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The Moving Picture Girls at Sea
The Moving Picture Girls Series presents girls in motion in multiple ways: they drive cars, they travel to exotic film locations, they use gestures and movement to “register” various emotions in front of the camera as actors in the new silent cinema; in addition, they are socially and economically mobile, entering a well-paying industry at a moment when a number of career paths were opening for women. The series also works hard (against centuries of antitheatrical prejudice) to present acting as a respectable career for women. Sisters Ruth and Alice are given the aristocratic-sounding name of “DeVere,” and they perform in a film company alongside their father, a veteran of stage theatricals. In a further endorsement of the desirability of their chosen profession, another member of their company turns out to be a long-lost heiress; upon suddenly learning of her wealth (a blow to the head cures her amnesia, as such blows typically do), she insists that she will continue to work in film, as its rewards can be found nowhere else. The copy on this month’s shelf also testifies to the movement of the book itself across time and owners. The first inscription in the book reads: “To Melissa, from Charlie, Dec 25, 1916.” Just below this, in different handwriting, a second inscription appears: “To Regina, From Melissa and Aunt Nell, March 27, 1922.” Such information becomes part of the book’s record, helping us to construct its story. In this case, the book appears to move within the family, seemingly from the initial reader to her cousin. Melissa and her mother (Regina’s “Aunt Nell”) join together to give the book to another girl. Five years have passed since Melissa received the book, back when it was new; it is reasonable to assume that Melissa may have outgrown the series and is passing her copy to a younger reader. This also lets us know that Melissa valued the book enough to pass it on. More than that, we see that the transfer of this particular used book was seen as worthy of its own gift inscription, another indicator of value. Finally, it is worth attending to the first giver, “Charlie.” This book doesn’t solely move between girls and women. The absence of any honorific or title before his name (he isn’t “Uncle Charlie,” for example) suggests that Charlie was Melissa’s peer - a friend, brother, or cousin – who thought a girls’ book would make a suitable Christmas present. -AJP