John Hartley Manners (10 August 1870 – 19 December 1928) [1] was a London-born playwright of Irish extraction who wrote Peg o' My Heart , which starred his wife, Laurette Taylor, on Broadway in one of her greatest stage triumphs.
Manners was born on 10 August 1870. He wrote the 1922 silent screen adaptation of his own 1912 play Peg o' My Heart, which starred Laurette. The 1933 sound remake starring Marion Davies was adapted from Manners' play as Manners had died in 1928. Manners also wrote two 1924 silent film screenplays which starred his wife in her only two other motion picture appearances, Happiness adapted from his play, and One Night in Rome . The latter his wife particularly enjoyed and kept a personal print to run over and over for guests.
Manners' one-act radio play The Queen's Messenger was adapted to become the first ever broadcast television drama, only three months before his death on 19 December 1928.
Peg o' My Heart , a comedy, played in New York City from December 20, 1912 to May 30, 1914. [2] Afterwards it had a long run in London. The play was the subject of a United States Supreme Court case decided in 1920, Manners v. Morosco .
Manners' other plays include:
He published Peg o' My Heart in 1913, and Happiness and Other Plays, including Just as Well and The Day of Dupes in 1914. [2]
He died of esophageal cancer in New York City, aged 58.
Lynn Fontanne was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred in Broadway and West End productions over the next four decades. They became known as "The Lunts", and were celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Peg o' My Heart" is a popular song written by Alfred Bryan (words) and Fred Fisher (music). It was published on March 15, 1913 and it featured in the 1913 musical Ziegfeld Follies.
Lady Cynthia Mary Evelyn Asquith was an English writer and socialite, known for her ghost stories and diaries. She also wrote novels, edited a number of anthologies, wrote for children and covered the British Royal family.
Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film star who is particularly well known for originating the role of Amanda Wingfield in the first production of Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie.
Thomas Meighan was an American actor of silent films and early talkies. He played several leading-man roles opposite popular actresses of the day, including Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. At one point he commanded $10,000 per week.
John Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.
George Guy Oliver was an American actor. He appeared in at least 189 silent film era motion pictures and 32 talkies in character roles between 1911 and 1931. His obituary gives him credit for at least 600. He directed three films in 1915.
Peg o' My Heart is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Laurette Taylor. It is based on the 1912 play written by Taylor's husband J. Hartley Manners. The play starred Laurette Taylor and famously ran a record number of performances on Broadway. Six reels of the original eight reels survive at the Library of Congress.
Happiness is a 1924 American silent comedy film directed by King Vidor and starring stage actress Laurette Taylor in one of her rare film appearances. The film is based on the 1914 Broadway play of the same name written by Taylor's husband J. Hartley Manners.
George Fawcett was an American stage and film actor of the silent era.
"Peg o' My Heart" is a popular song first published in 1913. The title may also refer to:
Peg o' My Heart is a 1933 American Pre-Code film adaptation of the play of the same name by J. Hartley Manners. It starred Marion Davies as a poor Irish girl, Margaret 'Peg' O'Connell, who stands to inherit a fortune if she satisfies certain conditions.
Ralph Henry Barbour was an American novelist, who primarily wrote popular works of sports fiction for boys. In collaboration with L. H. Bickford, he also wrote as Richard Stillman Powell, notably Phyllis in Bohemia. Other works included light romances and adventure.
One Night in Rome is a 1924 American silent drama film starring Laurette Taylor. The film was directed by Clarence G. Badger and written by J. Hartley Manners, Taylor's husband, and based upon his play of the same name. Laurette Taylor was a great name of the American theatre, who made only three films in a triumph-studded career, all of them derived from plays by her husband. This was the last of those three films. Taylor seems to have enjoyed making One Night in Rome as she kept a personal print of the movie to always show guests at her home, re-running it over and over again.
Dorothy Agnes Donnelly was an actress, playwright, librettist, producer, and director. After a decade-long acting career that included several notable roles on Broadway, she turned to writing plays, musicals and operettas, including more than a dozen on Broadway including several long-running successes. Her most famous libretto was The Student Prince (1924), in collaboration with composer Sigmund Romberg.
Harry Reeves-Smith was an English born stage actor who achieved success in Broadway productions at the turn of the twentieth century. His father was G. Reeves-Smith, a manager of the Brighton Aquarium. Harry made his first appearance on stage in 1878 at Halifax in Jane Shore. He went to the U.S. in 1887 and toured with John Sleeper Clarke.
The Queen's Messenger was the first television drama. The experiment was broadcast by a Schenectady, New York station on September 11, 1928. It was a radio drama adapted for television and broadcast both sound and moving pictures. These were received by televisions three inches (76 mm) in diameter that were set up in various places all around the city. There were special effect props for this broadcast to enhance the actors' performance and their sounds.
Manners v. Morosco, 252 U.S. 317 (1920), was a United States Supreme Court case with two principal holdings. First, the copyright transfer contract in question was not limited to five years because the agreement dealt in minimum requirements. Secondly, the transfer of the copyright for the production of a play on stage did not grant the ability to make a motion picture based on the play. However, a grant of exclusivity implies a negative guarantee that the original creator will not do anything that may adversely affect that exclusivity, meaning the author forfeited their own ability to authorize a motion picture production. The Court enjoined both parties from making a film version.
Chester A. Lyons (1885–1936) was an American cinematographer. Active in the American film industry from 1917 until his death he worked on over eighty films during his career, the majority of them in the silent era. He began his career with Triangle Films and was later employed by Paramount, Fox, First National and MGM.
Peg o' My Heart is a 1912 play written by J. Hartley Manners. It has three acts, a medium-sized cast, one setting, and moderate pacing. The story is set at the English mansion of the socially prominent Chichester family, whose lives are changed by the introduction of an Irish-American heiress into their midst.
