Hildegarde Stadie(1895-1993)
- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Despite her wholesome appearance, Hildegarde Stadie led a colorful,
bizarre and unpredictable life. She was the niece of a patent-medicine
peddler, and as a little girl she traveled with him all over the United
States, selling their cure-all, Tiger Fat. Part of the presentation involved
the preteen Hildegarde appearing fully nude with a python draped
around her shoulders. Though she did not draw upon this particular
anecdote, her experience with her uncle greatly influenced her script for
Narcotic (1933). In 1920 she married Dwain Esper, who would later
become a notorious exploitation film producer. When Dwain assumed
ownership of a small studio facility in Los Angeles, California in 1930,
they began producing films from scripts she wrote. The couple cranked
out several low-budget pictures. Some of them, such as "Maniac" (1934)
and "Marihuana" (1936) remain so bizarre and prurient that it is had to
imagine a husband and wife with two children producing them. Besides
making films for the exploitation market, Hildegarde and Dwain imported
and reissued older films, such as Tom Browning's cult-classic "Freaks" (1932)
and the Danish film "Man's Way With Women" (1934). Hildegarde usually
managed relations with state censorship boards when their films came under
criticism from the local morality squad, something she undoubtedly regarded
as a necessary irritation. Suriving regional censorship documents are sometimes
addressed to "Mr. Hildegarde Esper"!