Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

for May 19 3 1 57 to $5,000 for a Story! By Alma Whitaker Secret Six," all great screen successes. It sounds alarmingly modern, but Frances Marion has had four husbands. The first was a fellow newspaper man when she was a mere girl. The second was an invalid and died of tuberculosis. The third was Fred Thompson, the athletic pastor, cowboy, actor, u hose career she fondly fostered. And she is now married to George Hill, the director of several of her pictures. She has two dear small boys, one a son of Fred Thompson, and the other adopted ; five dogs and two lambs, and a secretary. They live in a charminghome, and it is interesting to note that this remarkable Frances is also an excellent housekeeper. Elsie Janis, formerly a musical comedy star and imitator, is now writing for pictures — mostly dialogue and lyrics, as for "Madame Satan," and she is now working on "The Squaw Lenore Coffee, for merly a stenographer, has been writing scenarios for six years. "Mothers Cry" is one of her latest and best. Florence Ryerson, left, newspaper woman, playwright, and scenarist, is a versatile success in all branches of writing. Eve Unsell, righ t, has written successful scenarios for years for our most famous stars, from Mary Pickford to Lon Chaney. Jane Murfin, above, creator of the " Strongheart" stories, was an actress and playwright before adopting the scenario field. She was coauthor of "Lilac Time" and "Smilin' Through," and at present is a member of the scenario staff at Radio Pictures. Dorothy Howell , above, worked in the business departments of Columbia Pictures. In three years she has become screen editor. Left, Winifred Dunn, who began screen writing at 18, later becoming editor for Metro. She has twenty good scenarios to her credit. Man," with Lenore Coffee for Cecil de Mille. Elsie never went to school, but her intellect was not neglected, as she had private tutors. Bess Meredyth is another girl who weathered the advent of talkies. Besides the regular schooling in Buffalo, Bess travelled a great deal — Europe, Australia, the South Seas, and Alaska — very valuable in this work. She, too, began as a newspaper woman, and won her way in via her short stories in magazines. "Ben Hur," "Sea Beast," "A Woman of Affairs," and "When a Man Loves" and "Don Juan" for John Barrymore, were amongst her best known silents. Since then she has been busy on talkies all the time. "Our Blushing Brides," "Romance" ior Garbo, and so on. Bess, too, is matrimonially experienced, her present spouse being Michael Curtiz, the director. Then there's Zelda Sears, former stage actress and playwright, with forty years' experience behind her. Zelda also began with the silents — "Covered," "The Clinging Vine," "The Scarlet Woman," etc. Talkies with which she has been connected in a scenario capacity are "Rubber Tires," "Night Bride," "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," "Wise Wife," "Devil-May-Care," "The Divorcee" and "Daybreak." Zelda Sears is with MetroGoldwyn-Mayer under contract. Madeleine Ruthven is an Iowa ranch girl, and a university graduate, likewise beginning her career on a newspaper. Her screen plays include "Love in the Rough" and "Among the Married." Alice Miller broke in via the reading department, during the silent era. She is regarded as an excellent assistant, having contributed much to such pictures as "The Bridge of San Luis Rev," "Four Walls," "Two Lovers," "The Devil Dancer," and many more. Edith Fitzgerald, a Kentucky maiden, began as an actress but later wrote plays for cne stage, through which she naturally gravitated {Continued on page 127)