Missing In Action - The Women Behind Television's Golden Age

    > Mary Ahern
    > Annette Bachner
    > Barbara Claman
    > Judy Crichton
    > Marion Dougherty
    > Phyllis Adams Jenkins
    > Rhoda Mann-Winkler
    > Virginia Raymond
    > Lynn Sackler
    > Barbara Schultz
    > Lela Swift
    > Ellen M. Violett



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Lela Swift was the only woman directing drama shows in the 1950’s, debuting on the legendary Studio One. She directed cult classic Dark Shadows 1966 until 1971.

Swift started out in television working as an Assistant Stage-Manager under a woman director, Frances Buss, in the 1940’s and continued her career until 1989. Although Swift was passed over five times, she finally became a director in 1951. She was warned she would only do cooking shows and advised that she should do casting instead. She had her first child while working on The Web in the 1950’s and her baby boy walked into a party of directors (men) and said, “You can’t be a director. A director is a mommy.”

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