Alice Guy Blache

Guy-Blache joined Gaumont as a secretary in 1896 and became its primary director when the company began producing films. In 1907 she and her husband, cameraman Herbert Blache, moved to the US, first running Gaumont's American office and later setting up an independent production company, Solax. Her films, though not distinctive, were generally of a high quality.In 1922, divorced from her husband and outdistanced by the growing American film industry, Guy-Blache returned to France but was unsuccessful in her attempts to continue directing. Her contributions to cinema were finally recognized when she was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1953.