Related Works
| Relationship | Work | Contributors | Genre | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published in | The Worth of Souls |
Pioneers in Petticoats
Director: Wetzel Whitaker
- Joyce Evans: Writer
- Carol Lynn Pearson: Writer
- Robert Stum: Cinematographer
- Wetzel Whitaker: Director, Producer
- Frank S. Wise: Film Editor
Young Women's
When Brigham Young creates the Young Women's Retrenchment Society in 1869, the headstrong Abigail Harper is called as president in her rural community. Though bucking at the restrictions imposed upon her, she strives to serve well and fellowship and inactive girl. One night, when her parents are out of town, Abigail wears an immodest dress to a church ball. After embarrassing herself she leaves and winds up inside a tavern, where things go from bad to worse when she refuses alcohol. An unknown gentleman offers to escort her home, with the inactive girl and a nonMormon boy secretly following. When the stranger attempts to rape Abigail they intervene and save her. Later, when the young women meet to decide what to do with Abigail as Retrenchment Society president, the inactive girl arrives and defends her, showing that we all make mistakes and need forgiveness.
See Mormon Film: Key Films of the Third Wave
This film was commissioned by the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Associate for their centennial in 1969 and was the BYU Motion Picture Department's prestige production for that year (although the sleeper hit Johnny Lingo has proven more enduringly popular). The values championed decidedly belong in 1969, not a century earlier.
Not only was it a prestige production for 1969, but it was the longest film undertaken at BYU up to that point; Judge Whitaker called it the closest thing they had done to a feature. The original version was edited down to forty-four minutes for easier classroom use, and it is this latter version that has been available on video for the last two decades.
BYU/ LDS Motion Picture Studio Production #0125.
June 1969
USA
1869
English
Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association
Brigham Young University Motion Picture Studio
LDS Church Production
Melinda Cummings - Abigail Harper; Nathan Hale - Bishop Harper; Gordon Jump; Karla Henricks; Jean Jenkins; Rebecca Yarn; Jillanne Duce; Ruth Hale; Jim French - narrator
none
Commemorative Film; Narrative Film
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Private Church Distribution
44 min. (edited)
16mm color
"Fiddle-dee-dee!"