Beta Breuil (born 1876, death unknown) was the professional name and pen name of American screenwriter Elizabeth Donner Vanderveer.
[4] Breuil herself described the process as “weeding-out” the good manuscripts from the bad in an article she wrote for Moving Picture World, a film industry magazine, “All scripts are considered the day they arrive (arranging in numbers from seventy-five to one hundred a day), receiving sound judgment from two well trained readers.
Those that are deemed worthwhile are submitted to the editor.”[6] A New York Times article confirms that Vitagraph received up to 500 manuscripts a week, which all went to the department headed by Breuil.
[5] Some credited the productivity of this department to Breuil herself, by describing her as “the woman who organized and brought to a point of great efficiency the scenario department of the Vitagraph Company of America.”[4] After Breuil quit the Vitagraph Company, she worked as a freelance worker, writing scenarios “to order.”[4] In 1914, she took the position of “artistic advisor” to the North American Film Corporation.
Epes Winthrop Sargent described this position in Moving Picture World by writing, “Her undeniable talent is not limited to any particular line....
One such person was Norma Talmadge, an actress who went on to star in a series of films written by Breuil called Belinda, the Slavey; Sleuthing; and A Lady and Her Maid.