Another Reel Pioneer

The pioneer female movie makers profiled in AMC’s “Reel Models: The First Women of Film” certainly deserve our utmost respect and admiration (“Women Who Directed Their Own Filmmaking Destinies,” May 29).

But so does Nell Shipman (1892-1970), who wrote, produced, directed and starred in some 15 action features in the ‘teens and 1920s. Nell, who also wrote scripts for other stars (e.g., Myrna Loy), shot many of her films in the rugged Idaho forests with wild animals, and her work survives in the Nell Shipman Archive at Boise State University, which regularly screens and celebrates her work.

Her late son Barry Shipman was a ranking Hollywood writer. For Barry’s World War II documentary film welcoming women Marines into uniform, Nell provided a motherly voice narration.

JULIAN “BUD” LESSER

Palm Desert