Episode 179 – Interview with Dr. Marsha Gordon

A pencil, a ball point pen, and a quill sitting in lounge chairs drinking coffee; Title: Writers Drinking Coffee

Dr. Gordon wrote a biography of Ursula Parrot, the best-selling female author of the 1920-1930s. Her book, “Ex-Wife”, sold more than Faulkner and Fitzgerald put together when it came out. She wrote screenplays for Hollywood that catapulted women into stardom. But no one has heard of her. Come with us as Marsha delves into the world of being a professional woman of the age, of working in a man’s world, and what it meant to be successful and wealthy in her own time but still die penniless and alone. It’s a fascinating book of a fascinating woman, and we give her to you.

  • Her latest book: “Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrot”
  • Other Dr. Marsha Gordon books:
    • “Film is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller’s War Movies” (Oxford University Press, 2017)
    • “Hollywood Ambitions: Celebrity in the Movie Age” (Wesleyan University Press, 2008)
    • co-editor of “Learning With the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States” (Oxford University Press, 2012)
    • “Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film” (Duke University Press, 2019)

Mentions from Episode 179: