Trivia

She made history when she became the first woman to direct a sound picture, Manhattan Cocktail (1928).

On the set of Les endiablées (1929), Arzner, irritated that the microphone was always in one place, had the sound technicians rig one up to a fishing pole and follow the actors around the set with it, in effect creating the first boom mike.

In 1936, she became the first woman to join the newly formed Directors Guild of America.

She started in the film business as a typist for director William C. de Mille, and within three years had worked her way up to screenwriter, then editor.

Longtime companions with Marion Morgan.

She invented the boom microphone while directing Clara Bow's first talkie, The Wild Party (1929).

She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California on January 24, 1986.

She has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Chantez, dansez, mes belles! (1940).

The subject of Canadian poet/playwright R.M. Vaughan's 2000 play "Camera, Woman", inspired by Arzner's last film, First Comes Courage (1943).

Dorothy Arzner passed away on October 1, 1979, three months away from what would have been her 83rd birthday on January 3, 1980.

In the 1960s, she began teaching screenwriting and directing courses at the UCLA Film School, and did so until her death.

During World War II, she produced training films for the Women's Army Corps.

Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Ruth Chatterton in Sarah et son fils (1930).

Attended and graduated from the University of Southern California.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 3-8. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.