Late Mahwah Filmmaker, Poet Nominated for NJ Hall of Fame

A pioneering female filmmaker who lived out her final days in Mahwah is one of the 50 nominees who might be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame this year.

Alice Guy Blaché, who lived from 1873 to 1968, was a French immigrant to the Garden State in the early 1900’s. She is known for her $100,000 film studio, Solax, in Fort Lee, and the hundreds of groundbreaking films that she wrote, directed and produced.

Blaché, who is buried in Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah, has some tough competition this year if she is going to actually be inducted into the Hall of Fame. President Grover Cleveland, late singer Whitney Houston, comedian Eddie Murphy, and former NY Giants Coach Bill Parcells are just some of the 50 2013 nominees.

Another possible inductee this year is a poet who spent many years living in Mahwah, and even penned some of his most famous works in the township, Joyce Kilmer.

Kilmer, who lived from 1886 to 1918, lived with his family in a house off Airmount Avenue that is still standing today.

The 50 nominees are broken into five categories – Arts & Entertainment, Enterprise, Historical, Sports and General. Residents who visit the NJ Hall of Fame website will have just about a month to vote for the nominees they think most deserve to be inducted. The top vote-getter in each category will be inducted.

Both late township residents were the subjects of recent local celebrations in their honor.

Last summer, the Fort Lee Film Commission came to Mahwah to honor Blaché, and dub her the “first woman director in cinema history.”

Kilmer was .

See the entire list of 2013 nominees, and vote for your favorites, here.

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