Lucille McVey (April 18, 1890 – November 3, 1925) also known as Mrs Sidney Drew, was an American screenwriter,

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

, producer, and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

. In the early 1900s, she was part with her husband

Sidney Drew Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 19 ...

of the famous comedy duo

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 19 ...

Biography

Early career

Lucille McVey was born in

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had ...

, on April 18, 1890. From the age of 15, she worked as a

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

and was recognized as a foremost "child dialect reader". She went for a screen career in 1911 at the age of 21. At that time she was credited under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of Jane Morrow, her grandmother's name. In the early 1914, she joined the

Vitagraph Studios Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...

where she met Sidney Drew and joined his company of players. In April 1914, she and the other members of the company accompanied Drew to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

for a stay of six weeks, which started the beginning of their personal and working relationship. Their marriage on July 25, 1914, led to the creation of ''Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew'' comedies.

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew

Like many women of the period, such as

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...

Margery Wilson Margery Wilson (born ''Sara Barker Strayer''; October 31, 1896 – January 21, 1986) was an American actress, writer, and silent movie director. She appeared in 51 films between 1914 and 1939. Early life and education Wilson was born in Gracey, ...

, McVey pursued opportunities to write and direct. She started producing comedies with her husband under the name ''Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew''. They occupied their own unit at the Vitagraph Studios. Soon they specialized in what came to be known as "polite" or "refined" domestic comedies also called high-brow comedies - or

situation comedies A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...

according to the current terminology. They found their humor in the small misunderstandings affecting the bourgeois people. Their first big success, '' Playing Dead'' (1915), was a five-reel "human interest drama" based on

Richard Harding Davis Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and the First ...

's book. Sidney Drew directed it and Lucille McVey was credited as screenwriter. Following this success, they became a famous duo applauded by audience and the industry. At the time,

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

shorts were paid per productions, not yearly. The 1918 crisis affecting the Vitagraph Studios forced the Drews to fly to

Metro Pictures Metro Pictures Corporation was a Film, motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leas ...

, who became their distributor. They continued producing short domestic comedies for $90,000 a year, releasing one one-reel comedy a week. During that time they perfected their Henry and Dolly characters, who will remain the central players of their productions from this point on. At the expiration of their Metro's contract, they decided to temporally retire from the screen and returned to the stage with '' Keep Her Smiling'', a lightweight comedy in which they both starred. In August 1918, they signed a contract with Amadee J. Van Beuren to produce a series of two-reel comedies released by

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

while touring for '' Keep her Smiling''. In 1919, the Drews became independent producers, owner of V.B.K. Corporation, distributed by

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and ...

(

Paramount Pictures Corporation Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

). They slowed down the production to one or two comedies a month. During the spring 1918, Sidney Drew's son from his first marriage,

S. Rankin Drew Sidney Rankin Drew (September 19, 1891May 19, 1918) was an American actor and film director. Biography Born in 1891, Drew was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew and first cousin of the actors John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymo ...

, died while serving with the

Lafayette Flying Corps The Lafayette Flying Corps is a name given to the American volunteer pilots who flew in the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) during World War I. It includes the pilots who flew with the bona fide Lafayette Escadrille squadron. Numbers The e ...

, leading to the deterioration of Drew's health. Sidney Drew died on April 9, 1919.

Personal career

Lucille McVey kept making films from her own New-York studio. Merely a year after Sidney Drew's death,

Pathé Exchange Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the ...

sold a series of six to eight two-reel

comedies Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

made by McVey-Drew based on the ''After Thirty'' stories penned by Julian Stuart. It is still unclear whether or not McVey made more than the first two films, '' The Charming Mrs. Chase'' (1920) and '' The Stimulating Mrs. Barton'' (1920). In 1921, she began to write, direct and produce series of short domestic comedies for the Vitagraph Studios. '' Cousin Kate'' (1921), a five-reel feature based on the play from

Hubert Henry Davies Hubert Henry Davies (17 March 1869 – 17 August 1917) was a leading British playwright and dramatist of the early 20th century, following in the tradition of Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones, but influenced profoundly by Thomas William ...

, starred Vitagraph biggest star

Alice Joyce Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...

and was acclaimed by critics and audience. She was one of the four women to direct at Vitagraph Studios after 1916 with Marguerite Bertsch,

Lillian Josephine Chester Lillian Josephine Chester (September 29, 1887 – June 7, 1961) was an American writer and filmmaker. Chester wrote under many different variations of her name including Lillian Randolph Chester, Mrs. George Randolph Chester, and Lillian Chester ...

and Paula Blackton. She died of extended illness in 1925 at the age of thirty-five.

Artistic collaboration

According to contemporary sources, Lucille Mcvey was the central creator of the Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew comedies.Epes Winthrop Sargent, "Best of real comedy", MPW, Aug. 9, 1916. Despite her relative inexperience at her debut, she produced and directed more often than her husband and her input had an important impact on duo's creation. She selected the ideas and developed them. She would look through incoming

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

as they were send to the couple and reconstruct the script to give it its final shape. After two years of producing, only six

were made from a single author, the others from different writers all across America. The Drews bought

scenarios In the performing arts, a scenario (, ; ; ) is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the ''commedia dell'arte'', it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play, and was literally pi ...

only for the idea, believing that no author could "fit

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

particular methods." For McVey, the essential of their ideas needed to be clear and thoughtful, inspired and based on real people and event. "Story must be real", she declared at the

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

in 1917. They based their stories mostly on married life, which offered a multiplicity of themes while being a "great part of the human". Subsequently, they mostly played husband and wife characters. Lucille McVey bared the importance of the intimate in characters. The Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew comedies were mostly based on the use of subtitles. She believed they were "direct and human", helping to "get the story started and put continuity over quickly and speedily". The Drew style was defined by the use of everyday situations of the bourgeois class turned into comical short comedies which was greatly acclaimed by the audience at their time.

Selected filmography

Short films

Play

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McVey, Lucille 1890 births 1925 deaths American women screenwriters 20th-century American actresses People from Sedalia, Missouri Film directors from Missouri Film producers from Missouri American film actresses Women film pioneers Screenwriters from Missouri American women film producers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters