- On the set of The Wild Party (1929), Arzner, irritated that the microphone was always in one place, had the sound technicians rig one up to a fishing pole and follow the actors around the set with it, in effect creating the first boom mike.
- She made history when she became the first woman to direct a sound picture, Manhattan Cocktail (1928).
- In 1936, she became the first woman to join the newly formed Directors Guild of America.
- She invented the boom microphone while directing Clara Bow's first talkie, The Wild Party (1929).
- She started in the film business as a typist for director William C. de Mille, and within three years had worked her way up to screenwriter, then editor.
- Longtime companions with Marion Morgan.
- In the 1960s, she began teaching screenwriting and directing courses at the UCLA Film School, and did so until her death.
- During World War II, she produced training films for the Women's Army Corps.
- She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California on January 24, 1986.
- Dorothy Arzner passed away on October 1, 1979, three months away from what would have been her 83rd birthday on January 3, 1980.
- She has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Dance, Girl, Dance (1940).
- The subject of Canadian poet/playwright R.M. Vaughan's 2000 play "Camera, Woman", inspired by Arzner's last film, First Comes Courage (1943).
- Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 3-8. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
- Attended and graduated from the University of Southern California.
- Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son (1930).
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