Cumbernauld man’s book on Hollywood puts spotlight on powerful leading ladies

Far from women being treated as second-class citizens, Brian (66) has discovered that Bette Davis earned more than Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford more than John Wayne and Greta Garbo more than Clark Gable.

He reveals that at one point Mae West was the second-highest paid person in the whole of America and silent star Mary Pickford earned so much that her salary would not be matched by any star - male or female - for another 70 years!

The former Kildrum resident has discovered too that at various times a woman was also the highest-paid screenwriter and the highest-paid director in Hollywood.

Brian’s groundbreaking new study has drawn on a wealth of new sources, including those supplied by the U.S. Government.

At a time when women in ordinary jobs earned far less than men, three-quarters receiving less than what was considered a living wage, the author explains how this was possible and who set the precedents for female movie talent earning phenomenal wages.

Western fan Brian who now lives in Paisley has written a dozen books about movies but this subject breaks new ground for him.

He said “I started writing the book because while researching two others on the business history of Hollywood, I came across two reports that did not seem to support the standard view of women as second-class citizens in Hollywood, so I just started digging.”

“Given that some of my previous books have been on such male-oriented movies as ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and ‘The Guns of Navarone’ it is quite unusual for me to end up writing this kind of material, but it proved easily the most satisfying of the books I have written.”

Brian has another claim to fame as he was among one of the first residents in Cumbernauld.

His love of movies began in a town which had no cinema but featured regular film showings on Saturday mornings organised by Father Frank Jaconelli.

Brian attended Sacred Heart Primary and lived in Afton Road and Ellisland Rd when his father John worked for Burroughs.

His film books have been praised in the Wall St Journal, San Francisco Examiner and Sight & Sound film magazine. He studied film at Glasgow University and lectures part-time at Strathclyde University.

He admitted: “I started writing books by accident. I was discussing ‘The Guns of Navarone’ with a movie festival programme director and he thought I knew so much about it that he asked me to introduce the film at the festival and then I discovered he was telling people I had a book to launch so I wrote the book.

“Then I was contacted by an American publisher and wrote others.”

The Cumbernauld News was keen to find out who Frank’s favourite leading ladies are and the response was “Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandra Bullock.”

And what about his favourite films?

Brian replied: “They are ones I watch time and again not ones that are necessarily critically praised. In no particular order they are The Birds, Kingdom of Heaven, The Magnificent Seven, The Guns of Navarone, The Undefeated, Lawrence of Arabia, Day of the Jackal, ‘Butterfield 8 and Double Indemnity.

The book is available on Kindle at £4.99 with printed copies available from Amazon at £10.

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