How is it possible that I’ve never heard of this pioneering female filmmaker before? Oh, right: it’s because she was a female filmmaker.
From The New York Times:
Overlooked No More: Aloha Wanderwell, Explorer and Filmmaker
*By 16, she was traveling around the world behind the wheel of a Model T in a life of adventure that was interrupted only by a murder mystery.*The ad in The Paris Herald called for “a good-looking, brainy young woman” willing to “forswear skirts” and “rough it” in Asia and Africa for an unspecified expedition.
“Be prepared,” it said, “to learn to work before and behind a movie camera.” It was 1922.
Idris Welsh, a 16-year-old student at a convent school in France who was crazy about movies, read the ad and was hooked.
She applied and was given the job of mechanic in an ill-defined endeavor that involved filming a team’s travels as it motored around in 1917 Model Ts. At 6 feet tall, blond and attractive, Idris quickly became the face of the expedition, which captured her adventures in a series of movie travelogues.
She sounds absolutely badass.
Thanks for bronxbee for the heads-up.
“Novels by Joseph Conrad stoked her craving for adventure…”
Either she and I were reading very different Conrad novels, or we have very different ideas about what constitutes a craveable adventure. What a brash, spirited, talented woman. Elba is hereby demoted to second coolest Idris.
I’m really curious what happened to the Wanderwell children, Valri and Nile, who seem to have been raised by their extended family and in foster homes. I had to Google a bit just to find out which of the many possible surnames they ended up using, and a few websites identify Valri as Valerie.
https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A168531
I married Valri’s daughter, Miki…. Named after Aloha’s sister, Miki. Valri lived with us since 2008. Valri passed away Nov 2019 at home with her family. She was 93 years old. Nile passed away before her and was living in a retirement home in SF. He used to live on a boat in Sausalito
Did Valri and Nile ever talk about their experiences with their mother or how they felt about their unusual upbringing?
Yes, they were almost “adopted” by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, quite unusual for the day. In general after hearing about how they were raised, they were not given the proper attention as kids. For instance, Valri spent at least one Christmas in a Nun’s Orphanage. There is a debris field left by the Aloha & the Captain and their decision to have kids and travel all over the world. The kids felt a bit estranged.
What a fantastic obituary! And there’s a connection to the Lost City of Z too. If nothing else, her search for Percy Fawcett would make for an interesting film.
EDIT: Also, I can’t think of a more fitting name for a professional explorer: someone who’s always saying hello and goodbye to places, just passing through, and practicing the art of wandering well.
She is ready-made for Teh Movies!
Holy cow, she’s amazing! Thanks for sharing this.
I know, right?
The fact that women like Aloha Wanderwell (I seriously love saying that name) and Gertrude Bell and so many other amazing adventurous stereotype-busting women are not household names is an absolute crime against humanity, and absolutely proves how misogynist our culture is. *seethes*
If you combine the Wanderwell family names with all the Satanic names in Hail Satan? 2019 is an excellent year for nomenclature.