Bradenton leaders help tell rags-to-riches story of ‘Marvelous Martha’ in new documentary
The story of Martha Matilda Harper is as important as it is unlikely, and until recently, mostly unknown.
Except for the efforts of Jane Plitt, a former Bradenton resident, who swept aside the cobwebs of history, it might have gone untold.
Plitt’s book, “Martha Matilda Harper and the American Dream: How One Woman Changed the Face of Modern Business,” tells the story of a former servant girl who invented business franchising.
Janene Amick, CEO of the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton, read Plitt’s book and was so moved by it that she encouraged Plitt to make a documentary.
“It’s an inspiring story of someone who overcame all those challenges. There are opportunities and possibilities for growth for everyone,” Amick said.
“Harper did it with grace, she did it with authority, and she created a brand for herself. She wanted it a certain way. She didn’t blink. She didn’t hold on to her past and allow it to hold her back,” Amick said.
Plitt and videographer Karen Arango created “The Marvelous Martha,” which will premiere 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, at the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton.
Lending their voices to the documentary to help bring the characters to life are many well-known community members from Manatee and Sarasota counties, including Debra Jacobs, Sarah Wertheimer, Susie Bowie, Luz Corcuera, Diana Shoemaker, Robert and Marlene Blalock, Amanda and John Horne, Ashley Brown, Terry Brackett, Paul Tarantino, Jeanie Kirkpatrick, Ed Chiles, Janene Amick, Norm Greenspan, Jim Bruen and more.
Among the historic figures voiced by local residents are Susan B. Anthony, Bertha Palmer, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Mary Baker Eddy, and the many poor women whose lives she changed.
Harper, whose floor-length hair was one of the greatest endorsements for her salons, made sure that poor women received the first 100 franchises to help lift them from poverty.
“It is a really compelling rags to riches story,” Plitt said.
Creating the modern hair salon
Harper invested her life savings to open first Harper Method Hair Parlour in Rochester, N.Y., in 1888. The salon became a model for about 500 Harper Method franchises across the United States and Europe, that would make her a wealthy woman.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Harper was born in 1857 in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and was sent away by her father at age 7 to work as a domestic servant. That would be her life for the next 22 years, before moving to the United States.
Although she resumed her work as a servant in Rochester, she brought with her knowledge shared by her last Canadian employer, a physician, on hair health and his hair tonic formula.
She expanded what she had learned about hair health from the physician and developed procedures, standards and products that would enable her to launch a franchise empire, attracting clients who included presidents and the rich and powerful.
In 1920, the 63-year-old Harper married Robert McBain, 39. They ran the company together for 15 years until Harper retired at the age of 78. She died in 1950 at 92.
Documentary accepted to film festival
The documentary has been accepted in this year’s Through Women’s Eyes film festival, March 10-14.
“We couldn’t be more delighted to include Marvelous Martha in our 2022 line-up. This year — our 23rd — we received almost 400 submission and selections,” said E. Scott Osborn, president of the UN Women USA Gulf Coast Chapter.
Plitt ran a business consulting practice until she became enthralled with the Martha Matilda Harper story. In 1996, she was appointed a visiting scholar to the University of Rochester to pursue her research.
Syracuse University Press released the biography in May 2000. As a result of Plitt’s efforts, Harper was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame along with the American Business Hall of Fame.
Tickets to the premiere are available at https://tickets.flculturalgroup.org/.
For more information, visit www.marthamatildaharper.org.
