Mary Eunice McCarthy (March 4, 1899 – August 7, 1969) was an American

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, playwright, journalist and author, perhaps best known today as the screenwriter of, and driving force behind, the biopic ''

Sister Kenny ''Sister Kenny'' is a 1946 American biographical film about Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian bush nurse, who fought to help people who suffered from polio, despite opposition from the medical establishment. The film stars Rosalind Russell, A ...

'' (1946).Cohn, Victor (February 10, 1954). "The Story of Sister Kenny: Seven Questions at Party Tested Nurse's Character". pp. 1-A
10-A
Retrieved February 2, 2022.

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

Biography

Beginnings

One of 13 children born to John Henry McCarty and Catherine Elizabeth Theresa Lynch,Nichols, Luther (November 8, 1957)
"S.F. Mother Was Spunky"
''The San Francisco Examiner''. p. 59. Retrieved February 2, 2022. Mary graduated from Star of the Sea Parish High School in 1917. She then attended College of the Holy Names before embarking on a career as a journalist in the Bay Area. One of her positions in the early 1920s was as a reporter at ''The San Francisco Bulletin''.

Hollywood career

Around 1921, McCarthy followed her brothers to Hollywood, where she worked at an advertising agency while trying to teach herself the fundamentals of screenwriting. Between 1925 and 1957, she wrote a number of films and at least two stage plays—the latter of which also featured the playwright, under her married name Mary Boyle, in the lead role."News From the Dailies: New York"
''Variety''. July 21, 1931. p. 39. "Mary Eunice McCarthy, Pacific Coast Newspaper woman, took leading role in her own play, 'Mrs. Garibaldi,' when tried out at Woodstock, N.Y. Stage name Mary Boyle." Retrieved February 2, 2022. During this period, McCarthy lived in Los Angeles but frequently traveled to San Francisco for work.Old Anson (June 23, 1929)
"Play-at-Home"
''The San Francisco Examiner''. Retrieved January 13, 2019. McCarthy also wrote two nonfiction books: ''Hands of Hollywood'' was published in 1929, while ''Meet Kitty'' (a memoir about her mother) was published in 1957. That same year, both ''

Matinee Theater ''Matinee Theater'' is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from October 31, 1955, to June 27, 1958. Its name is often seen as ''Matinee Theatre''. The series, which ran daily from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. E ...

'' and '' O. Henry Playhouse'' featured new McCarthy teleplays.Shalit, Sid (August 16, 1957)
"News Around the Dials"
''New York Daily News''. In 1939, a syndicated profile/interview highlighted McCarthy's "pet dislike at present," paraphrased by UP's Alex Kahn as "the so-called Hollywood 'Intellectuals' who, she says, try so hard to be different and become so utterly confused." Quoted directly, McCarthy continues: Aside from foreshadowing the anti-message 'message' of

Preston Sturges Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Best Origina ...

's ''

Sullivan's Travels ''Sullivan's Travels'' is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. A satire on the film industry, it follows a famous Hollywood comedy director (Joel McCrea) who, longing to make a socially relevant drama, sets out to ...

'', McCarthy's gripe also sheds light on a script she had recently completed and another she would soon begin, namely '' Irish Luck'' (1939) and ''

Chasing Trouble ''Chasing Trouble'' is a 1940 American comedy-drama film directed by Howard Bretherton, from Monogram Pictures. Plot summary Jimmy "Mr. Cupid" O’Brien (Frankie Darro) and Thomas H. Jefferson (Mantan Moreland) are making deliveries for th ...

'' (1940), vehicles designed for the newly minted, interracial comic team of

Mantan Moreland Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films. E ...

and

Frankie Darro Frankie Darro (born Frank Johnson, Jr.; December 22, 1917 – December 25, 1976) was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles ...

(the latter having previously been singled out for praise in McCarthy's ''Hands of Hollywood''). Despite playing the duo's nominal leader, Darro's leadership is typically so compromised by harebrained schemes and arcane, questionable methodology—in effect, "try ngso hard to be different"—that he can scarcely help but "become utterly confused." Moreover, while it is unclear to what extent, if any, she herself was responsible for the Moreland-Darro pairing, the following excerpts from McCarthy's 1957 biography of her mother provides a useful reference point, regarding "the fundamentals of American life" as practiced and preached in the McCarty/McCarthy household. Reviewing ''Meet Kitty'' for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Ernestine Moller Gilbreth, Mrs. Carey (April 5, 1908 – November 4, 2006) was an American writer. Early life and education Ernestine Moller Gilbreth was born in New York City on April 5, 1908. She was the daughter of Frank B. and Lillian ...

'' wrote: In October 1958, McCarthy would briefly resume her journalistic career as author of a weekly column published in the ''West Los Angeles Independent''. It ran for a little under three years and was entitled simply "Mary McCarthy's Column". But, as her new employer noted prior to the column's debut, "Anything more pretentious would offend Mary Eunice McCarthy."

Personal life

She had two brothers who were writer-directors in the industry:

John P. McCarthy John P. McCarthy (March 17, 1884 – September 4, 1962), also known as J.P. McCarthy or simply as John McCarthy, was an American director and screenwriter of the 1920s through 1945. He began in the film industry in front of the camera, as an ac ...

and Henry McCarty. Another brother,

Francis Joseph McCarty Francis Joseph McCarty (May 23, 1888 – May 11, 1906) was a San Francisco experimenter, who conducted early radiotelephone research and development. He died at the age of 17, but despite his young age and early death, in 2011 he was elected int ...

, built one of the first radiotelephone sets in 1902, but died in a road accident in 1906. From January 1922 until at least July 1931, McCarthy was married to Edward G. Boyle, a set decorator."California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K889-SQY : 9 March 2021), Edward George Boyle and Mary Eunice McCarthy, 25 Jan 1922; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,074,274."Bad Movies Blamed to Showgoers"
''The Oakland Tribune''. March 7, 1928. Retrieved January 13, 2019. In the weeks leading up to the 1928 presidential election, McCarthy—dubbed "the Joan of Arc of the Democratic Party"—harshly criticized the Hoover presidency and campaigned on behalf of his Democratic opponent,

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

. The dedicatee of her 1929 film-making guide, ''Hands of Hollywood'', was longtime friend and colleague Lucy Beaumont, who had starred in at least two McCarthy-scripted films.K.L. (January 10, 1926)
"The Feud Again!"
''The Los Angeles Times''. p. 146. Retrieved January 31, 2022.

Selected filmography

* ''Hill Folk'' (aka ''Savage Passions'') (1926) * ''The Fighting Failure'' (1926) * '' Slightly Married'' (1932, as Mary McCarthy) * ''Ships of Chance'' (1932, never filmed) * ''Woman Unafraid'' (1934, story and screenplay) * ''I Hate Women'' (1934, screenplay) * ''

Life Returns ''Life Returns'' is an American film directed by Eugene Frenke. The film stars Onslow Stevens, George P. Breakston and Lois Wilson with a plot that involves a doctor who is convinced that the dead can be brought back to life gets the chance to pr ...

'' (1934, additional dialogue; as Mary McCarthy) * ''

Theodora Goes Wild ''Theodora Goes Wild'' is a 1936 American screwball comedy film that tells the story of the residents in a small town who are incensed by a risqué novel, unaware that the book was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading fami ...

'' (1935, story; as Mary McCarthy) * '' Irish Luck'' (1939, as Mary McCarthy) * ''

'' (1940, as Mary McCarthy) * ''

'' (1946, as Mary McCarthy) * ''

Curley Curley is a surname, given name, nickname or stage name. It may refer to: Surname * August Curley (born 1960), American football player * Arthur Curley (1938 – 1998), American librarian * Barney Curley (1939 – 2021), Irish racehorse traine ...

'' (1947, additional dialogue; as Mary McCarthy)Hanson, Patricia King; Dunkleberger, Amy (1999).
American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States; Feature Films, 1941–1950
'. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. p.551. . * ''

The Petty Girl ''The Petty Girl'' (1950), known in the UK as ''Girl of the Year'', is a musical romantic comedy Technicolor film starring Robert Cummings and Joan Caulfield. Cummings portrays painter George Petty who falls for Victoria Braymore (Caulfield), th ...

'' (1950, story; as Mary McCarthy)

References

External links

* * * The feature films
Irish Luck
' (1939),
Chasing Trouble
' (1940),
Sister Kenny
' (1946) are available for free download at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mccarthy, Mary Eunice 1899 births 1969 deaths American women dramatists and playwrights American women screenwriters Screenwriters from California People from the San Francisco Bay Area Holy Names University alumni 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters