From ‘General Hospital’ to ‘Days Of Our Lives,’ Soap Operas Have Supported Female Directors for Decades
variety.comMichael Maloney More than a century after Alice Guy-Blaché became one of the film world’s first directors when she brought “La Fée aux Choux” (“The Cabbage Fairy”) to the screen in 1896, the movie business hasn’t progressed much in giving female auteurs an equal share of jobs.
But the pioneer filmmaker might be happy to know that the daytime drama genre has afforded opportunities for women to call shots from the control booth.
Women have been directing soap operas since Gloria Monty, the iconic “General Hospital” producer, directed CBS’s “The First Hundred Years” in the early 1950s, and she went on to direct Joan Crawford during her stint on “The Secret Storm” in 1968.
Lela Swift followed in those footsteps and won the 1977 Daytime Emmy for outstanding individual director for a drama series for her work on “Ryan’s Hope.” In the late 1980s, Francesca James, an “All My Children” actress-turned-director and producer, opened doors when she began directing at “Loving.” These days, there is a behind-the-scenes boom in women sitting in the director’s chair on the soaps.
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