Research Accidents

I'm currently researching a few early women filmmakers, directors, and screenwriters and I'm discovering all kinds of intersting stuff about these women. If all goes well, I will be contributing to a Women in Silent Film Sourcebook being published by Duke University Press. When I was in London, I met the editor and signed up to work on the entries for four women: Julia Crawford (JC) Ivers, Dorothy (Dot) Farley, Flora Finch, and Agnes Christine Johnson. I chose these people more or less at random as there were only a handful of un-assigned names left on the list from which potential writers could choose. I knew both Dot Farly and Flora Finch as very well known comedians, either comic writers or actors, or both. I also knew Julia Crawford Ivers wrote extensively for William Desmond Taylor, the well-known direct who was killed in 1922 and whose murderer was never found. I hadn't realized, until I started this research, that Ivers was considered by some to be a suspect in the murder. Though it sounds like that theory was short-lived and she was never seriously investigated as a potential suspect, I found that interesting. Again, my choice seems to lead me back to women murderers. I doubt I'll find enough about this potential link to murder to include Ivers in my dissertation but it's still an interesting tidbit of information.