Reclaiming the Archive: Feminism and Film History

14. Making More than a Spectacle of Themselves: Creating the Militant Suffragette in Votes for Women

309 Making More than a Spectacle of Themselves Creating the Militant Suffragette in Votes for Women if there is one thing that feminist historians have made quite clear, it is that archival “evidence” must be contextualized in order for its cultural significance to become apparent. Women’s diaries, for instance, were once thought to be unworthy of study and now are at the core of many historical research projects. in the case of films made by and about the woman suffrage movement, contextualizing the films and the archival “evidence” of their reception is crucial if we are to appreciate the ways in which these films challenged emerging forms of patriarchal desire in American cinema. in this essay, i re-frame one film made by a New York City–based militant suffrage organization in 1913. Votes for Women was made at the Edison studios as part of Edison’s mid-1910s experiments with sound film known as the kinetophone. Archival “evidence” such as newspaper accounts of the film’s production and reception tell the story of a cinematic flop. However, when re-contextualized within the militant politics and practices of the suffrage organization depicted in the film, it becomes clear that the film’s “failure” was in fact its greatest success. it agitated audiences as means to promote women’s right to vote. Failed Spectacle or Suffragitprop? A March 20, 1913, article in the New York Times announced an event that would, in the reporter’s opinion, have long-term historical significance for the American woman suffrage movement and the future of the film industry : 04 Chapters_12_16.indd 309 1/13/10 12:00 PM 310 A M Y S H O R E in the year 2013 the world will know that the suffragists of 1913 could make five good suffrage speeches in five minutes. Suffragists went to the Edison Studios yesterday morning to act and talk before the moving and talking picture machine. . . . The meeting began at the sound of the cocoanut [sic]—a couple of cocoanut [sic] shells clapped together—and each time the women came out on time in their minute speeches. What interested the moving picture men in charge of the work was that, while the women kept to the time limit, their speeches were so far impromptu that they never gave them twice alike.1 Only a little over two weeks later, the Edison kinetophone, Votes for Women, premiered in the Fifth Avenue vaudeville theater, where it once again was identified as a generator of historical significance. The headline in Variety read: “The Last of ‘The Talkers’ with This Week’s Series: ‘Suffragette’ Subject Hooted, Jeered and Hissed Wherever Shown. Only instance of Rowdyism at Fifth Avenue Created by ‘Edison Talking Picture’ Monday.” The suffragette kinetophone did more than generate rowdyism at the theaters where it was screened. it also, according to the article, was a critical component in the pending downfall of the 1910s experiment in sound film: The boys upstairs [at the Fifth Avenue theater] came prepared to break up the show if the Talkers were again put on the sheet. They happened to have a very good excuse through a “Suffragette” subject. Those from above were joined by the occupants of orchestra seats in hissing the film. The same “Talker” is reported to have caused a disturbance wherever shown Monday. . . . it is believed this week’s exhibition of the Edison Talker has sounded its finish. There wouldn’t be a chance of a manager from Bayside, Long island, falling for the Edison flop after this.2 in the estimation of these reporters, Votes for Women was historical in three ways. First, there was simply the competent use of new technology by women. Thomas Edison first conceived the kinetophone in 1887 as a combination of a phonograph with a film projector, creating synchronized sound motion pictures. However, the technology was not put to use until 1911, when Edison’s staff developed an amplification technique that allowed the phonograph recorder to pick up sounds from distances greater than twenty feet. The first kinetophone films were released in 1913 in vaudeville houses rather than motion picture theaters, presenting them more as feats of technology than extensions of cinematic realism. A 1914 04 Chapters_12_16.indd 310 1/13/10 12:00 PM 311 Creating the Militant Suffragette in Votes for Women advertisement at the Lyceum Theatre in Riverhead, Long island, described the kinetophone as...