• Source: Franc Dillon

Franc Dillon (June 1891 - unknown) was a film journalist during the period of classical Hollywood cinema and the golden age of Hollywood. Dillon was a socialite, clubwoman, and friend of actor Harold Lloyd and his wife Mildred Davis Lloyd, helping them launch the Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals that was part of a national little theatre movement. It became an important showcase for young actors hoping to be discovered, and for New York stage veterans who wanted to be seen in Hollywood. As a publicist and advertising executive, she negotiated with film production companies to guarantee some of the earliest product placements in films.




Early life


She was born Franc (possibly Frances) Newman in Michigan, the daughter of Florence Groesbeck or Grousebeck and Frank Newman. Her father may have died shortly before her birth. Some sources give her maiden name as Franc Tait, the surname of her mother's second husband. Franc may have lowered her age by four years when she moved to Los Angeles, because the 1930 census shows a birth date of 1895 rather than 1891, the latter of which is reflected on her marriage license. She had a full brother surnamed Newman, and two half siblings surnamed Tait.




Journalism


She published features in the leading movie magazines of the day, including Photoplay, Modern Screen, and Picture Play. She was often in the society pages, for example in the Los Angeles Times as a frequent name in Myra Nye's "Society of Cinemaland" column, or the page "Of Interest to Women." Dillon's decision to write about a new talent and how to showcase that person could have an effect on how they were received. She was also a correspondent for newspapers across the country promoting Hollywood to the masses, for example publishing a two-page spread in what was then known as the Atlanta Constitution showing movie stars like Al Jolson, Ann Dvorak, and Joel McCrea engaging in farm work to show that they could relate to everyday people. From 1928 to 1935 she was also a Hollywood correspondent and columnist for the Brooklyn Standard-Union, later the Times-Union.




Publicity profession


The publicity field, along with society and gossip columns, gave women a measure of power and control in a town more conventionally run by men. With screenwriter Katherine Albert of MGM and others she led the Women's Association of Screen Publicists (WASPs), a group that formed in October 1924. In 1928 Dillon was listed in The Film Spectator as working for the Charles S. Dunning publicity firm. Sometimes she hosted events that might now be called publicity stunts, such as having a 1928 peanut-shelling party at her home where the WASPs worked their way through 300 pounds of them to benefit charity. Later, in the late 1930s and 1940s she worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising company as part of a noted all-woman team headed by Maxine Smith.




Clubwoman


Women in Hollywood also formed clubs which gave them collective strength. One of Dillon's earliest clubs was a branch of the Soroptimists, formed in 1922 when the international organization was just a year old. In 1927 she was listed in Film Year Book as vice president of the WASPs, with Elizabeth Riordan as president. She was founding president of the Screen Women's Press Club (SWPC), beginning in 1930. They often met in the Munchers Club, a café on the Fox movie studio lot. SWPC should not be confused with the Hollywood Women's Press Club founded in 1928 by Louella Parsons and Myra Nye, although the groups overlapped and were sometimes considered functionally the same. She was also chair of the Publicity Club, which met at the Nickodell on Argyle, a famous old Hollywood restaurant.




Personal life


On October 24, 1914 she married silent film actor Edward Dillon, known as Mary Pickford's first leading man, who also directed for D. W. Griffith for nine years. Actor John T. Dillon was her brother-in-law. It is unknown when the marriage ended, but in the 1930 census Franc Dillon is listed as divorced at age 35, with her mother living in her home. Edward Dillon died of a sudden heart attack in 1933, and news reports said she went to his funeral. In the 1940 census she is listed as widowed rather than divorced.
She was quite small in stature, for The Clubwoman yearbook of 1928 described a style show, with many women in costume, where "Little Franc Dillon in bell hop attire was flying about seating folk." Similarly, society columnist Lucille Leimert called her a "pint-sized Hollywood career girl."
In 1931 she showed a one-year-old white, black, and tan wire fox terrier with the show name Sidlaw Bandit Queen.
Her date of death is not yet known. The most recent reference for her is in the Los Angeles Times, 15 June 1954, when she would have been 60.




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References

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