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The Last Man on Earth is one of the earliest films in history to feature a female president of the United States. It set the tone for the movies and shows that were to come next.
100 years ago, a woman was elected president of the United States. Of course, this never happened in real life, but a fictional female president appeared in a movie released exactly a century ago in 1924. This is one of the earliest on-screen examples of a living woman playing the role.
The Last Man on Earth is a silent comedy starring Earl Fox and directed by J.G. Bryston. Foxx plays Elmer, the only adult male in the future of 1954 who does not suffer from a disease called andritis. Luckily, he was living alone in the forest when the virus struck, and when he is brought back to civilization, he becomes a sought-after specimen. The government buys him for $10 million, and two “senators” engage in a boxing match for the right to marry him, but Elmer only has eyes for his childhood sweetheart.
The Last Man on Earth, based on a short story by John D. Swain, is an excuse to indulge in a man’s fantasy of being chased by countless women. In reviewing the “obscene” and “vulgar” work, the Virginia State Board of Censors said: “There is little, if any, attempt to conceal the fact that it is driven by sexual urges.” . But the film also mocks the very idea of a society in which women are responsible. The White House is overgrown and poorly maintained, but the president himself (Martha Mattox) would rather take care of stray cats than govern the country.
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Earl Fox stars as Elmer in The Last Man on Earth. Elmer is the only man in the future of 1954 who does not have “phallicitis” (Credit: Alamy)
“Imagine this,” says Erica Cornelius Smith, director of research strategies at the University of Illinois and an expert on the portrayal of women in fiction. “Women’s boxing! Women’s government! The only way viewers could deal with this type of event in popular culture was to know it was absurd and would never happen.”
For the remainder of the 20th century, few other female presidents appeared on screen. Betty Boop and Olive Oyl visited the White House in animated shorts in 1932 and 1948, respectively, but most filmmakers stuck to the familiar status quo of a male president. “Pop culture is a space of creativity, imagination, and possibility,” Smith says. “But[film and TV creators]struggle to balance this great opportunity to be creative with the need to sell advertising and make a profit. Their shows need a market. Potential and profitability will always be in competition.”
Women with political ambitions (on screen) often prove unreliable or their presidencies end in tragedy – Karyn Busby Anderson
But why would a female president threaten that profitability? If movies and TV series deviate from reality in other ways, why shouldn’t they shake things up in this particular respect as well? Colorado State University’s Karyn Busby Anderson, co-author of a book on the subject, Woman President, argues that such characters may have turned off more conservative viewers in the past. “The U.S. presidency has long been one of the world’s most important displays of traditional masculinity and heteronormative family values, and the first lady has played an important supporting role,” she said. say. “A woman president turns that around.”
change of metaphor
That may be one reason why female presidents are rarely taken seriously when they appear on screen. In many ways, the “Last Man on Earth” president set the tone for his less exciting successors for decades to come. . One recurring element is that this scenario is set in the future, which means the world is strangely different from ours. The first example of this is Project Moonbase, which was released in 1953 and set in 1970, following The Last Man on Earth. Ernestine Barrier plays Madame President, and other women occupy positions of power, but as Smith points out, the heroine (Donna Martell), a colonel in charge of a moon mission, is “immediately They are frightened by this and turn to male colleagues or romantic partners as soon as the situation becomes dangerous.”
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Project Moonbase, a 1953 film set in 1970, featured a female president and other women in positions of power (Credit: Getty Images)
Female presidents have appeared in films such as Back to the Future Part II (1989), Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), and For All Mankind” (2019) will be seen in imaginary futures and futuristic alternate realities conjured up. -current) and “Don’t Look Up” (2021). In the 2000 Simpsons episode “Bart to the Future,” Lisa Simpson grows up to become “America’s first straight female president.” One of the prescient jokes of this episode is that her predecessor was President Trump.
Another metaphor is that women presidents often enter the White House not through normal, free and fair elections, but because of crises. Of course, this is a particularly serious crisis in The Last Man on Earth. In the words of Farran Smith Neme’s film commentary, “For a woman to be elected president, it would take literally every man on the planet — perhaps one tree-dwelling hermit who was not registered to vote — to elect a woman as president.” Except—he had to die first.” But even in less extreme scenarios, in movies and TV shows, women only replace male presidents after they die or resign while still in office. is common. Let’s look at some recent examples. Mackenzie Allen as Geena Davis in “Commander in Chief” (2005), Caroline Reynolds as Patricia Wettig in “Prison Break” (2005-2017), Selina Meyer as Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “Veep” (2012-2019) and Claire Hale Underwood, played by Robin Wright on House of Cards (2013-2018), all became president without voter approval.
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In shows like Veep and House of Cards, women ascend to the presidency as a result of a crisis rather than a free and fair election (Credit: Alamy)
Similarly, the fictional woman herself is not always enthusiastic about the job. “On TV and in movies, the only women you can trust to be president of the United States are women who don’t want to be there,” Anderson says. “A heroic female president, like Tea Leoni in Madam Secretary, has to be dragged into office, like Cherry Jones in 24 or Julia in Veep. A woman with political ambitions, like the one played by Louis-Dreyfus, would prove untrustworthy and would not be able to hold the office of president.”A hypothetical male president would be principled, competent, and politically can be an ambitious character, and yet women in movies have to choose between ambition and authenticity. ”
Another cliché is that on-screen female presidents seem to have a hard time concentrating on governing. While the president in The Last Man on Earth is busy caring for stray cats, her future counterpart is preoccupied with her husband and children. In the 1985 ABC sitcom Hail to the Chief, Patty Duke played Julia Mansfield, a president who juggles family and politics. Twenty years later, in 2005, an ad for ABC’s Commander in Chief promoted Davis’ character as “a female president with the world on her shoulders and her children on her back.”
Still, 100 years after The Last Man on Earth, that trope is slowly changing. There have already been more fictional female presidents in the 21st century than in the 20th, and in some cases gender is not even the main issue. Meryl Streep’s Janie Orlin in Don’t Look Up (2021) may be a terrible president, but that’s not because she’s a woman, while Alfre Woodard’s Johnny Orlin in State of Affairs (2014-) Constance Payton (2015) is talented and tough.
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Don’t Look Up’s Janie Orlin is gender-insensitive, but State of Affairs’ Constance Payton is capable and tough (Credit: Alamy)
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton’s presidential election in 2016 had an impact. “Certainly the visibility of candidates like Hillary Clinton has had a big impact on these types of people,” Smith said. “I don’t think Elizabeth McCord, for example, was modeled exactly on Clinton, but there was a level of seriousness to Clinton’s candidacy that helped McCord’s candidacy. And that show really struck me as being different than the “Mrs. Secretary” of the time.”In that it was trying to address the stereotypes of previous depictions; But I was conventional in many ways. ”
In general, the more women there are in real life politics, the more women there will be in fiction, and sometimes vice versa, Smith added. “These shows were produced at a time when there were very serious candidates running not just for president but for governor, Senate and Congressional positions, and having real-life examples helped writers and industry people Reciprocally, how they create those characters and stories leads us to imagine how those characters would act in the office. I think of it as a feedback loop because it shapes what you do.”
It’s worth considering a movie that was ahead of its time…for the most part, anyway. Kiss for My President is a 1964 comedy starring Polly Bergen as the president and Fred MacMurray as her husband, who struggles with being a “male first lady.” “This movie actually provides a pretty progressive portrayal of a female president,” Anderson says. “She is a smart and skilled politician who was voted into office by a united and committed group of women voters.”
But the film didn’t follow through on its progressive premise. After the president collapses, she discovers she is pregnant and resigns to focus on motherhood. “You can’t work while pregnant. You can’t work and support your family. It’s ridiculous,” Smith laughs. “And if the president can’t work and support his family, that definitely sends a message to the rest of women in society.”
