She Damn Near Ran the Studio

Historian Braitman illuminates the woman behind one of Golden Age Hollywood’s most powerful moguls in this revealing biography. . . . Both women’s history and film buffs will be fascinated by Braitman’s account. Publishers Weekly

Koverman was the godmother of the MGM musicals, and this biography bestows on her long-overdue credit for her immeasurable contributions to 20th-century culture. Book Reviews by David Marshall James

Jacqueline R. Braitman has done an admirable job of writing a weighty biography on the somewhat mysterious figure Ida R. Koverman (1876–1954). . . . A job well done by Braitman. Gillian Kelly, University of Glasgow, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

This book is a valuable addition to any reference bookshelf and a significant story about women’s place in society during the early 20th century. leonardmaltin.com

She Damn Near Ran the Studio is significant in its discussions of women’s contributions to American politics and the moving picture industry. Until very recently, women’s work in American film following the 1920s has been overlooked by many a film scholar; and in this regard, Braitman’s book is a substantial piece of scholarship. Katherine A. Johnson, Butler University, . Quarterly Review of Film and Video

Braitman’s She Damn Near Ran the Studio contains notes and an extensive bibliography and is essential reading for scholars interested in Hollywood history, women in Hollywood, and women in politics. Camille McCutcheon, University of South Carolina Upstate, Journal of American Culture

We can still see Koverman’s legacy every day. Starting in California, she helped shape the modern Republican Party, especially in its conservative Sunbelt incarnation. Her brilliance at finding and nurturing talent bequeathed us scores of unforgettable films that are part of our collective vocabulary and cultural memory. . . . Jacqueline R. Braitman’s She Damn Near Ran the Studio vividly shows how the remarkable Ida Koverman made it all happen. Susan Wladaver-Morgan, California History Journal

Jacqueline R. Braitman’s impressive research and wide lens finally brings into focus Ida R. Koverman, a Hollywood insider whose power was previously viewed only in fleeting glimpses. Braitman’s discovery of Koverman’s early career as a political operative, and its link to her subsequent influence at MGM, exposes how female power could be hidden in plain sight, not only in the movie industry but in twentieth-century America. Karen Ward Mahar, professor of history and cochair of the American studies program at Siena College and author of Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood

Through painstaking research and an agile blend of political, societal, and cultural analysis, Jacqueline R. Braitman paints a fascinating portrait of a complex woman who—though ignored by earlier historians—should rightly be credited for important contributions to the US film industry and American political life during the twentieth century and, for better or worse, serving as an early matchmaker between the two. Spanning the greater part of a century, from the Gilded Age to the McCarthy era, She Damn Near Ran the Studio represents a unique contribution to scholarship on the history of women in film, classical Hollywood, and modern American politics. Erin Hill, assistant professor of media and popular culture at University of California San Diego and author of Never Done: A History of Women's Work in Media Production

She Damn Near Ran the Studio: The Extraordinary Lives of Ida R. Koverman sheds welcome light on a powerful woman who has remained too long in the shadow of her boss, Louis B. Mayer of MGM. Author Jacqueline R. Braitman not only reveals backstage Hollywood intrigue and Koverman’s influence on prominent careers, but also the close ties between the movie industry and right-wing Republican politics. Along the way, she traces the new professional and political roles open to women in the early twentieth century, the rise of Los Angeles as a cultural mecca, and the complicated interaction of art, commerce, and politics in Hollywood—all in the remarkable life of Ida R. Koverman. Susan Wladaver-Morgan, former associate editor of Pacific Historical Review

Thanks to the pioneering research of Jacqueline R. Braitman, we now know not only the full story of Ida R. Koverman in Hollywood, but also the full record of her career in Californian and national Republican politics. It is extraordinary that a woman such as Koverman held such power and influence, and equally extraordinary is how this book presents us with the full, untrammeled story. Anthony Slide, film scholar