In film, radio and television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction.

Contrary to docufiction, which basically is documentary, filmed in real time, “reality” in docudrama is filmed at a time ulterior to the events it portrays. It is based on narrative and fiction. Docudrama producers sometimes use as location for a realistic setting (fiction) a natural stage — see stage (theater) —, the place itself where the dramatised events are supposed to have occurred: it may mean a false documentary or journalistic narrative, like the 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles.

Characteristics[link]

Docudramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics:

• Focus on the facts of the event, as they are known;
• Use of literary and narrative techniques to flesh out the bare facts of an event in history to tell a story;
• Some degree of license may be taken with minor historical facts for the sake of enhancing the drama.

A good docudrama does not abuse dramatic license, and avoids overt commentary and explicit assertion of the creator's own point of view or beliefs.

Docudramas are distinct from historical fiction, in which the historical setting is a mere backdrop for a plot involving fictional characters.

History[link]

The impulse to incorporate historical material into literary texts has been an intermittent feature of literature in the west since its earliest days. Aristotle's theory of art is based on the use of putatively historical events and characters. Especially after the development of modern mass-produced literature, there have been genres that relied on history or then-current events for material. English Renaissance drama, for example, developed sub-genres specifically devoted to dramatizing recent murders and notorious cases of witchcraft.

However, docudrama as a separate category belongs to the second half of the twentieth century. After World War II, Louis de Rochemont, creator of The March of Time, became a producer at 20th Century Fox. There he brought the newsreel aesthetic to films, producing a series of movies based upon real events using a realistic style that became known as semidocumentary. These films (The House on 92nd Street, Boomerang, 13 Rue Madeleine) were widely imitated, and the style soon became used even for completely fictional stories such as The Naked City. Perhaps the most significant of the semidocumentary films was He Walked by Night, based upon the serial killer Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker. Jack Webb had a supporting role in the movie and struck up a friendship with the LAPD consultant, Sergeant Marty Wynn. The film and his relationship with Wynn inspired Webb to create what became one of the most famous docudramas in history – Dragnet.

The influence of New Journalism tended to create a license for authors to treat with literary techniques material that might in an earlier age have been approached in a purely journalistic way. Both Truman Capote and Norman Mailer were influenced by this movement, and Capote's In Cold Blood is arguably the most famous example of the genre.

Sources and Bibliography[link]

• Docudrama: the real (his)tory by Çiçek Coşkun (Middle East Technical University, Department of Sociology)
• Paget, Derek (1998; 2nd ed. May 2011). No other way to tell it: Dramadoc/docudrama on television, Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4533-2; ISBN 978-0-7190-8446-1.
• Rosenthal, Alan (1999). Why docudrama? Fact-fiction on film and TV, South Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2187-2.
• Paget, Derek (1998). No Other Way to Tell It. Dramadoc/docudrama on television. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4533-2. 
• Rosenthal, Alan (199). Why Docudrama? : Fact-Fiction on Film and TV. Carbondale & Edwardsville: Southern Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2186-5. 
• Lipkin, Steven N., ed. (2002). Real Emotional Logic. Film and Television Docudrama As Persuasive Practice. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2409-5. 

• Rhodes, Gary Don; Springer, John Parris (eds.) (2006). Docufictions: Essays on the intersection of documentary and fictional filmmaking, McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0-7864-2184-8.
• Roscoe, Jane; Hight, Craig (2001). Faking it: Mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality, Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5641-3.

Docudramas[link]

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Historic evolution

Radio[link]

• The March of Time (1931–1945)

Films[link]

• The March of Time (1935–1951)
• A Night to Remember (1958)
• The Gallant Hours (1960)
• Culloden (1964)
• The War Game (1965)
• Cathy Come Home (Drama documentary) (1966)
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
• The Missiles of October (1974)
• Pumping Iron (1977)
• Paranormal Activity (2010)
• King (TV miniseries) (1978) ^[1]
• Death of a Princess (1980)
• The Elephant Man (1980)
• Threads (1984)
• Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985)
• Seacoal (1985)
• Life Story (1987)
• Goodfellas(1990)
• Dien bien Phu (1992)
• Baraka (1992)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Nixon (1995)
• Hillsborough (1996)
• Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
• The Insider (1999)
• Erin Brockovich (2000)
• Thirteen Days (2000)
• The Pianist (2002)
• Bloody Sunday (2002)
• The Laramie Project (2002)
• Catch Me If You Can (2002)
• The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003)
• Touching the Void (2003)
• The Last Dragon (2004)
• End Day (2005)
• Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
• Supervolcano (Drama documentary) (2005)
• Bobby (2006)
• Hollywoodland (2006)
• Krakatoa: The Last Days (2006)
• The 9/11 Commission Report (2006)
• The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
• United 93 (film) (2006)
• Rescue Dawn (2007)
• Breach (2007)
• Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
• A Mighty Heart (2007)
• Zodiac (2008)
• Che (2008)
• The Beckoning Silence (Made for TV) (2008)
• John Adams (TV miniseries) (2008)
• The Lena Baker Story (2008)
• The Informant! (2009)
• Public Enemies (2009)
• The King's Speech (2010)
• The Fighter (2010)
• The Social Network (2010)
• 127 Hours (2010)
• Fair Game (2010)

Television series[link]

• Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
• Heroes and Villains
• Egypt (TV series)
• House of Saddam
• Space Race

See also[link]

• Docufiction
• Dramality
• Ethnofiction
• Mockumentary
• Fly on the wall
• Factual television
• Reality television
• Peter Watkins, a pioneer of docudrama

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hellmann, John (1981). Fables of Fact: The New Journalism as New Fiction. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Kazin, Alfred (1973). Bright Book of Life: American Hot Dogs and Storytellers from Hemingway to Mailer. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.
• Lukacs, Georg (1983). The Historical Novel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Siegle, Robert (1984). "Capote's Hand-Carved Coffins and the Nonfiction Novel." Contemporary Literature 25 (1984): 437-451.
• Stavreva, Kirilka (2000). "Fighting Words: Witch-speak in Late Elizabethan Docu-fiction." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (2000): 309-338.
• White, Hayden (1985). Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

External links[link]

• British Film Institute paper on British drama-documentary
• Docurama at BookRags

| death_cause =Brain tumor | resting_place = Cemetery of the Holy Rood | resting_place_coordinates = | home_town = Denver, Colorado | residence = New York City, New York | nationality = American | other_names = Molly Brown, Maggie Brown, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Margaret Tobin Brown, Mrs. James J. Brown | known_for = Titanic Survivor | education = | employer = | occupation = Socialite, , activist| title = | salary = $700 (now $18,107) | networth = 238,000 (now 3,304,557) | religion = Roman Catholic | citizenship = United States | spouse =James Joseph Brown
(1886–1922); (his death) | children =Lawrence Palmer Brown (1887–1949)
Catherine Ellen Brown (1889–1969) | parents =John Tobin (1820–1899)
Johanna Collins (1825–1905) | signature = | website = | footnotes= }}

Margaret "Molly" Brown (née Tobin) (July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932) was an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist who became famous due to her survival of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, after exhorting the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to return to look for survivors. It is unclear whether any survivors were found after Lifeboat No. 6 returned to search.^[1] She became known after her death as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", although during her life, her friends called her "Maggie". A 1960 Broadway musical, and a 1964 film adaptation of the musical were produced, based on her life. Both were titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Early life[link]

Born Margaret Tobin in Hannibal, Missouri, her parents were Irish immigrants John Tobin (1820–1899) and Johanna Collins (1825–1905). Her siblings were Daniel (born 1863), William (born 1869), and Helen (born 1871). Added to these, Margaret had two half-sisters: Catherine Bridget Tobin, by her father's first marriage, and Mary Ann Collins, by her mother's first marriage. Both her mother and father had been widowed young.

At age 18, Margaret relocated to Leadville, Colorado with her sister, and got a job in a department store. It was here she met and married James Joseph Brown (1854–1922), nicknamed J.J., an enterprising, self-educated man. His parents, too, had emigrated from Ireland.^[2] Brown had always planned to marry a rich man but she married J.J. for love. She said,

I wanted a rich man, but I loved Jim Brown. I thought about how I wanted comfort for my father and how I had determined to stay single until a man presented himself who could give to the tired old man the things I longed for him. Jim was as poor as we were, and had no better chance in life. I struggled hard with myself in those days. I loved Jim, but he was poor. Finally, I decided that I'd be better off with a poor man whom I loved than with a wealthy one whose money had attracted me. So I married Jim Brown.

Margaret and J.J. were married in Leadville's Annunciation Church on September 1, 1886. The Browns had two children:

• Lawrence Palmer Brown (known as Larry), was born on August 30, 1887 in Hannibal, Missouri. He married Hannah Elizabeth Horton (1890–1985) on January 1, 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. They had two children: Lawrence Palmer "Pat" Brown, Jr. (1911–1976) and Eileen Elizabeth "Betty" Brown (1913–1974). The marriage failed and Larry married Mildred Gregory (1895–1956) on November 17, 1926 in Beverly Hills, California. This marriage produced no other children. Larry died on April 2, 1949.
• Catherine Ellen Brown (known as Helen), was born on July 22, 1889 in Leadville, Colorado. She married George Joseph Peter Adelheid Benziger (1877–?) on April 7, 1913 in Chicago, Illinois. Her children were James George Benziger (1914–1995) and George Peter Joseph Adelrich Benziger (1917–1985). Helen died in 1969.

The Brown family acquired great wealth when J.J.'s engineering efforts proved instrumental in the production of a substantial ore seam at the Little Jonny Mine of his employers, Ibex Mining Company, and he was awarded 12,500 shares of stock and a seat on the board.

In Leadville, Margaret first became involved with the women's suffrage issue, helping to establish the Colorado chapter of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and working in soup kitchens to assist miners' families.

In 1894, the Browns moved to Denver, Colorado, which gave the family more social opportunities. Margaret became a charter member of the Denver Woman's Club, whose mission was the improvement of women's lives by continuing education and philanthropy. Adjusting to the trappings of a society lady, Brown became well-immersed in the arts and fluent in French, German, and Russian. In 1909 she ran for the U.S. Senate.

After 23 years of marriage, Margaret and J.J. privately signed a separation agreement in 1909. Although they never reconciled, they continued to communicate and cared for each other throughout their lives. The agreement gave Margaret a cash settlement and she maintained possession of the house on Pennsylvania Street in Denver. She also received $700 a month allowance (equivalent to $18,107 today) to continue her travels and social work.

Margaret assisted in the fund-raising for Denver's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception which was completed in 1911. Margaret worked with Judge Lindsey to help destitute children and establish the United States' first juvenile court which helped form the basis of the modern U.S. juvenile courts system.

Margaret ran for Senate again in 1914 but ended her campaign when her sister Helen married a German baron, as Margaret believed that the union would have made a successful campaign impossible.

Aboard the Titanic[link]

Margaret Brown (right) giving Captain Arthur Henry Rostron an award for his service in the rescue of Titanic's surviving passengers

Margaret was conveyed to the passenger liner RMS Titanic as a first class passenger aboard the tender SS Nomadic at Cherbourg, France. The Titanic sank early on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg the night before. Margaret helped others board the lifeboats but was finally convinced to leave the ship in Lifeboat No. 6.^[1] She would later be regarded as a heroine for her efforts to get Lifeboat 6 to go back to search for survivors.^[1] Molly Brown was dubbed "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" by historians because she helped in the ship's evacuation, taking an oar herself in her lifeboat and protesting for the lifeboat to go back to try to save more people.

This was met with strong opposition from Quartermaster Robert Hichens, the crewman in charge of Lifeboat 6, who was fearful that if they did go back, the lifeboat would either be pulled down due to suction, or the people in the water would swamp the boat in an effort to get inside.^[1] Sources vary as to whether the boat did go back and if they found anyone alive when they did. Some reports say that survivors were found. Margret Brown managed to get life boat No.5 hung in the Denver Museum.

Later life[link]

At the time of J.J. Brown's death on September 5, 1922, Margaret told newspapers, "I've never met a finer, bigger, more worthwhile man than J.J. Brown." J.J. died without a will and it required five years of disputation between Maggie and her two children finally to settle the estate. Due to their lavish spending J.J. left an estate valued at only $238,000, equal to $3,304,557 today. Maggie was to receive $20,000 in cash and securities (equal to $277,694 today), and the interest on a $100,000 trust fund (equal to $1,388,469 today) in her name. Her children, Lawrence and Helen, received the rest. A court case against Helen and Lawrence was settled privately and Margaret and her children were reconciled at the time of her death in 1932.

Margaret Brown

Her fame as a well-known Titanic survivor helped her promote the issues she felt strongly about—the rights of workers and women, education and literacy for children, historic preservation, and commemoration of the bravery and chivalry displayed by the men aboard the Titanic. During World War I in France, she worked with the American Committee for Devastated France to rebuild areas behind the front line and helped wounded French and American soldiers. She was awarded the French Legion of Honour for her good citizenship including her activism and philanthropy in America. During the last years of her life, she was an actress.

After she died (during the Great Depression), her two children sold her estate for $6,000, equal to $107,722 today. She is buried in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, New York.

Portrayals[link]

• Thelma Ritter (1953) (Titanic). Margaret Brown's name was changed to Maude Young, and her Colorado silver mining fortune became a Montana lead mining fortune.
• Cloris Leachman (1957) (Telephone Time) ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown")
• Tucker McGuire (1958) (A Night to Remember)
• Tammy Grimes (1960) (The Unsinkable Molly Brown) (Broadway musical) Grimes won a Tony Award for her performance.
• Debbie Reynolds (1964) (The Unsinkable Molly Brown). Reynolds received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
• Cloris Leachman (1979) (S.O.S. Titanic) (TV movie)
• Fionnula Flanagan (1983) (Voyagers!) ("Voyagers of the Titanic")
• Marilu Henner (1996) (Titanic) (TV miniseries)
• Kathy Bates (1997) (Titanic)
• Morgan Hill (1998) (Titanic: Secrets Revealed) (TV documentary)
• Judy Prestininzi (2003) (Ghosts of the Abyss) (Documentary)
• Judy Prestininzi (2005) (Last Mysteries of the Titanic) (TV documentary)
• Linda Kash (2012) (Titanic) (TV series/2 episodes)
• Rosalind Blessed (2012) (Iceberg – Right Ahead!) (London Stageplay)
• Deborah Jean Templin (2012) (Unsinkable Women) (Touring One Woman Show)

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Molly Brown House
• The Unsinkable Molly Brown: 1960 musical with the central character based on the life of Margaret Brown.
• The Unsinkable Molly Brown: 1964 film based on the musical.
• A Night to Remember: 1958 film.
• Titanic: 1997 film.
• Titanic: TV miniseries.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Margaret Brown On Titanic-Titanic.com
• Margaret Brown Death Certificate On Titanic-Titanic.com
• List of passengers and crew of RMS Titanic
• Pay tribute to Molly Brown
• Molly Brown House Museum, Denver
• Kristen Iversen, Author of Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth
• Book, Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth