H. C. Witwer

Harry Charles Witwer (March 11, 1890 – August 9, 1929), more commonly known as H. C. Witwer, was an American short-story author. Some 60 comedy film shorts were based on his works, most from the mid-1920s to 1930, the year after Witwer's death.

Biography

Witwer was born on March 11, 1890, in Athens, Pennsylvania, and briefly attended Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia. He worked in odd jobs—errand boy for a butcher, prize fighter manager, and a soda jerk on Broadway—for a time before starting to write for newspapers, counting the ''St. Cloud (Florida) Tribune'' and
New York City newspapers ''Brooklyn Eagle'', the ''New York American'', the '' New York Mail'', and '' The Sun'' as employers.

In 1912, he married Zada "Sadie" Schagrin of Yonkers, New York. His first recorded film contribution at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) was writing intertitles for the 1916 silent film ''Where D'Ye Get That Stuff?''. In 1917—during World War I—he was sent to France by ''Collier's'' magazine as a war correspondent. He also wrote for ''McClure's'' in this time period.

By the early 1920s, Witwer's works were starting to be filmed, with nearly 30 film credits recorded by the IMDB by 1925. In May 1925, his income was reportedly more than that of Ring Lardner. Witwer is credited with producing ten shorts beginning in 1925, but he was most active as a writer, receiving writing credits for 30 more short films after 1925.

In the mid-1920s, Witwer collaborated on two newspaper comic strips. In 1924, he began the strip ''Samson and Delia'' with Tim Early and Paul Robinson, which ran for two years. In 1925, he created ''Switchboard Sally'' with Wesley Morse.

Witwer relocated to California in 1926 to regain his health, which he apparently did, remaining in good health until he fell ill in May 1929.

Harold Lloyd lawsuit

Witwer sued Harold Lloyd in April 1929 for $2,300,000 over Lloyd's 1925 film '' The Freshman'', claiming that it was "pirated" from Witwer's short story "The Emancipation of Rodney", first published in 1915. By the time Witwer died from liver failure in Los Angeles, on August 9, 1929, the lawsuit had not been settled. Witwer's widow pursued the lawsuit and won a judgement against Lloyd in November 1930. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and Witwer's widow received nothing.

Legacy

Most notable during his lifetime for his baseball and boxing stories, Witwer wrote some 400 stories and articles for magazines and some 125 film treatments throughout his career. In a 1999 review of an anthology of boxing short stories, which included Witwer's "The Chickasha Bone Crusher", reviewer Sybil S. Steinberg praised the "near-forgotten" Witwer, calling him one of "America's wittiest idiomatic stylists".

Books

* ''From Baseball to Boches'' (1918)
* ''Alex the Great'' (1919)
* ''Arthur William Brown'' (1919)
* ''A Smile a Minute'' (1919)
* ''Best College Humor'' (1920), introduction
* ''Kid Scanlan'' (1920)
* ''The Leather Pushers'' (1921)
* ''The Rubyiat of a Freshman'' (1921)
* ''There's No Base Like Home'' (1923)
* ''Fighting Back'' (1924)
* ''Love and Learn: The Story of a Telephone Girl Who Loved Not Too Well But Wisely'' (1924)
* ''Bill Grimm's Progress'' (1926)
* ''Roughly Speaking'' (1926)
* ''The Classics in Slang'' (1927)
* ''Yes Man's Land'' (1929)

Notes

External links

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Sample panel
from Witwer's comic strip ''Switchboard Sally''


from Witwer's comic strip ''Samson and Delia''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witwer, H. C.
1890 births
1929 deaths
American male screenwriters
Film producers from Pennsylvania
American cartoonists
People from Bradford County, Pennsylvania
American male short story writers
American war correspondents
Saint Joseph's University alumni
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
Screenwriters from Pennsylvania
20th-century American screenwriters