women's suffrage

Vanderbilt—railroad magnate, shipowner, practicing spiritualist—took a particular shine to Tennie and bankrolled two of the sisters’ most shocking initiatives: the first woman-owned stock brokerage in America; and a weekly newspaper, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, which supported free love, women’s suffrage and progressive reforms.

Her show “Suffs,” which is about the women’s suffrage movement leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, opens Tuesday at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre as part of its inaugural national tour.

But this is foundational stuff for a filmmaker specializing in American figures, institutions and events — the Dust Bowl, Prohibition, women’s suffrage, baseball, the buffalo, Muhammad Ali, the Central Park Five, Frank Lloyd Wright, the National Parks and Mark Twain.

There he involves his wife, Lady Jane, who must balance securing their entry into London high society — and thus their future prospects — with her growing involvement in women’s suffrage.

When the student continued to insist that women’s suffrage had ruined the country, Knowles didn’t back down from his lighthearted “compromise” position, instead attempting to move the student along with the concession that his point was “fair” and an affectionate joke about how other “progressive” amendments, including Prohibition, were a problem.