#WomanEmpowermentWednesday #HollywoodStudioClub Constance Adams DeMille

Stage actress Constance Adams DeMille's retired from stage and screen in 1910 when her daughter Cecilia was born, but her contribution to Hollywood was still not finished. In 1916, librarian Eleanor B. Jones had been noticing many young actresses hanging around the Hollywood Regional Branch library's basement "night after night in preference to attending the beach cafes or wandering around the streets" reading plays. (Gonzalez, Antonio. Architects Who Built Southern California. 2019) After having spoken with them, it came to an agreement that there needed to be a safe space for the women to live. Right away, Jones enlisted Bessie Ida Ginsberg, Lula Warrington and screenwriter and director William C. DeMille, who was Constance's brother-in-law and who had drawn her into the cause. The first meetings were conducted in the Hollywood Library's basement. Studios and the Hollywood Board of Trade also had a financial hand in renting the first house on Carlos Avenue which housed only 20 women.

As many more actresses and women employees came to Hollywood, the older Carlos Avenue home wasn't going to hold everyone. In 1926, DeMille campaigned hard for a huge fundraiser lobbying for the corner of Lodi and Lexington. This time actors and studios rushed to donate considering there was also a perk of having their names on the rooms' doors if they donated $1,000. At the groundbreaking, many of Hollywood's powerful women were in attendance, including actresses Norma Talmadge and Mary Pickford. DeMille powered the steam shoveled and turned the first loads of dirt with the help of the Studio Club's president May Parker. Active member of the club Mary Pickford recalled that "Mrs. DeMille spent every day doing something for the club. And the motion picture industry supported us."

Links to Check Out

18 July 1960, 4 - The Evening Sun at Newspapers.com