JOAN HARRISON

Joan Harrison was an English screenwriter and producer in England and Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1970s. When anyone writes a history of women in Hollywood, she surely will get her own chapter, and yet sadly, she is forgotten today, except by major film buffs. She has an amazing story! In 1933, she became a secretary to Alfred Hitchcock. Thanks to her abilities, she was soon a reader of scripts for Mr. Hitchcock, and when he went to Hollywood in 1939, she went with him, as his assistant. In 1941, she became a screenwriter at MGM. In 1943, she became a producer at Universal, one of only three female producers in Hollywood in the 1940s (the other two were Harriet Parsons and Virginia Van Upp). She produced the TV show "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" from 1955 to 1962. In 1958, she married author Eric Ambler, and the two remained married for 35 years. Harrison passed away in 1994 at the age of 87.