Maurine Dallas Watkins (July 27, 1896? – August 10, 1969) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Early in her career, she briefly worked as a journalist covering the
courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
beat for the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
''. This experience gave her the material for her most famous piece of work, the stage play, ''
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
'' (1926), which was eventually adapted into the 1975 Broadway musical
of the same name, which was then made into
a successful movie in 2002 that won six
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Best Picture.
Watkins was born in
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
and grew up in
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. She graduated with honors from
Butler University
Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...
and headed to
Radcliffe
Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to:
Places
* Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan
United Kingdom
* Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town
** Radcliffe tram stop
* ...
, where she received training as a dramatist. She left Radcliffe and was in advertising in Chicago in the early 1920s. She then landed a job as a reporter before returning to university at what became
Yale Drama School
The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in ...
and play-writing success. Watkins went on to write screenplays in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, eventually retiring 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 ...
.
Early life and career
Watkins was born in Louisville, Kentucky, or possibly Lexington, Kentucky. She was born on July 27 but her birth certificate does not survive in Kentucky state records and several different years have been suggested. Watkins' father was a minister and she an only child. Her family moved to
Crawfordsville, Indiana
Crawfordsville is a city in Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The city is the county seat of Montgomery County, the only cha ...
and at age 11 she received local notice for putting on a play she wrote, "Hearts of Gold", which made $45.00 for charity. At
Crawfordsville High School
Crawfordsville High School is a former public high school erected in 1910 on East Jefferson Street in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana, and was a part of the Crawfordsville Community Schools. The building was expanded in 1914, 1921, a ...
she started a newspaper and was active in clubs.
She attended a total of five colleges (including
Hamilton College (Kentucky),
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern ...
,
Butler College
Lee D. Butler College is one of the six residential colleges of Princeton University, founded in 1983. It houses about 500 freshmen and sophomores, 100 juniors and seniors, 10 Resident Graduate Students, a faculty member in residence, as well a ...
(Indianapolis), and
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
). While at Butler, Watkins joined the Gamma chapter of
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...
Women's Fraternity and was initiated in 1919.
That year she graduated first in her class from Butler, and moved on to Radcliffe in Massachusetts to pursue graduate studies in Greek.
[ Her plans changed after she applied and was accepted into English Professor ]George Pierce Baker
George Pierce Baker (April 4, 1866 – January 6, 1935) was a professor of English at Harvard and Yale and author of ''Dramatic Technique'', a codification of the principles of drama.
Biography
Baker graduated in the Harvard College class of 1887 ...
's playwriting workshop at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. Baker encouraged writing students to seek experience in the larger world and may have recommended newspaper reporting. Watkins left Radcliffe before finishing a degree, moved to Chicago and first worked in advertising for Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
. While working for Standard Oil, she entertained ideas of working as a playwright. In early 1924, she instead landed a job as a reporter with the ''Chicago Tribune''.[
For the ''Tribune'', where Watkins worked for eight months, she covered the murders and the subsequent trials of ]Belva Gaertner
Belva Eleanora Gaertner (née Boosinger; September 14, 1884 – May 14, 1965) was an American woman who was acquitted of murder in a 1924 trial. She inspired elements of the 1926 play ''Chicago'' created by Maurine Dallas Watkins; Watkins reporte ...
, a twice-divorced cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
singer, and Beulah Sheriff Annan. Watkins focused on the farcical, cynical, and sensational aspects of the two cases, the press and public interest, and the legal proceedings. She highlighted two attractive "jazz babies" claiming to have been corrupted by men and liquor. She characterized Annan as "beauty of the cell block" and Gaertner as "most stylish of Murderess Row." She competed with other female journalists, such as Ione Quinby, for exclusive scoops on sensational crime stories. Gartner and Annan, after months of press coverage in Chicago's seven daily papers, were found not guilty in separate trials; Watkins believed they were guilty.
Watkins published about 50 stories during her time at the paper, in addition to crime and courts, she was sent to cover funerals, wrote on women's style, and she profiled leaders of the women's pacifist movement.[ Watkins also briefly reported on the noted ]Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago ...
kidnapping and murder case, whose sensational qualities quickly overshadowed the coverage of the Belva Gaertner verdict.
Soon after, she returned to school to study again under Baker, who had moved to Yale University, to help start the Yale School of Drama
The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...
. As a class assignment in his famous ''47 Workshop'' course, she wrote a thinly fictionalized account of the two murders. She first called it ''The Brave Little Woman'', then ''Chicago, or Play Ball'' (first copyrighted version: pre-production manuscript), and finally ''Chicago'' (second copyrighted version: post-production script). Beulah Annan became "Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play ''Chicago'' and its various remakes and derivatives.
Development
The playwright, reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was inspired by the trials, both of which ...
"; Belva Gaertner, " Velma"; Albert Annan, "Amos Hart"; and the two lawyers, William Scott Stewart and W.W. O'Brien, were combined into the composite character " Billy Flynn". Watkins' rival reporters, who were far more sympathetic to the women's causes, were parodied as "Mary Sunshine," the easily manipulated reporter who later turns into Velma and Roxie's vaudeville manager.
Director Sam Forrest was replaced by George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades.
Early years
Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...
at the request of Jeanne Eagels
Jeanne Eagels (born Eugenia Eagles; June 26, 1890 – October 3, 1929) was an American stage and film actress. A former Ziegfeld Girl, Eagels went on to greater fame on Broadway and in the emerging medium of sound films. She was posthumously no ...
(Roxie Hart); but Eagels quit the show within a few days, and Francine Larrimore
Francine Larrimore (born Francine La Remee, August 22, 1898 – March 7, 1975) was a French-born American stage and screen actress.
Biography
Born in Verdun, France, Larrimore came to the United States when a child. She was educated in New ...
replaced her. ''Chicago'' opened on Broadway on 30 December 1926 (though the run is listed as 1927). The play ran for a respectable 172 performances, then toured for two years (with a then-unknown Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...
appearing as Amos Hart in a Los Angeles production ). A silent film version in 1927 was produced and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
and starred former Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'.
Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...
"bathing beauty" Phyllis Haver
Phyllis Maude Haver (January 6, 1899 – November 19, 1960) was an American actress of the silent film era.
Early life
Haver was born in Douglass, Kansas to James Hiram Haver (1872–1936) and Minnie Shanks Malone (1879–1949). When sh ...
as Roxie Hart. It was adapted as ''Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play ''Chicago'' and its various remakes and derivatives.
Development
The playwright, reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was inspired by the trials, both of which ...
'' in 1942 with Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
in the title role. This 1942 film version eliminated all the murderesses except the unnamed Velma Kelly, and the stage and screen musical versions eliminated Jake, Babe, and several other characters.
Watkins wrote about 20 plays, but ''Chicago'' was her most successful. She moved to Hollywood to write screenplays, including the 1936 comedy ''Libeled Lady
''Libeled Lady'' is a 1936 screwball comedy film starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy, written by George Oppenheimer, Howard Emmett Rogers, Wallace Sullivan, and Maurine Dallas Watkins, and directed by Jack Conway (fi ...
''. The film featured William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
, Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
, Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
, and Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
. Her play and screenwriting, coupled with investments, made her a millionaire, and she traveled the world.[
]
Later life
Her public career ended around the time her father died in 1941. Watkins left Hollywood and moved to Florida, close to her elderly mother.[ She was a lifelong Christian and spent much of her fortune of over $2,300,000 founding contests and chairs in Greek and Bible studies at some 20 universities, including Princeton.
In the 1960s, Watkins was approached by ]Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
, who sought the rights to ''Chicago'' for a musical adaptation, but she resisted his offers. Following her death from lung cancer in 1969, C. R. Leonard, a trust officer at the Florida National Bank in Jacksonville, handled Watkins' estate and negotiated sale of rights to her play. He later stated that at the time a major heir from the playwright's family informed him that Maurine believed that her newspaper articles had "gained sympathy" for Beulah Annan and that "over the years hebecame disturbed that she had assisted in getting an acquittal for a murderer."[Florida Times-Union, May 17, 2018. Also Perry, 489-90 and Mordden, Ethan (2018). ''All That Jazz: The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago''. New York: Oxford University Press. p.145 .]
After the much delayed sale of these rights, Fosse was able to move ahead with development of '' Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville'' with a score by John Kander
John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including ''Ca ...
and Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Ri ...
. It was first produced in 1975, revived in 1997, and filmed in 2002. By the time of the 50th anniversary of Watkins death, ''Chicago'' had become a $2 billion franchise.[
]
Filmography
* ''Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
'' (film, 1927); ''Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
'' (play, 1926)
* ''Up the River
''Up the River'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, and starring Claire Luce, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. The plot concerns escaped convicts, as well as a female convict. It was the feature film debut role of ...
'' (1930) (story)
* '' Doctors' Wives'' (1931)
* '' Play Girl'' (1932)
* ''The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
''The Strange Love of Molly Louvain'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Ann Dvorak and Lee Tracy. The script was based on the play ''Tinsel Girl'' by Maurine Dallas Watkins.
Plot
Molly Louvain ...
'' (1932) (play ''Tinsel Girl'')
* '' No Man of Her Own'' (1932)
* '' Child of Manhattan'' (1933)
* '' Hello, Sister!'' (1933) (uncredited)
* ''The Story of Temple Drake
''The Story of Temple Drake'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Stephen Roberts and starring Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue. It tells the story of Temple Drake, a reckless woman in the American South who falls into the hands of ...
'' (1933) (uncredited)
* ''Professional Sweetheart'' (1933)
* ''Search for Beauty
''Search for Beauty'' is a 1934 American pre-Code dramedy film, with some musical Busby Berkeley-esque athletic sequences, directed by Erle C. Kenton and starring Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino (the film was released shortly before Lupino's 16th bir ...
'' (1934)
* ''Strictly Dynamite
''Strictly Dynamite'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code film directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Lupe Vélez and Jimmy Durante.
Premise
Norman Foster plays a poet whose life changes when he begins writing comedy for Durante an ...
'' (1934) (story)
* ''A Wicked Woman
''A Wicked Woman'' is a 1934 drama film directed by Charles Brabin and starring Mady Christians as a woman who kills her abusive husband to protect her family and builds a new life to raise their four children. The film also stars Jean Parker and ...
'' (1934) (dialogue)
* ''Libeled Lady
''Libeled Lady'' is a 1936 screwball comedy film starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy, written by George Oppenheimer, Howard Emmett Rogers, Wallace Sullivan, and Maurine Dallas Watkins, and directed by Jack Conway (fi ...
'' (1936)
* ''Up the River
''Up the River'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, and starring Claire Luce, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. The plot concerns escaped convicts, as well as a female convict. It was the feature film debut role of ...
'' (remake, 1938) (story)
* ''I Love You Again
''I Love You Again'' is an MGM comedy released in 1940. It was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, all three of whom were prominently involved in the '' Thin Man'' film series.
Plot
In 1940, while on a cruise, sto ...
'' (1940) (story)
* ''Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play ''Chicago'' and its various remakes and derivatives.
Development
The playwright, reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was inspired by the trials, both of which ...
'' (1942)
* ''Easy to Wed
''Easy to Wed'' is a 1946 Technicolor American musical comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell, and starring Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, and Keenan Wynn. The screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley is an adaptation of the screenplay of ...
'' (1946)
* ''Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
'' (2002) (film)
References
Further reading
*Thomas H. Pauly (Ed.): ''Chicago: With the Chicago Tribune Articles that Inspired It.'' Southern Illinois University 1997. ,
External links
* Judith Ann Schiff,
How Yale begat ''Chicago''
" ''Yale Alumni Magazine'', May/June 2012.'
"Maurine Dallas Watkins: Sob Sisters, Pretty Demons, and All That Jazz"
Indiana Historical Bureau
* http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-07-16/features/9707160264_1_chicago-tribune-newsroom-maurine-watkins-feminine-perspective
* Maurine Watkins Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Maurine Dallas
1890s births
1969 deaths
Writers from Chicago
Crawfordsville High School alumni
Butler University alumni
Radcliffe College alumni
American women journalists
Journalists from Kentucky
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
Kentucky women writers
American women screenwriters
Chicago Tribune people
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American journalists