Ernest Maas (December 27, 1891http://person.ancestry.com/tree/30959542/person/12338770876/facts – July 21, 1986) was a silent-era

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. ...

Biography

Maas first worked on

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

s in 1920 when he created the scenario for ''Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge'', a pro-''

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

'' film in the aftermath of World War I. He also was the first to film the almost unbelievable crush of commuters during the rush hour at New York's

Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

. In 1925, he was offered a lucrative contract as a producer in the nascent Hollywood and moved to Los Angeles. It was not until 1926 that Maas received credit for a movie's entire script, which was for ''The Country Beyond''. In 1927, he wrote a script based on his father's life titled '' Beefsteak Joe'', which he shared with fellow German-American

Emil Jannings Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The L ...

. The story was stolen and reworked into the successful movie ''

The Way of All Flesh ''The Way of All Flesh'' (sometimes called ''Ernest Pontifex, or the Way of All Flesh'') is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler that attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the ...

''. Maas was never credited.

Personal life

In Hollywood, Maas married fellow screenwriter Frederica Sagor. After many years without an on-screen credit, the two wrote the original story for the 1947 film ''

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim ''The Shocking Miss Pilgrim'' is a 1947 American musical comedy film in Technicolor written and directed by George Seaton and starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes. The screenplay, based on a story by Ernest Maas and Frederica Maas, focuses on ...

''. But Maas never received on-screen credit again. Instead he focused on behind-the-scenes work in television. The couple lived together until his death from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles at the age of 94. Afterwards, his wife Frederica published her autobiography describing their life together.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maas, Ernest 1891 births 1986 deaths American male screenwriters Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in California American film producers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters