The Publishers Weekly Review
Reading Glasses podcaster O’Meara (The Lady from the Black Lagoon) recounts the trailblazing career of stuntwoman Helen Gibson (1892–1977), born Rose August Wenger, in this high-flying biography.
O’Meara suggests Wenger’s decision to join a traveling Wild West show as a cowgirl when she was 17 reflected the early 20th-century “New Woman” movement’s push for women’s equal participation in public society. In 1911, a film producer noticed Wenger’s troupe during a performance in Venice, Calif., and hired them to appear as extras in westerns.
Wenger married fellow rodeo rider Hoot Gibson in 1913 and, after he fell ill, replaced him as actor Helen Holmes’s stunt double in the western serial The Hazards of Helen. After Holmes exited the role in 1915, Wenger changed her name to Helen, took over starring duties, and continued to perform such stunts as leaping from an airplane onto a moving train and escaping from a speeding car before it careens off a cliff.
Gibson’s death-defying feats astound, and O’Meara provides perceptive context on the era’s gender politics. For instance, she notes that the careers of Holmes and Gibson both suffered by the 1920s, when moral crusaders began censoring women roughhousing on film. It’s an enthralling tribute to an early Hollywood pioneer.
The Christian Science Monitor Review of
Daughter of Daring
Reviewed by Hannah Fish
In the earliest days of film, one star was such a box-office success that she was able to sustain a career in Hollywood over 45 years and hundreds of movies. But despite Helen Gibson’s loyal fans, her fearless stunts, and her role as a pioneer, not many people know about her today.
Mallory O’Meara’s biography “Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman” dusts off Gibson’s remarkable legacy.
As the book demonstrates, Gibson became a beloved icon because she offered female viewers a kind of wish fulfillment. Her emergence on screen coincided with a post-World War I era in which many American women felt like they were being told, in essence, “Thank you for serving in the workforce while your brothers and husbands were away fighting, but now that the war is over we want men to take the reins again.” Women were encouraged to go home, keep house, and have babies.
And go to the movies.
Initially, theater houses exhibited short clips in dingy rooms and were considered little more than two-bit sideshows. To evolve into more lucrative, quality entertainment, theater owners collectively decided to revamp their spaces and market specifically to female audiences.
The new clientele was immediately struck by Gibson. In serials like “The Hazards of Helen” and “A Daughter of Daring,” the “girl who tames trains” – as she was dubbed – was strong and full of agency. She was in command of situations in a way that real-life women often were not. On camera, Gibson could fight fist-to-fist with male villains and wrangle out of any bind.
Perhaps Gibson could relate to her fans. Having grown up in the 1890s in Ohio near Lake Erie, Gibson spent her childhood outdoors, swimming and climbing trees. But as she got older, she found that her hometown was a place of convention, of quiet submission for women, which meant working long hours in the local cigar factory for little pay. When a newspaper ad told of a Wild West show looking for horseback riders – women included – she jumped at the opportunity.
Fortunately for Gibson, she was a natural.
She could swing down from a saddle to pick up a handkerchief on the ground within her first few weeks of training. Looking back on the experience, Gibson told a film magazine, “When veteran riders told me I could get kicked in the head, I paid no heed. Such things might happen to others, but could never happen to me, I believed.” As she was a top-notch performer on the rodeo circuit, it was only a matter of time before she landed in Los Angeles.
The author is also quick to note that even by today’s standards, Gibson’s is a name worth remembering. On modern sets, for example, stunt coordinators choreograph every move. But in Gibson’s day, the only person looking out for her safety was Gibson herself. No one would insure her. What’s more, because she was working during such an early period in film, she did everything without protective gear.
For those interested in watching Gibson’s work, they can still see her in episodes of “The Hazards of Helen” such as “The Wrong Train Order.” Although many of her reels from the silent film era have been lost to time, O’Meara’s book ensures that the memory of the “queen of the rails” is here to stay.
Los Angeles Public Library Interview
with Mallory O’Meara
Mallory O’Meara is the bestselling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon, which won the 2019 SCIBA award for Biography and the 2019 Rondo award for Book of the Year, Girly Drinks, which won a 2022 James Beard Award, and Girls Make Movies, which was a 2023 Junior Library Guild Selection. She lives in Los Angeles with her two cats, where she is working on her next nonfiction book. Her latest book is Daughter of Daring and she talks about it with Daryl Maxwell
What was your inspiration for Daughter of Daring?
I was working on my third book, Girls Make Movies and researching the history of stunt women. I assumed that history began in the 1980s with the rise of action movies and action movie heroines like Linda Hamilton. I was stunned to discover that it went farther back, way farther back! Instantly, I needed to know everything about stunt women in the 1910s.
How did you first learn about Helen Gibson?
Doing that research into the stunt women of the 1910s, I discovered that the very first one was a woman named Helen Gibson. She captivated me immediately.
A large percentage of the films and serials from the silent era have been lost. Do any of Helen’s films survive? If so, how many have you seen? Do you have a favorite?
Lots of Helen’s films have survived, thank goodness! You can see some of them on YouTube if you search for her. Some episodes of her serial, The Hazards of Helen, have survived. My favorite is probably "The Open Track" because it features Helen driving a man along a road when he starts to make advances on her. She beats him in a fight, throws him out of the car, and tries to run him over!
Was there a particular stunt, or two, that you saw or read about that impressed/terrified you (especially since Helen did not have a lot of the safety precautions used by stunt performers today)?
Absolutely! In her second serial, "Daughter of Daring," Helen drives a motorcycle onto a moving train. This is a stunt that would be dangerous today! Michelle Yeoh did it in SuperCop 2 with a whole stunt team to help her. But Helen only had herself. No CGI, no wires, not even any padding!
How familiar were you with early Hollywood prior to becoming interested in Helen? How long did it take you to do the research and then write Daughter of Daring?
Not very! Helen drew me into the time period, and then I fell in love. It’s such a fascinating period of film history. The research and writing took a couple of years. It was such a blast to research this book.
What was the most interesting or surprising thing that you learned during your research?
The most interesting and surprising thing I learned was just how many women worked during the silent years of Hollywood. It was an industry nearly run by women! I couldn’t believe it.
Do you have any favorite contemporary women stunt performers?
I got to interview LaFaye Baker for the book, which was such an honor. She’s such a force of nature and has made so much stunt history. I also really admire the work of Debbie Evans!
What’s the craziest stunt you can remember seeing in a film or on television?
Maybe not the craziest, but the first stunts I can remember that made me think about stunt work were from Conan the Barbarian. I saw it when I was 17, and it’s still one of my favorite movies. Sandahl Bergman does all her own stunts in that movie (as does Arnold!) and I remember being captivated by her physicality in that role, and by her fight scenes.
If you could ask Helen a question, what would it be?
I’d love to know which stunt she didn’t get to do that she wished she could have!
If you could tell her something, what would you tell her?
I wish I could tell her there’s an award named after her now. The Action Icon Awards are specifically for stuntwomen, and they have a Helen Gibson Award to honor legends in the field…
Mallory O’Meara is the bestselling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon, which won the 2019 SCIBA award for Biography and the 2019 Rondo award for Book of the Year, Girly Drinks, which won a 2022 James Beard Award, and Girls Make Movies, which was a 2023 Junior Library Guild Selection.
She co-hosts the literary podcasts Reading Glasses and Reading Smut.
She lives in Los Angeles with her two cats, where she is working on her next nonfiction book.