Dorothy Arzner Rye Whiskey (750ml)

3 January 1897 - 1 October 1979

Dorothy Arzner made history when she became the first woman to direct a partially sound-synchronized film, Manhattan Cocktail (1928). While this film is now lost, its success caused executives at Paramount––the studio where Arzner worked and one of the “Big Five” during Hollywood’s Golden Age–to entrust her with directing not only their first fully sync-sound film, The Wild Party (1929), but one starring their most valuable actor, Clara Bow.

Arzner’s exploration into the themes of women’s courage and self-reliance required strong female leads and she helped launch the careers of several, now celebrated actors including Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Maureen O’Hara, and Lucille Ball. After nearly two decades and with 17 films to her credit, Arzner joined the faculty at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, one of her students being a young Francis Ford Coppola who still refers to her as “Miss Arzner.” Her students’ admiration was matched by her peers in 1975 when the Director’s Guild of America honored her with a much-deserved though overdue tribute, given that Arzner became the Director’s Guild first female member in 1936.

Great Women Spirits is awarding the innovative and highly resourceful Dorothy Arzner the additional honor of releasing its Straight Rye Whiskey in her name.