Marsha Gordon

I’ll be moderating a terrific conversation on Friday, October 23. Join us!

I'm honored to be part of this online discussion about women in film history! This last w&fhi members-only event of the membership cycle is open to the broader community! Non-members can register and attend with a suggested $5 donation to our new conference travel fund. Register here: bit.ly/4elM6Ej

Jesse Eisenberg was a funny, sensitive, and generous interviewee this afternoon in front of a room of @ncstate.bsky.social students. Go Wolfpack!

I talked to Brandon Davis at "Front Row Classics" podcast about my favorite Ursula Parrott adaptation, "Next Time We Love." If you are a fan of Margaret Sullavan + Jimmy Stewart, keep your eyes out for this 1936 gem! Podcast available at the link below or wherever you get yours: bit.ly/4cFMf4P

Not sure why it took me so long to read this gem of Hollywood memoir writing, but this rainy day was perfect for Louise Brooks’s tell-a-lot (but surely not all) stories. Highly recommended for lovers of Hollywood history. Her takes on Bogart, Garbo, & Gish were especially interesting. #louisebrooks

Working on an article about a newly identified film directed by Dorothy Arzner and I kinda wish I had been on set this day. #dorothyarzner #directedbywomen #cats #hollywoodhistory

I'm super stressed abt #AI in the classroom in the fall + abt the fact that my state, #NorthCarolina, still doesn't have a budget for the fiscal year that ends in 2 weeks 😵‍💫, BUT at least the book chapter I'm now writing is about Trouble in Paradise. Ernst #Lubitsch is literally saving my soul.

I enjoyed being interviewed abt Hollywood history for this @theguardian.com article + I love that they hotlinked to the 1929 Motion Picture Magazine article I cited at @archive.org! Welcome to the joys of archival research, Guardian readers! And thank you IA! www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

I loved touring the National Film Archive of Japan a few weeks ago. Getting to see Japanese print media about American stars like #BetteDavis and #ClaraBow was super cool, as was their open-to-the-public exhibition about Japanese film history. Highly recommend a stop to anyone traveling to Tokyo!

USC film archivist Dino Everett + I just dropped a new entry on the short-lived, three-column 22mm film format in The Film Atlas. If you are a photochemical film fan, this is a doozy! www.filmatlas.com/entry/54 #filmhistory #22mm #smallgauge #edison

I got asked to talk about my 5 favorite films of 1912--that doesn't happen every day! Thanks @ettletodd.bsky.social for giving me a chance to talk about #filmhistory and some interesting movies from more than a century ago. 🙌 open.spotify.com/episode/65FU...

Love this video featuring @themorbidzoo.bsky.social that @ncstate.bsky.social created. Mariana graduated with an MA in English with a film studies concentration and she's been rocking her #YouTube #videoessay channel ever since it started as her thesis project! ❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA15...

Psyched to be returning to Hollywood to introduce my favorite Ursula Parrott adaptation, "Next Time We Love" (1936), with #JimmyStewart + #MargaretSullavan @tcmtv.bsky.social TCM Film Festival on May 1st. It's a gorgeous Universal Archives #35mm print, too! ❤️ #ursulaparrott #hollywoodhistory #35mm

Happy Birthday to best-selling Jazz Age author Ursula Parrott on what would have been her 127th birthday, although I have no doubt that she would have shaved at least 3-5 years off!!!! 😇 Enjoy the only known moving image footage of Ursula! #ursulaparrott #bestseller #jazzage #exwife

Tomorrow Monday March 23 at 3pm EST @themorbidzoo.bsky.social will be giving an ITRL talk @ncstate.bsky.social in Caldwell G107 about her "The Morbid Zoo" #videoessay YouTube Channel and how she started it when she was an MA student here! If you are remote, you can livestream it 😎 bit.ly/4sKDwo5

Research report from special collections @uclalibrary.bsky.social where I learned that Dorothy Arzner was paid $30k (to Katharine Hepburn’s $15k) for directing “Christopher Strong” in 1932. That’s some serious Depression Era $$$. #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #katharinehepburn

Dorothy Arzner research pilgrimage report #2: I got to sit at the desk she used to write at in her Hollywood Hills home, which she shared with her partner, the choreographer Marion Morgan. It had a secret compartment. More to come! #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #marionmorgan

Dorothy Arzner research pilgrimage report #1: I got to hold her viewfinder in my very own hands, and of course look through it! #dorothyarzner #hollywoodhistory #biography #hollywood

I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of Christa Fuller, who was so generous with me when I was researching + writing my book about her husband, filmmaker #SamFuller. Christa was outspoken, funny, a great hostess, and a ferocious tender of Sam's legacy. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Revisiting a past publication in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social about women "camera crankers" working in cinema's first decades. If it's new to you, enjoy! lareviewofbooks.org/article/ligh... #womenmakemovies #cinematography #cinematographers #womenfilmpioneers #filmhistory

If you live in #NorthCarolina, you can catch a new take on #UrsulaParrott on Jan 18th at 4pm at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough. It's my first return to the stage since I last stepped off as Laurie in Oklahoma in 6th Grade. 😅

Everything you've ever wanted to know about "The Divorcee" (1930) starring Norma Shearer in her Academy Award-winning role but have been afraid to ask 🥰, on the new episode of the "Front Row Classics" #podcast: linktr.ee/FrontRowClas... #normashearer #thedivorcee #exwife #ursulaparrott

I loathe the way #AI is creeping into research tools with misinformation. This #ancestry detail has #DorothyArzner marrying Rosalind Russell in 1930, living in #Hollywood FL, with two kids, Ruth Chatterton and Frederic March. It would be funny if it wasn't so awful. 😣

Grateful to Indy Weekly for the nice write-up of "In Search of Thoreau's Flowers," currently on view at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design at NC State. If you are in #Raleigh between now and the end of January 2026, come see the show! #art #climate #interactivemedia #thoreau #walden

Perhaps in the mood for a story about flowers and literature and an interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, sciences, and humanities @ncstate.bsky.social? #thoreau #flowers #art #flowerart #pressedflowers #flowerpower chass.ncsu.edu/news/2025/09...

The new French translation of Ursula Parrott’s “Ex-Wife” that just got delivered is très belle! #ursulaparrrott #exwife

Talked about #UrsulaParrott in Hollywood, #DorothyArzner, my favorite childhood movies and stars, teaching film studies @ncstate.bsky.social, and much more on episode #101 (like the freeway) of "From Beneath the Hollywood Sign" #podcast! Stream it at bit.ly/4mMCLHo

If u r in the triangle, stop by the Gregg Museum to see the “Plants in Art” exhibit. I collab’d w/Robin Vuchnich on a botanical portrait of their pollinator garden, a little respite from so many things right now. They have a drawing table set up for botanical art therapy too!

🚨 Early Bird Pricing ENDS tomorrow July 31 – Bastard Film Encounter 5.0 Awaits 🎬 Oct 8–11, 2025 | Columbia, SC Bold films, unfiltered stories, no pretension. Just one unforgettable encounter with cinema’s wild side. 👉 Grab Your Early Bird Tickets Now bastardfilmencounter.com/bfe-5-regist...

THE FUR COAT CLUB and THE CASE OF THE ELEVATOR DUCK — both directed by Joan Micklin Silver — are also online thanks to Skip Elsheimer of @avgeeks.bsky.social! @marshagordon.bsky.social wrote about them both for Salon a few years ago! Link to her essay ⬇️ www.salon.com/2021/03/13/j...

Being on the @infinite-women.com podcast, which reminds us that "well-behaved women rarely make history," was a bright spot in the midst of a dismal time. Thanks for letting me talk about #UrsulaParrott from yet another angle! bit.ly/4nZROik #podcast #exwife #divorcee #women

This week on the podcast, @marshagordon.bsky.social , Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, tells us about the brilliant writer at the heart of her book Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott. creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Feel like nominating a film to the Library of Congress National Film Registry today? May I suggest The Divorcee (1930), starring Norma Shearer in her only @academyawards.bsky.social winning role? It just takes a minute + anyone can nominate. The form is here: bit.ly/4kSEutG #divorcee #normashearer

I thoroughly enjoyed talking abt F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"--espec. the female characters, Gatsby as a romance novel, and as it relates to Ursula Parrott's "Ex-Wife"--on this just-dropped podcast episode. open.spotify.com/episode/2aTP... #gatsby #fitzgerald #ursulaparrott #1920s

Today they have crossed a deep red line. We, the people, must hold the president and his appointees accountable for this outrageous abuse against American liberty.

I'm on my way to the Senate floor to talk about the assault on my colleague, Senator Alex Padilla. This is a horrifying moment in our nation’s history.

Super cool resource drop alert 4 #film lovers: the FilmAtlas, "an international visual guide to every motion picture film format, soundtrack and color process ever invented"! I co-authored an entry on #3mm film--the cutest format--w/Dino Everett of USC Film Archives. www.filmatlas.com/entry/210

I love seeing director Dorothy Arzner's face in this lineup of Box Office Champions from 1932. Working on her biography means daily revelations about the way she navigated the Hollywood boys' club. #dorothyarzner #womenmakemovies #hollywoodhistory #director #tcmparty #womendirectors #biography

Researching my #DorothyArzner bio + writing an article 4 a collection on women filmmakers edited by @shelleystamp.bsky.social + it is staggering how many newspapers call Arzner some version of the "first" woman director despite so many successful predecessors. But this is a great pic w/ #IdaLupino!

Spent the morning photographing butterflies, beetles, bees, and more @ncstate.bsky.social Insect Museum. These pollinator images + plant pressings = new collage that will be on display this fall at the Gregg Museum of art. 🦋 🌺

Story about local treasure @avgeeks.bsky.social in #Raleigh. 📽️

Thanks to the Lost Ladies of Lit #Podcast for re-running our episode about #UrsulaParrott as an encore today! Episode streams here: apple.co/4ddpBQt #bestseller #americanliterature #exwife #divorcee

Starting the day at the packed Egyptian Theater with a new @billmorrison.bsky.social film and Donald Boyle introduction to 35mm nitrate print of Daisy Kenyon. What could be better? TCM Festival rocks! #tcm #tcmff #tcmparty

Counting down to The Divorcee tomorrow morning at the Egyptian on 35mm @tcmtv.bsky.social !!!! #tcmff #tcmparty