Winner of the Mystery Writers of America's 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical In 1933, Joan Harrison was a twenty-six-year-old former salesgirl with a dream of escaping both her stodgy London suburb and the dreadful prospect of settling down with one of the local boys. A few short years later, she was Alfred Hitchcock's confidante and one of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of his first American film, Rebecca. Harrison had quickly grown from being the worst secretary Hitchcock ever had to one of his closest collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the "Master of Suspense." Harrison went on to produce numerous Hollywood features before becoming a television pioneer as the producer of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A respected powerhouse, she acquired a singular reputation for running amazingly smooth productions— and defying anyone who posed an obstacle. She built most of her films and series from the ground up. She waged rough-and-tumble battles against executives and censors, and even helped to break the Hollywood blacklist. She teamed up with many of the most respected, well-known directors, writers, and actors of the twentieth century. And she did it all on her own terms. Author Christina Lane shows how this stylish, stunning woman became Hollywood's most powerful female writer-producer—one whom history has since overlooked.

Phantom Lady featured the character of Sandra Knight, aka, the Phantom Lady, a character formerly published by Quality Comics. This series continus the numbering sequence from Wotalife Comics and continues as My Love Secret following issue #23. Phantom Lady appeared in Police Comics #1 to 23, and Feature Comics #69-71, where she teamed up with Spider-Widow. Phantom Lady's more modest (!) Quality Comics lookPhantom Lady then jumped ship from Quality, when the (now simply) Iger Studio recostumed her for use by Fox Features Syndicate, who gave the character her own title, Phantom Lady, which lasted from #1 (August, 1947) to #26 (April 1949). She also guested in All-Top Comics #8 to #15. Shortly afterwards, Fox went bust. Star Comics bought the rights to the Fox characters, and had Phantom lady turn up in a couple of their comics, then Farrell Publications got hold of her, and produced four issues of their own Phantom Lady series (unlike many of the characters they revived from other companies, they kept both costume and true identity unchanged). Eventually Charlton bought up most of the Fox characters, presumably including Phantom Lady. This Volume covers Phantom Lady adventures from 1947 - 1949 Approx 365 pages

Defying industry logic and gender expectations, women started flocking to see horror films in the early 1940s. The departure of the young male audience and the surprise success of the film Cat People convinced studios that there was an untapped female audience for horror movies, and they adjusted their production and marketing strategies accordingly. Phantom Ladies reveals the untold story of how the Hollywood horror film changed dramatically in the early 1940s, including both female heroines and female monsters while incorporating elements of “women’s genres” like the gothic mystery. Drawing from a wealth of newly unearthed archival material, from production records to audience surveys, Tim Snelson challenges long-held assumptions about gender and horror film viewership. Examining a wide range of classic horror movies, Snelson offers us a new appreciation of how dynamic this genre could be, as it underwent seismic shifts in a matter of months. Phantom Ladies, therefore, not only includes horror films made in the early 1940s, but also those produced immediately after the war ended, films in which the female monster was replaced by neurotic, psychotic, or hysterical women who could be cured and domesticated. Phantom Ladies is a spine-tingling, eye-opening read about gender and horror, and the complex relationship between industry and audiences in the classical Hollywood era.

Phantom Lady is a fictional superheroine, one of the first female superhero characters to debut in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. Originally published by Quality Comics, the character was subsequently published by a series of now-defunct comic book companies, and a new version of the character currently appears in books published by DC Comics. As published by Fox Feature Syndicate in the late 1940s, the busty and scantily-clad Phantom Lady is a notable and controversial example of "good girl art," a style of comic art depicting voluptuous female characters in provocative situations and pin-up poses that contributed to widespread criticism of the medium's effect on children. Phantom Lady was created by the Eisner & Iger studio, one of the first to produce comics on demand for publishers. The character's early adventures were drawn by Arthur Peddy. The character was ranked 49th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list. Phantom Lady first appeared in Quality's Police Comics #1 (Aug, 1941), an anthology title the first issue of which also included the debut of characters such as Plastic Man and the Human Bomb. That issue established her alter ego as Sandra Knight, the beautiful Washington, D.C. debutante daughter of U.S. Senator Henry Knight. The issue established that it was not her first appearance as the Phantom Lady, but it did not go into her origin. Stories published decades later by DC Comics would give her a proper origin, which was altered several times to give Sandra a more active role. Her skimpy costume was eventually explained as a deliberate tactic to distract her usually male foes. Sandra Knight assumed the identity of Phantom Lady in a costume consisting of a green cape and the equivalent of a one-piece yellow swimsuit. She used a "black light projector," a device which allowed her to blind her enemies and make herself invisible. She drove a car whose headlights also projected black light when necessary. She was sometimes assisted by her fiance, Donald Borden, an agent of the U.S. State Department. Phantom Lady ran as one of the features in Police Comics through #23. Arthur Peddy continued as the artist through #13, with Joe Kubert drawing her feature in Police Comics #14-16; Frank Borth on #17-21; Arthur Peddy returned for #22,; and Rudy Palais on #23. Phantom Lady also appeared in Feature Comics #69-71 as part of a crossover with Spider Widow and the Raven

The Phantom Lady of Paris? I knew her well. On the other hand-as I later discovered-I didn't know her at all. The woman did everything wrong. She did nothing wrong. She was a Jezebel, deceptive in every way. I've never known a more honest and straightforward person. During our relationship, she kept me constantly jittery and perturbed. The happiest days of my life were those I shared with the Phantom Lady of Paris. They were the golden days, the good times, good, that is, until... ""An amazing trip back to 1968 Paris. A time of turmoil and tragedy with the Vietnam war raging. Mr. Davis has woven a tale full of marvelous characters living in the City of Light.As with the US, Paris is having its similiar issues with the War. Protestors, revolutionaries, teachers, and others come to Paris to find or escape themselves. In Paris, they feel they can find the answers with other like minded. Some become disillusioned and walk a dangerous path, others find friendships that will touch there lives forever. The Phantom Lady is the person I think most of us wish we could be.. Although sometimes exasperating and secretive, she is magic and love and kindness in a time where the world is in despair. This is a story that will stay with you long after you finish the book. It will pull you to Paris...to the cafes and bridges...to the people that walk its streets...and to its ghosts. I highly recommend this book. A bit a history woven with unforgetable charaters. You won't want to put it down. -- by Lisa Franklin, Rochester, NY "

Provides encyclopedic coverage of female sexuality in 1940s popular culture. 2015 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Popular culture in the 1940s is organized as patriarchal theater. Men gaze upon, evaluate, and coerce women, who are obliged in their turn to put themselves on sexual display. In such a thoroughly patriarchal society, what happens to female sexual desire? Wolf-Women and Phantom Ladies unearths this female desire by conducting a panoramic survey of 1940s culture that analyzes popular novels, daytime radio serials, magazines and magazine fiction, marital textbooks, Hollywood and educational films, jungle comics, and popular music. In addition to popular works, Steven Dillon discusses many lesser-known texts and artists, including Ella Mae Morse, a key figure in the founding of Capitol Records, and Lisa Ben, creator of the first lesbian magazine in the United States. Steven Dillon is Professor of English at Bates College and the author of Derek Jarman and Lyric Film: The Mirror and the Sea and The Solaris Effect: Art and Artifice in Contemporary American Film.

A cultural history of comic book heroines. Is their world of fantasy different from our own-- or an alternative saga of modern American women?