Agnes O’Malley Marx in the Los Angeles Daily News, 1954.

The early moving picture industry offered opportunity to diverse workers: immigrants, women, and people of color more easily found jobs and opportunities for growth and leadership in the new field. Those with creativity, ambition, and drive could succeed unlike in more settled and traditional fields. Like other young women, Pennsylvania born Agnes O’Malley yearned for the chance to make her mark in Hollywood and contribute to the success of motion pictures. While basically unknown today, O’Malley’s moxie and smarts led her to early film publicity, selling the movies as she sold herself.

Born June 12, 1897 in Allegheny, Pennsylvnaia to Irish immigrant John and local girl Annie, Agnes K. O’Malley was one of four children who learned to scrap early. Her family struggled as her father originally worked in a mill before becoming a street foreman in Pittsburgh. She would later claim to have attended college, but city records show her working as a stenographer in Pittsburgh in 1920. Looking for excitement and adventure she moved in Los Angeles and Hollywood in 1922, hoping to find a job in the booming film industry.

Agnes O’Malley Marx in the Exhibitors Herald, 1925.

Though she would later claim to have worked as an editor for Photoplay magazine in her early career, O’Malley actually started as an office girl and worked her way up through ambition and nerve. She joined Richard Walton Tully and his producing group at First National Studios in the summer of 1922 as a secretary. Just six months later, she was promoted to assistant in the publicity department, headed by George Landy. A quick study and great saleswoman, she joined the Mack Sennett Studio in April 1924 as director of publicity. Not only would O’Malley manage publicity duties, she also performed special writing for the organization. That December, she penned a sketch called “Here and There” starring Buddy Messinger and Andy Clyde as part of a fundraiser for the Hollywood chapter of the Boy Scouts held at the Masonic Temple.

At the same time as O’Malley looked to move into leadership positions and employ her full talents as publicist, other women searched for opportunities to advance and make a difference. Women had been an integral part of the moving picture industry and publicity for years, working for newspapers, magazines, and film companies writing publicity, dreaming up ballyhoo, and penning features for trade papers and fan magazines. Only a few occupied positions of power and control like the Talmadge sisters’ publicist Beulah Livingstone, but with the introduction of Wall Street money, men began dominating the field and women found themselves pushed aside. Males also earned considerably more than female publicists, just as they did in virtually every other position in Hollywood. Women considered how to rise in power and lead departments as the times changed.

To achieve some measure of equanimity and voice, women publicists banded together officially in October 1924 to form the Women’s Association of Screen Publicists, or WASPs, the female version of the Western Advertising Men’s Association. At their second meeting, O’Malley was elected the temporary Secretary of the organization. On December 9, she was officially elected Vice President for the group. The group’s purpose was “to further and enlarge the business and social interests of such writers as well as to promote accurate and reliable publicity.” The women worked to gain more equal representation and opportunity as well as improve writing skills, connections, and access.

Perhaps tired of the acronym WASPs, the group reorganized in 1930 under the name the Screen Women’s Press Club, allowing screenwriters, critics, columnists, and fan magazine writers to join. The group’s name sounded more professional and cast a wider net of members looking to make a mark in the entertainment industry. The group also worked to better skills and opportunities for members while also offering a sympathetic and understanding place to air grievances, discrimination, and harassment.

In the fall of 1925, O’Malley moved to New York to carry on publicity duties while conducting a long distance romance with Dr. Rudolph Marx, a doctor to the entertainment industry and society leaders. The couple married in the spring of 1926, returning to Los Angeles in April. She continued working as Sennett’s publicity director, employing her maiden name in her official duties. On May 25, 1927, however, O’Malley resigned from the Sennett organization to become a full time screenwriter and possible part time publicist for Hal Roach.

The couple first moved to Crescent Heights Boulevard in West Hollywood and eventually Foothill Boulevard in Beverly Hills where O’Malley continued writing for several years while also becoming active in both charity and political work. She participated in the Hollywood Guild and the Dominoes, an Assistance League group that performed sketches and plays as fundraising for the organzation. O’Malley served on the play committee, helping organize events. Making a difference to society and giving back ranked high with O’Malley.

Agnes O’Malley Marx, left, and Mercedes McCambridge in the Los Angeles Times, 1958.

She took an active interest in politics, working to educate voters, support politicians, and letting her voice be heard on important social issues of the day. O’Malley organized the Beverly Hills branch of the League of Women Voters in 1954, working to train new voters and get women to the polls. She particiated in the Beverly Hills’ Democratic Women’s Club for decades, organizing parties, training, and fundraising. promoting progressive causes. She and her husband would speak out against the House UnAmerican Activities Committee while supporting free speech. Employing her publicity skills, O’Malley would appear on behalf of the group on the radio, speaking on such topics as the political power of women and organizing Teas for TV to raise money for Adlai Stevenson in 1956, so successful it swept the country. She eventually formed Events Unlimited in the late 1950s to focus exclusively on planning successful political meetings and events.

After her children became older, O’Malley returned to the publicity field in short spurts to assist such performers as Oscar Hammerstein II and Agnes De Mille in promoting their careers and new works. She obviously believed that “idle hands were the devil’s workshop,” remaining active and vital in both professional and personal activities. She demonstrated that women could be successful in both the home and public spheres, sharing their talents and intellects to better themselves, their families, and society in general, while society at the time preferred women to dominate only the home sphere and not fully demonstrate their education, skills, or talents.

While women composed a large part of film publicity workers in the 1940s and 1950s, writing for trades, newspapers, and magazines, men controlled positions of power at studios and major companies. Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper topped the publicity field in popularity, but could do little to lift other women into positions of power. The Screen Women’s Press Club continued its work to educate and promote women, work that would continue for decades, even as stalwarts like O’Malley and others fought for equal opportunity.

O’Malley passed away in 1959 at the age of 61, leaving behind a legacy of service and dedication to good causes, particularly to that of training and educating women to believe in themselves and serve in leadership positions throughout the entertainment industry. Little is known of the work she and other publicity sisters performed in selling movies, but they deserve to have their work and contributions be made known.