It used to be big news when a woman muscled her way onto the corporate ladder. No more. Women are working in nearly every facet of business today and nowhere is it more apparent than in the entertainment industry.
Female stars are eagerly nailing hyphens to their illustrious titles. Roseanne Barr is one of the guiding powers behind the popular ”Roseanne”
show. Goldie Hawn produces many of her films, as does Jane Fonda. Valerie Bertinelli is co-executive producer of her new ”Sydney” series.
But behind the big names are the lesser-known female executives, the women who have established themselves not only as respected and successful entrepreneurs but as role models for those coming up. Less hampered by the old studio system, it is in television that these women have most often prevailed.
One of the top executives in television is Marian Rees, president and CEO of Marian Rees Associates Inc. Rees is known for her quality work, especially with the ”Hallmark Hall of Fame.” It was Rees` company that produced the Emmy-winning ”Foxfire” and ”Love is Never Silent.”
Along the way she also was associate producer on the pilots of ”All in the Family” and ”Sanford and Son” and produced such films as ”The Marva Collins Story” (1981) and ”Angel Dusted” (1982). Reese laughs about her
”overnight” success, which began 30 years ago when she was a secretary-receptionist at NBC.
It took her 10 years to reach the status of senior production executive.
”That means,” she says, ”I was without the financial responsibility, there was no risk-taking. What I`m doing now as president and founder of my company is I have taken all the financial risk.”
Rees says it was difficult for a woman to make inroads in the field when she started. But it was as much her fault as anyone else`s. ”There was a certain attitudinal mindset that I brought with me,” she says.
The discrimination she felt was not so much personal as it was cultural.
”That was the disposition on my part. I was raised with two brothers and lived in a small town in Iowa with a good educational system.”
When Betty Friedan`s book, ”The Feminine Mystique,” came out in 1963, Rees says it echoed feelings that women already were having. ”It empowered us,” she says. ”Then we began to measure ourselves against that and it became a benchmark. I found I was without a contract in a job in which I had served for 15 years. I realized that I had no protection against the investment of time and services I had put in. I became marginally more informed, but I still felt you don`t ask for a contract-it`s all a matter of trust.”
She trusted, and was replaced by a man. In her next position she asked for some sort of written agreement, but was assured again that it wasn`t necessary. As the company grew with considerable help from Rees, another person was brought in at double her salary. Rees left, and a year and a half later she formed her own company, mortgaging her house to do it.
Her first project was ”Miss All-American Beauty” in 1982, which she managed to bring in on time and under budget. But it wasn`t easy. ”There were long and protracted negotiations,” she recalls. ”There was uncertainty about placing that much responsibility on me.” When Rees got up the courage to go out on her own she gained a sense of self, she says. ”It was like I had earned permission, in a way. This time it was my money. And I was a woman.”
Rees says the most important quality you must have to be a successful producer is dogged perseverance. ”It`s a strange word to say, but without it there is no tension. If you lose your passion for something so quickly that it never comes to fruition, oftentimes it`s because people don`t persevere. In the larger studios perseverance was a luxury-you had to churn things out. But it took three years to get `Love is Never Silent` done, so you have to keep at it.”
Another quality that Rees stresses is trust in the audience. ”I have tried to let my roots and background serve me. I`m not trained as a filmmaker, my academic discipline has dictated my work. Degrees in sociology, psychology and religion did not equip me for this position. But those requirements go deeper, they have connected me to what I feel is the audience. Our films are predicted to be soft, but they seem to do well. Most are centered around the family.”
Rees is currently in production with ”Decoration Day,” by John Corrington, an NBC program in which James Garner will star.
Another successful female producer is Dorothea G. Petrie, whose
”Hallmark Hall of Fame” show ”Caroline?” aired in April on CBS. Petrie has worked her way up in the field from casting to assistant producing to producing. Describing her duties, she says, ”I develop a number of things from books or original concepts. I often work with the writers getting scripts into a viable form, then go to the network or to a sponsor and get it under way.”
Petrie has four children and most of her early working life she made sure she was home when the children returned from school. ”So many younger producers ask how I managed all that. They`re thinking there`s no time. But there is time,” she says.
Because she came into the field later than most, she says she was determined to do only projects that meant something to her.
Petrie`s first production was the three-hour ”Orphan Train” in 1979.
”I met a gentleman who`d come across the nation in the Orphan Train. I`d never heard of it. It was a train that placed 100,000 kids by putting them on a train, sending them across the country and seeing if someone wanted a child. This was a glorious part of our history and few people knew about it.”
Petrie wrote a novel on the subject with James Magnuson and later had it developed into a teleplay. She produced the telefilms ”Picking Up the Pieces,” and ”License to Kill” and worked with Rees on ”Foxfire” and
”Love is Never Silent.”
Petrie is married to director Dan Petrie (”Fort Apache: The Bronx” and
”Lifeguard”). She admits that that was an advantage. ”People assumed when I came in, because I was married to a well-known, talented director, that he would be directing for me and I`d be coming in on his coattails.”
A good producer must have a comprehensive knowledge of literature and must recognize good writing, she says. ”You must first search out your own material, know what you like to do and if you go in with something really worthwhile, people will respect you and know that you know what you`re talking about.”
Most important, she says, is patience. ”As an independent you have to be able to find a way to earn a living while you develop properties. That`s why a lot of us have to do a number of things we wouldn`t choose or feel passionate about.”
Pamela Grant is an independent producer who rose through the ranks. She worked as an assistant director on ”The Winds of War,” ”Dynasty,” ”St. Elsewhere” and ”The White Shadow.” Grant currently is a producer on the sitcom ”Sydney.” Grant says as an independent, you work from project to project.
”If your current project isn`t picked up, you`re on the streets again,” she says. ”You never know. You finish a job and you have to wait for the calls.” The problem with being a producer, she says, ”is you have no life. The hours are excruciatingly long. I often work from 8:30 in the morning to midnight, and then you get the calls at 3 a.m.”
Television producer Linda Yellen (”Playing for Time” ”Second Serve”)
says when she first began no one would take her seriously. ”I started so young. I dressed very, very adult at that time because I figured no one would give several million dollars to a producer who looked like a kid. Now that I`m getting older, showing the wrinkles, I can dress like a kid.”
Yellen also has directed, and that wasn`t any easier than producing.
”There`s no question in my mind that it`s harder for a woman to be accepted as a director than a man. More women are getting a chance, but it is still a token proportion to the number of women who would like to do it.”
Yellen recently signed a deal to work with Aaron Spelling Productions. She is currently working on the thriller ”Best Seller,” ”Zebra Squad” and an Ann-Margret project.
Producing is a mountain of details, Yellen says. ”There are so many people you have to interface with. There`s the standards and practices, the network executives, the creative people, the legal affairs, the budget control.”
All of these women are strong, independent and determined. Yellen doesn`t see herself that way. ”I wouldn`t say that I`m a creampuff,” she says. ”I look at these women and get scared; they seem awesome. And I`m not at all like that. But it`s like some quiet little voice in me just holds on. There have been lots of times where it looked like if I didn`t settle for an actor or actress who was being handed to me, I`d lose a project. But I just hold on.”
