Anne Bauchens was a St. Louis, Missouri native who, at the age of twenty, moved to New York City in the hope of becoming an actor and was hired by William de Mille as a typist and stenographer in 1912. Five years later, she traveled to Hollywood to help William’s brother, producer-director Cecil B. De Mille, edit We Can’t Have Everything (1918). DeMille is quoted in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner as saying about her that “though a gentle person, professionally she is as firm as a stone wall . . . We argue over virtually every picture” (III 3). Nonetheless, she was the only person the director would permit to edit his films and continued working with him until his death in 1959.
Anne Bauchens and Cecil B. DeMille. Courtesy of Brigham Young University.
Till I Come Back to You. Dir. Cecil B. DeMille, sc.: Jeanie Macpherson, ed.: Anne Bauchens (Famous Players-Lasky Corp. US 1918) cas.: Fryant Washburn, Florence Vidor, si., b&w, 6 reels, 35mm. Archive: George Eastman Museum, Academy Film Archive.
For Better, for Worse. Dir. Cecil B. DeMille, sc.: Jeanie Macpherson, ed.: Anne Bauchens (Famous Players-Lasky Corp. US 1919) cas.: Elliott Dexter, Tom Forman, Gloria Swanson, si., b&w, 35mm. Archive: George Eastman Museum, Academy Film Archive.
Dynamite. Dir. Cecil B. DeMille, sc.: Jeanie Macpherson, ed.: Anne Bauchens (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. US 1929) cas.: Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Conrad Nagel, si&so, b&w, 35mm. Archive: UCLA Film & Television Archive.
We Can’t Have Everything, 1918; Craig’s Wife, 1928; Ned McCobb’s Daughter, 1929; Lord Byron of Broadway, 1930.
Citation
Hatch, Kristen. "Anne Bauchens." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. <https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-229t-9n77>
