on the AASLH award-winning Cayuga Heights History Project. Patricia has contributed articles on local history for The Ithaca Journal, organized historic preservation tours and events for Historic Ithaca, and most recently wrote “Black History & Culture Destinations in the Finger Lakes: Ithaca Sites” for the Finger Lakes Film Trail and text for the “Biggest Little Movie City” exhibit at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture. She is currently the website manager for the Finger Lakes Film Trail and a house historian.

Lit. Women of Silent Film Events

  • "Tess of the Storm Country" Film Screening

    SATURDAY, 10/15/2022 7:00 PM

    @ Cinemapolis, 120 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY

    One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, Mary Pickford secured powerful roles in early Hollywood as a producer and co-founder of United Artists. Pickford starred in two versions of the popular Tess of the Storm Country, adapted from the novel by Ithaca author Grace Miller White. View Pickford’s 1922 version, which, although not filmed in Ithaca, dramatizes the lives of people who lived in the city’s “Rhine” neighborhood centered on the Inlet and inspired by Grace Miller White’s childhood growing up on a cottage on the west shore of Cayuga Lake.

    Tickets available at Cinemapolis the day of event: $11 for adults, $10 for students, $9 for seniors, $8 for Cinemapolis members.

    Cinemapolis

  • Self-Guided Walking Play Tours

    SUNDAY, 10/16/22

    Download a self-guided headphone walking play tour and follow the path of Ithaca’s movie-making era. Produced by The Cherry Arts and Wharton Studio Museum, “Storm Country” (2016) and “The Missing Chapter” (2018) headphone walking plays allow you to listen to the audio on your own schedule. “Storm Country” is an experiential, dramatic retelling of the life and work of Grace Miller White. “The Missing Chapter,” adapted from the Wharton Studio’s popular 1916 serial Beatrice Fairfax, leads playgoers on an adventure through Stewart Park, where Wharton, Inc. Studio was located.

    $5 recommended donation.

    Download the Walking Plays

Reserve a LIT. WOMEN OF SILENT FILM tote today and pick it up at one of the Lit. Women events October 14-16, 2022!

Click the button below to make a gift of $25 or more to Wharton Studio Museum to reserve your tote bag filled with Lit. Women swag, including a notebook, bookmark, post card, and pen. Get the BONUS Lit. Women keychain swag while they last!

When you give on the WSM “Make a Gift Page,” click the “Message to WSM” box and note “Tote bag” and at which Lit. Women event you’ll be picking up the tote bag.

Lit. Women of Silent Film Partners

  • Producer

  • Co-Producer

  • Co-Producer

  • Presenting Sponsor

  • Supporting Sponsor

  • Media Sponsor

Lit. Women of Silent Film is a Silent Movie Month Event

  • Ithaca's Silent Movie Month

    Ithaca’s Silent Movie Month, celebrating a full decade of programming in 2022, host events highlighting the historic role played by Wharton Studio, Inc., in the early film industry. Located in Stewart Park, the building is one of the few remaining American silent film studios still in existence.

  • Silent Movie Month Sponsors