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Ida May Park was the second female director at Universal after Lois Weber, writing and producing her own films. She believed women were perfectly suited to direct and needed to ensure that women were accurately presented on screen.
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Very nice article, Mary! I've always been interested in Lon Chaney's connection with her and Sam de Grasse. I would love to know his opinion of a woman showing him exactly how she might have wanted to see a scene. Is there any surviving evidence of his opinions of the two? Michael Blake might know that one if you don't.

I don't recall any of the articles mentioning what the stars thought of her direction, except for Dorothy Phillips. I would definitely think Michael Blake would know if something is out there.

Unfortunately, I NEVER found anything where Lon talked about either Ida May Park or Joseph DeGrasse.

I can only surmise that he had a great deal of respect for them, as they allowed/encouraged his taking character parts at a young age.

Have often wondered why both DeGrasse and Park were ignored by Hollywood, but then look how the industry treated Griffith and Welles. Perhaps they were "too independent" as filmmakers and not wanting to work within the confines of the emerging studio system.

Michael F. Blake

Thank you Mary for the great article. I noticed there were clips from BREAD in DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME. Does the film exist in its entirety, or in large part?

Hi Rosemary, thank you for the compliment. I don't know how much of the film survives, but I think that is the only film of hers that does survive, perhaps because she had such a tiny output as solo director. I'm not sure if any of the films that she and Joseph de Grasse co-directed exist either. More the reason anything from BREAD should be restored.

There is about a minute on Ida May Park in Richard Koszarski's interview of Mary McLaren. The interview can be found on Shoes as a bonus feature.