Maximilian Dalhoff Neal (26 March 1865 – 1 January 1941) was a German playwright, born to the artist

David Dalhoff Neal David Dalhoff Neal (October 20, 1838May 2, 1915), was an American artist. Early years David Dalhoff Neal was born to father Stephen Bryant Neal and mother Mary (Dalhoff) Neal, on Middlesex Street, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His grandparents were ...

and wife Marie Ainmiller, and later brother to composer Heinrich Neal. His maternal grandfather was the great glass painter Max Emanuel Ainmiller.

Biography

Max Neal's first trip to the U.S. was in 1904, to have his play "The Collie and the Cat", performed at the famous German Theatre,

Irving Place Theatre The Irving Place Theatre was located at the southwest corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, it served as a German language theatre, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesq ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. When the play was advertised in ''

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 d ...

'', Max Neals's father David, had written to the editor of ''The New York Times'' on 6 December 1904 for clarification, and published as "to the Editor of the New York Times": "In receipt of a clipping from your valuable paper, in which it is stated that 'Max Neal... is said to be an American from Hoboken,' allow me to say in correction that my son, Max Neal, though coming from pure New England stock, was born in Munich, and has never been in America." Neal teamed up with friend

Max Ferner Max Ferner was a German playwright, born Maximilian Sommer on 18 April 1881. He died in Munich at the age of 59 on 9 October 1940. Ferner teamed up with his friend Max Neal to write librettos for two operettas for the Austrian composer Karl Mi ...

to write the libretto for two operettas for

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

Composer Karl Michael Ziehrer which were performed in September 1913 and then again in February 1916. Neal's first

silver screen A silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry and passed into popular usage as a metonym for the cinema industry. The term silver scree ...

movie was a silent, black & white film called ''Das Geheimnis der grünen Villa'' that debuted in 1922, of which he was the sole writer, and was directed by Philipp Lother Mayring. According to a 24 June 1922 article in ''The New York Times'' titled "Woods Back with 40 Foreign Plays", producers Albert H. Woods and

Charles B. Dillingham Charles Bancroft Dillingham (May 30, 1868 – August 30, 1934) was an American theatre manager and producer of over 200 Broadway theatre, Broadway shows. Biography Charles Bancroft Dillingham was born on May 30, 1868 in Hartford, Connecticut to ...

traveled to Europe to collect plays to re-produce in the States, of which ''Parquette No. 6'' by Max Neal and Hans Gerbeck were one. Woods also described Germany as "... the livest country in the world theatrically at the present time, France is busy and England is the deadest." Just as his father had died at the onset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Max Neal died, also in Munich, Germany, and also at the age of 76 in the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

on 1 January 1941, less than two months after his friend Max Ferner (59) had died.

Plays

* ''Der müde Theodor'' (1913, co-author

) * ''Der heilige Florian'' (1913, co-author Philipp Weichand) * ''Fürst Casimir'', operetta by Karl Michael Ziehrer (1913, co-author

) * ''Im siebenten Himmel'', operetta by Karl Michael Ziehrer (1916, co-author

) * ' (1920, co-author

) * ' ( ''Der Mann im Fegfeuer'', 1925) * ''Der Hochtourist'' (1927, co-author Curt Kraatz) * ''Der Hunderter im Westentaschl'' (1935, co-author

)

Filmography

*''Der müde Theodor'' (1918, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *' (Sweden, 1931, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *'' Der Hochtourist'' (1931, based on the play ''Der Hochtourist'') *' (France, 1932, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *''Der müde Theodor'' (1936, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *'' Thunder, Lightning and Sunshine'' (1936, based on the play ''Der Hunderter im Westentaschl'') *'' The Sinful Village'' (1940, based on the play ''Das sündige Dorf'') *''Der scheinheilige Florian'' (1941, based on the play ''Der heilige Florian'') *' (1942, based on the play ''Der Hochtourist'') *' (Sweden, 1945, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *' (1949, based on the play ''Die drei Dorfheiligen'') *'' The Sinful Village'' (1954, based on the play ''Das sündige Dorf'') *'' Tired Theodore'' (1957, based on the play ''Der müde Theodor'') *' (1961, based on the play ''Der Hochtourist'') *'' The Sinful Village'' (1966, based on the play ''Das sündige Dorf'')

Screenwriter

* ''Das Geheimnis der grünen Villa'' (1922) * ''A halott szerelme'' (1922)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neal, Max 1865 births 1941 deaths Operetta librettists German people of American descent German male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights German newspaper editors