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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.

Partial list of feature articles (in progress)

References

1. York, Cal (September 1928). "Gossip of All the Studios". Photoplay. 34 (4): 50 – via The Internet Archive.
2. Campbell, Kay (7 January 1948). "Hollywood, More than Ever, Going for Those Ad Tie-Ups". Variety. p. 22.
3. ^ State of California, County of Los Angeles, Marriage License, October 14, 1914.
4. "United States Census, 1910," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLBH-8WG: Entry for W. W. Tait and Florence A. Tait, 1910.
5. ^ U. S. Federal Census, 1930.
6. See table.
7. Multiple items found on newspapers.com.
8. Dillon, Franc (26 January 1936). "The Stars Come Down to Earth". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 9.
9. Dillon, Franc (11 December 1928). "In the Hollywood Studios (column)". The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York). p. 15.
10. Mallory, Mary (27 November 2023). "Hollywood Heights: Agnes O'Malley Marx, Pioneering Film Publicist". The Daily Mirror.
11. Nye, Myrna (3 June 1928). "Society of Cinemaland". The Los Angeles Times. p. 33.
12. Beaton, Welford (13 October 1928). "Greetings! Charles S. Dunning, Publicity: Franc N. Dillon, Associate". The Film Spectator. 6 (4): 45 – via Internet Archive.
13. Kingsley, Grace (28 July 1928). "Women Publicists Now Shell Peanuts". The Los Angeles Times. p. 7.
14. "From the Production Centres... in Hollywood". Variety. 22 December 1943. p. 32.
15. "Women in Business Form Club". The Los Angeles Sunday Times. 16 April 1922. p. 1.
16. Kann, Maurice, ed. (1927). Film Year Book 1927. John W. Alicoate. p. 845.
17. "Club Elects Franc Dillon". The Los Angeles Times. 10 December 1930. p. 29.
18. Alicote, Jack, ed. (1932). The 1932 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures. Media History Digital Library (14th annual ed.). New York: The Film Daily. p. 664.
19. Nye, Myrna (22 March 1931). "Society of Cinemaland". The Los Angeles Times. p. 24.
20. "Hollywood Chatter". Variety. 13 November 1929. p. 8. Munchers Club, Fox Studio, is featuring 'sunnyside up' eggs.
21. Braitman, Jacqueline R. (19 October 2020). She Damn Near Ran the Studio: The Extraordinary Lives of Ida R. Koverman. University Press of Mississippi. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-4968-3037-1.
22. "Publicity Club Installs Today". The Los Angeles Times. 2 August 1948. p. 3.
23. "Nickodell | Old L.A. Restaurants". oldlarestaurants.com. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
24. ^ "Edward Dillon". The New York Times. July 12, 1933. p. 17. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
25. U. S. Federal Census, 1940.
26. Edwards, Alice Mavor (July 1928). "The Soroptimist Club of Los Angeles". The Clubwoman. XVIII (1): 31 – via Internet Archive.
27. Leimert, Lucille (2 February 1947). "Confidentially". The Los Angeles Times. pp. C3. ProQuest 165677538.
28. Stud Book Register. Vol. 48. American Kennel Club. 1 July 1931. p. 32.
29. "Home Unit to Install". The Los Angeles Times. 15 June 1954. pp. B2.

• 1891 births
• 20th-century American women journalists
• 20th-century American journalists
• 20th-century American women writers
• American gossip columnists
• American women columnists
• Los Angeles Times people
• People from Michigan