Mary Ellen Bute (November 21, 1906 – October 17, 1983) was a pioneer

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film

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...

, producer, and director. She was one of the first female experimental filmmakers, and was the creator of some of the first electronically generated film images. Her specialty was

visual music Visual music, sometimes called colour music, refers to the creation of a visual analogue to musical form by adapting musical structures for visual composition, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods o ...

; while working in

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between 1934 and 1958, Bute made fourteen short abstract musical films. Many of these were seen in regular movie theaters, such as

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and theater at 1260 Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplace of the Nation", it is the headquarters for ...

, usually preceding a prestigious film. Several of her abstract films were part of her ''Seeing Sound'' series.

Biography

A native of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

, Mary Ellen Bute studied painting in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and, subsequently, Philadelphia at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, then

stage lighting Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts.

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. She studied the tradition of

color organ The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were ele ...

s, as a means of painting with light. She worked with

Leon Theremin Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen rus, Лев Сергеевич Термéн, p=ˈlʲef sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ tɨrˈmʲen; – 3 November 1993) was a Russian and Soviet inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one o ...

and

Thomas Wilfred Thomas Wilfred (June 18, 1889 in Naestved, Denmark - August 15, 1968 in Nyack, New York), born Richard Edgar Løvstrøm, was a musician and inventor. He is best known for his light art, which he named '' lumia'', and his designs for color organ ...

and was also influenced by the abstract animated films of Oskar Fischinger. Bute's film-making has two relatively distinct modes. She created a series of abstract films exploring the relationship of sound and image in cinema, and a second body of work focused on the relation of language and cinema through adaptation of literary sources. Bute began her filmmaking career collaborating with Joseph Schillinger on the animation of visual representations of music. Her later films were made in partnership with her cinematographer Ted Nemeth whom she married in 1940. In the 1960s and 1970s Bute worked on two films which were never completed: an adaptation of

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel '' The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and '' The Skin of Our Teeth'' — ...

's 1942 play ''

The Skin of Our Teeth ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, ...

'', and a film about

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

with the working title ''Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking''. Her final film, inspired by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

, was ''Passages from

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

'', a live-action feature produced and directed by Bute, made over a nearly three-year period in 1965-67, and recipient of a

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

award. (age given as 79) Bute was a founding member of the Women's Independent Film Exchange. She chose film historian

Cecile Starr Cecile Starr (July 14, 1921 - December 2014) was an American filmmaker, educator and author who taught and wrote about moving pictures. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She married film producer Aram Boyajian in 1957. They had two children. ...

to distribute her short films. Mary Ellen Bute died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

at New York City's Cabrini Medical Center. She was five weeks short of her 77th birthday. Six months earlier, on April 4, she received a special tribute and a retrospective of her films at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

Filmography

*'' Synchromy'' – 1933, collaboration with Joseph Schillinger and Lewis Jacobs nfinished *''

Rhythm in Light Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular rec ...

'' – 1934 (b&w, 5 min.) in collaboration with Melville Webber and Ted Nemeth. *'' Synchromy No. 2'' – 1935 (b&w, 5.5 min.) music: ''Evening Star'' from ''Tannhäuser'' by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. *''

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

'' – 1936 (b&w, 3min.) short for

Universal Newsreel Universal Newsreel (sometimes known as Universal-International Newsreel or just U-I Newsreel) was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, ...

. *''

Parabola In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactly the same curves. One descri ...

'' – 1937 (b&w, 9 min.) music: ''Création du monde'' by

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

. *'' Synchromy No.4 - Escape'' – 1937 (color, 4.5 min.) music: ''Toccata in D Minor'' by J.S. Bach. *'' Spook Sport'' – 1939 (color, 8 min.) music: ''Danse macabre'' by

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

. Animation by

Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...

. * ''

Tarantella () is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the mo ...

'' – 1940 (color, 5 min.) * '' Polka Graph'' – 1947 (color, 4.5 min.) music:

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

's Polka from ''The Age of Gold.'' * '' Color Rhapsodie'' – 1948 (color, 6 min.) * ''

Pastorale Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood. In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditio ...

'' – 1950 (color, 9 min.) music: Bach's ''Sheep May Safely Graze.'' * '' Abstronic'' – 1952 (color, 7 min.) music:

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

's ''Hoe Down'' and Don Gillis's ''Ranch House Party.'' * '' Mood Contrasts'' – 1953 (color, 7 min.) * ''

Imagination Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...

'' – 1957 (color) compilation background for musical sequence, Steve Allen Show (November 17, 1957) * ''

The Boy Who Saw Through ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' – 1958 (b&w, 25 min.) (producer) stars a young

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

ot abstract * '' New Sensations in Sound'' – @1959 (color, 3 min.) advertising film for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. * '' Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake'' – 1965–67 (b&w, 97 min.) (director and co-writer) screened at the

ot abstract

References

External links

* Mary Ellen Bute Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. * Cecile Starr Papers Relating to Mary Ellen Bute. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bute, Mary Ellen 1906 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American women artists American experimental filmmakers American women film directors American women film producers American animated film directors American animated film producers Cinema pioneers Visual music artists American women animators Women experimental filmmakers Animators from New York (state) People from Houston