Miss Lulu Bett (film)

Miss Lulu Bett depicts a transition that was prominent during the early 1920s women's suffrage movement.^[4] It displays women beginning to assert their independence. It also conveys how women often lived oppressive lives during this time, and explores the spinster stereotype. Although Lulu was not abused physically, she is abused psychologically by her controlling brother-in-law, who Lulu works under and visibly dislikes. When the story was adopted as a play, two endings were written; one where Lulu decides to undertake adventures on her own, which won Gale the Pulitzer Prize, and another where Neil shows up in the nick of time and convinces her to stay with him. The latter was more commercially acceptable at the time and less challenging for audiences given women's standing in society.

In the film, although Lulu and Neil decide to get married, Lulu still evolves from slavery into a self-assured woman, prepared to take on her life independently. In accordance with Gale's original ending depicting female independence, she personally advocated heavily for women's rights and was an ardent supporter of many liberal causes of her time. She was an active member of the National Women's Party and lobbied diligently for the 1921 Wisconsin Equal Rights Law. Additionally, she was an Executive Member of the Lucy Stone League – one of the first feminist groups to arise from the suffrage movement. She believed that her activism on behalf of women was her way to solve a “problem she returned to repeatedly in her novels: women’s frustration at their lack of opportunities.”^[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miss Lulu Bett (film).

• Miss Lulu Bett at IMDb
• Miss Lulu Bett is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
• ​Miss Lulu Bett​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lobby card for Miss Lulu Bett