At the turn of the 20th century, cinema pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché became the one of the world's first filmmakers. Yet, 50 years ago today, with 1,000 films to her name, she died in obscurity.

To think of the early days of film is to imagine whisky-swilling, male studio heads in expensive suits, wielding more power than many state leaders. By the mid-Twenties, the Big Five (made up of 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) had become cinema’s domineering leaders.

It's certainly a point that's drummed home in Ryan Murphy's recent biographical miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan. "You know how much power women had back then? Exactly as much as we got now: zippo," said Kathy Bates's Joan Blondell in one scene. In a later episode, Pauline Jameson, the dogged and fiercely capable – albeit fictional – assistant of director Robert Aldrich, is seen attempting to strike out on her own, only to be told by Joan Crawford (played by Jessica Lange) that there was not a hope in hell of a woman becoming a director. Since the major studios gained power, she said, the pioneering female directors who had once dominated the budding film industry were no longer welcome in the top jobs.