Now streaming on Amazon Prime!
Based on a true story, Just Like The Men follows Mrs. Carleton, the political boss, and her friend and candidate, Mrs. Delorme, as they attempt to break into Washington State politics. Catching wind of their intentions, the scheming political men do their best to thwart the insufferable humdingers’ campaign by any means necessary...
Ella Higginson. Bellingham, WA.
Just Like The Men is an original silent film written in 1914 by Ella Higginson (pictured left), a novelist, Washington state’s first poet laureate, and campaign manager for Frances Axtell. Their campaign was a success making Axtell one of the first women in Washington state to be sworn in to legislative office. The story satirizes Higginson’s and Axtell’s maiden voyage down the campaign trail.
Just Like the Men is an original silent film written in 1914 by Ella Higginson
Higginson attempted to break into the movie business, the “golden era” of Hollywood at the time. Upon completion of her script, she sent it to her editor (who loved it) and they decided that Mary Pickford would be ideal casting for the lead role. Her editor contacted Pickford and that’s where the communication stops. Why Mary Pickford ultimately turned down Just Like the Men we can only speculate. It was a progressive topic given the time, and not what you'd call a "cash cow." A stranger to rejection after extensive success as a novelist and poet, Ella shelved the screenplay sometime after 1914, not to be discovered until 2012 when Laura Laffrado, literature professor at Western Washington University, began restoring Ella’s prolific, and completely forgotten, body of work.
Ella shelved the screenplay sometime after 1914, not to be discovered until 2012
100+ years later, our women-led production company is picking up where Ella left off, reviving this screwball-comedy glimpse of women‘s first entrance into politics, just in time for the 2020 centennial of women’s suffrage.
In 2017 we successfully ran a crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark, filmed for two weeks in the summer of 2018, and wrapped post-production in December of 2019!
Just Like The Men will be streaming online fall of 2020!
If you feel there's a lack of a female leaders in our mainstream media, if you are passionate about preserving history, if you want to help change the status quo, then contact us to find out how you can be part of this film's success.
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