A stunt girl was a woman investigative journalist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. The term was often used derogatorily. The genre impacted the law, labor, and journalism.

History

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s multiple newspapers employed women who went undercover into factories, mills, institutions, hospitals, agencies, and tenements to report on conditions or expose scams or scandals. Some investigations lasted for weeks or months, with the stunt girl writing regular reports while still undercover. Most stunt girls used pseudonyms. Male reporters were designated "investigative journalists" while female reporters doing the same kind of work were called "stunt girls". The term referred to the idea that women doing this kind of work were doing something "bizarre or sensational" and that women who were strong or brave or independent were oddities. Sometimes called "participatory journalism", it was the means for many women writers to extend their journalism outside of the society pages to the front page. As stunt girl reporting became increasingly popular, there was a corresponding backlash of misogyny in the newsrooms. The ''World'' created the "Meg Merrilies" byline which was given credit for stories by any of the stunt girls other than

Nellie Bly Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker who was widely known for her record-breaki ...

. More traditional woman journalists, such as

Ida Tarbell Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857January 6, 1944) was an American writer, Investigative journalism, investigative journalist, List of biographers, biographer and lecturer. She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of th ...

, scorned the stunt girls. Over time the genre evolved from investigations of social ills to ever-more sensational capers such as describing what it felt like to be strapped into an electric chair or spending a night in a supposed haunted house. By the end of the 19th century, the stunt girl genre was discredited, its journalists reduced to reporting on such things as nights spent in supposed haunted houses, and became associated with

yellow journalism Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include e ...

. According to academic Kim Todd, it was "disdained as a particularly female variety of trash." The genre had a resurgence with the advent of

tabloid journalism Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism (usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even blatantly false), which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as ...

in the 1920s. By the modern period the genre was widely denigrated. According to Todd, "If the form is known at all, it is referenced with a sneer."

Notable investigations

In 1887, Nellie Bly spent ten days living in

Blackwell's Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85 ...

, an institution housing people with mental illness, and wrote for the ''World'' an exposé, '' Inside the Madhouse'', which documented the abuse of patients. Bly followed up her ''Madhouse'' series with similar investigations, such as ''The Girls Who Make Boxes: Nellie Bly Tells How It Feels to Be a White Slave'', ''Visiting the Dispensaries: Nelly icBly Narrowly Escapes Having Her Tonsils Amputated'', and ''Nellie Bly in Pullman: She Visits the Homes of Poverty in the 'Model Workingman's Town''. A "girl reporter", whose identity remains unknown, in 1888 investigated the availability of abortion in Chicago by visiting over 200 physicians over the course of three weeks. In 1888, Nell Cusack, under the by-line Nell Nelson, went undercover in the factories of Chicago for the ''Chicago Times''. She wrote a 21-part "White Slave Girls" series that was endorsed by the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly and earned her a book contract. The series was reprinted several months later in the ''World''. In 1889,

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

, editor of ''The New York World'', challenged Bly to circumnavigate the world, mimicking the novel ''

Around the World in 80 Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (french: link=no, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employe ...

''. Almost a million readers submitted entries to Pulitzer's contest to guess how long it would take her. Bly completed the journey in 72 days, filing dispatches with the ''World'' as frequently as possible. Although

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist litera ...

entered journalism after the heyday of the stunt girls, she incorporated their methods in her writing. Her most famous stunt, documented in the ''New York World Magazine'' in 1914, involved having herself

force-fed Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into t ...

to document how the British government was treating

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

Impact

Academic Kim Todd wrote that "stunt reporters changed laws, launched labor movements, and redefined what it meant to be a journalist." Articles by "

Annie Laurie "Annie Laurie" is an old Scottish song based on a poem said to have been written by William Douglas (1682?–1748) of Dumfriesshire, about his romance with Annie Laurie (1682–1764). The words were modified and the tune was added by Alicia Sco ...

" for the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'' led to the establishment of an ambulance service in San Francisco; changes to the treatments for female patients at San Francisco Receiving Hospital; a ward for incurables at the San Francisco Children's Hospital; and financial donations for the leper colony on

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

and for Galveston after the 1900 hurricane. After Bly's exposé on Blackwell's Island, New York City spent $50,000 on management of institutions housing people with mental illness. In one stunt, Bly posed as an unwed mother and caught a trafficker in infants. In another, her exposé of a corrupt lobbyist ran him out of Albany. Eva McDonald's work investigating labor conditions impacted the rise of labor journalism.

Legacy

Todd wrote that stunt girl journalism was an early example of

immersion journalism Immersion journalism or immersionism is a style of journalism similar to gonzo journalism. In the style, journalists immerse themselves in a situation and with the people involved. The final product tends to focus on the experience, not the writ ...

, paved the way for

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

and

New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non ...

, and were an early form of

creative nonfiction Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contra ...

Notable stunt girls

Elizabeth Banks Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perfe ...

* Winifred Black *

Nelly Bly Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker who was widely known for her record-breaki ...

Dorothy Dare Dorothy Dare (born Dorothy Herskind, August 6, 1911 – October 4, 1981) was an American actress and singer. Early life Dare was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she often sang in church and developed good vocability. She first ...

* Faith Fenton *

Eliza Putnam Heaton Eliza Putnam Heaton (, Putnam; August 8, 1860 – January 2, 1919) was an American journalist and editor. After her marriage and removal to New York, Heaton began newspaper work, serving first as special writer and afterward as a managing editor ...

Dorothy Kilgallen Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an American columnist, journalist, and television game show panelist. After spending two semesters at the College of New Rochelle, she started her career shortly before her 18th birth ...

Caroline Lockhart Caroline Cameron Lockhart (1871–1962) was an American journalist and writer. Biography Caroline Lockhart was born in Eagle Point, Illinois on February 24, 1871./ref> She grew up on a ranch in Kansas. She attended Bethany College in Topeka, K ...

* Nora Marks * Winifred Mulcahey * Nell Nelson * Kate Swan McGuirk * Ada Patterson * Eva Valesh

Fictional stunt girls

Torchy Blane Torchy Blane is a fictional female reporter, the main character of nine films produced by Warner Bros. between 1937 and 1939. The Torchy Blane series were popular second features during the later 1930s and were mixtures of mystery, action, adve ...

Notes

References

{{Reflist Journalism Women journalists