Never Done

Histories of women in Hollywood usually recount the contributions of female directors, screenwriters, designers, actresses, and other creative personnel whose names loom large in the credits. Yet, from its inception, the American film industry relied on the labor of thousands more women, workers whose vital contributions often went unrecognized.Never Done introduces generations of women who worked behind the scenes in the film industry - from the employees' wives who hand-colored the Edison Company's films frame-by-frame, to the female immigrants who toiled in MGM's backrooms to produce beautifully beaded and embroidered costumes. Challenging the dismissive characterization of these women as merely menial workers, media historian Erin Hill shows how their labor was essential to the industry and required considerable technical and interpersonal skills. Sketching a history of how Hollywood came to define certain occupations as lower-paid ""women's work"" or ""feminized labor,"" Hill also reveals how enterprising women eventually gained a foothold in more prestigious divisions like casting and publicity.Poring through rare archives and integrating the firsthand accounts of women employed in the film industry, the book gives a voice to women whose work was indispensable yet largely invisible. As it traces this long history of women in Hollywood, Never Done reveals the persistence of sexist assumptions that, even today, leave women in the media industry underpraised and underpaid.

"[A] highly engaging read and inspir[es] models of historical scholarship that add volumes to our understanding of the roles that women played or were blocked from playing in the Hollywood studio system and the first decade of network television....Never Done draws from untapped sources to uncover history that few at the time thought was worth preserving in any systematic way."-- "Signs", "In addition to its commendable social agenda, Never Done's meticulous research, direct, elegant prose, and novel approach to an under-researched topic secure its status as an essential contribution to film history."-- "Film Quarterly", "An absolutely essential work. Erin Hill's Never Done is elegantly researched and analyzed and profoundly moving, taking us through all the roles women created in early motion picture history. Exhilarating!"--Allison Anders "film and TV director and screenwriter", "Hill offers a unique and exciting analysis of the largely unacknowledged work done by women in the film industry, providing a new history that shifts our understanding of old ones. Never Done will make a significant impact in the field."--Mary Desjardins "author of Recycled Stars: Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video"

Erin Hill worked in film development before returning to academia to study the media industry. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dartmouth College's Foreign Study Program in Los Angeles, USA.