Winifred Dunn | |
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 Dunn in 1922 | |
| Born | c. 1898 |
| Died | 1977 (aged c. 79) |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film editor, radio scenario writer, art critic |
Winifred Dunn (c. 1898 - 1977) was an American screenwriter, editor, radio scenario writer, and art critic in the early 20th century. She was one of the youngest scenario editors of the silent era and was credited with writing over 40 productions. [1] [2]
Born around 1898, [1] Winifred Dunn spent her childhood on an island at Squirrel Lake, Wisconsin. [3] Coming from a family of writers, Dunn made her decision to be a writer at the age of 6. [3] She moved out to Chicago, Illinois, at a young age, [4] starting a career that would lead her to be one of the youngest scenario editors in the film industry. [1]
At the age of 18, Winifred Dunn wrote her first film, Too Late , which launched her formal writing career with the production company Selig Polyscope. [4] Her talent for writing and formatting entertainment pieces became apparent when Dunn translated a German play into English, as well as formatted the production aspects to fit a natural setting on the American stage. [4]
In 1921, Dunn made the big move out to Hollywood to continue the expansion of her career with Sawyer-Lubin Productions. [5] It was there that her 1922 production of Quincy Adams Sawyer (1922) was edited and titled, and also where she wrote a screen adaptation of Your Friend and Mine (1923) by Willard Mack. [5]
In February 1923, Dunn began a new position with Metro Pictures, later known as Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, with formal tasks of a scenario editor. [5] It wasn't long before Dunn was known as one of the "busiest scenario editors in Hollywood." [1] A 1924 story in The Los Angeles Times quotes Dunn encouraging other writers to read many newspapers in order to "keep a metaphorical finger on the pulse of life everywhere." [6]
With her quickly growing popularity, Dunn was recruited by actress Mary Pickford in 1925 to work collaboratively on future projects. [7] The first collaboration of Dunn and Pickford was the 1926 hit Sparrows . [8] The role played by Pickford was out of the ordinary for her often lighthearted work, and therefore was a significant driver for its success. [9] The film was later criticized for copyright issues by Harry Hyde, who claimed the plot of Sparrows was eerily similar to his film The Cry of the Children , and sued both Dunn and Pickford for $100,000. [10]
This was also the year Dunn's film Twinkletoes was released. [1] Dunn had tough competition for her production of Twinkletoes to be performed by famous actress Colleen Moore. [11] Based on the Thomas Burke book Twinkletoes: A Tale of the Limehouse, Dunn had to dig deep into her creative mind to create a film story that fit Moore, while staying relatively true to the original narrative. [11] Dunn beat out the competition and production began a few weeks later. [11]
Toward the close of 1926, Dunn signed a contract for long-term employment of writing scenarios with First National Pictures. [12] It was here that she wrote the scenario for The Patent Leather Kid . [13] To prepare for this assignment, she sat at a boxing ring every Friday night to gain a feel for what the production should be like. [13] In April 1928, Dunn resigned from First National in order to pursue writing pieces with "more sentiment and less sentimentality." [14]
Dunn remained a freelance writer into the sound era and continued her talents through other mediums as well. [2] Dunn was hired to ghostwrite Osa Johnson's autobiography, I Married Adventure: The Lives and Adventures of Martin and Osa Johnson, which was released in 1940. [2] Dunn applied her own spin to the facts found through extensive interviews and research of the story so readers could easily get "swept away." [2] After its release, the book took off, selling 288,000 copies in the first eight months. [2]
Dunn was of the youngest scenario editors in the film industry. [1] In April 1928, Dunn took on the duties of chairman of the Women's Executive Committee of the Southern California Olympic Games. [14] Later that year, Dunn was inducted into the writer's executive committee for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the only female, and also served as a member of the Executive Board for the Writer's Guild. [14]
In December 1928, Winifred Dunn announced her marriage to Harold Swartz, a successful sculptor. [15] The ceremony was held in San Diego, and Dunn's mother was present. [15] Contrary to popular norms of the time, Dunn did not let her marriage stop her career and continued to work as a freelance writer. [1] After Dunn filed for divorce against Swartz in May 1942, [16] records of her life stopped appearing in periodicals for public viewing.
Winifred Dunn has been credited as a screenwriter in 41 productions, as editor in three, and both screenwriter and editor in two. [1]
Gerald C. Duffy was a screenwriter of the silent film era, as well as a journalist, and short story writer and copyeditor. He is best known for his many contributions to Redbook magazine, which he edited, as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Title Writing in the 1st Academy Awards for the film The Private Life of Helen of Troy. His prolific fiction career brought him to the attention of First National Pictures who hired him on as a writer.
Marshall Ambrose "Mickey" Neilan was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, whose work in films began in the early silent era.
Helen Jerome Eddy was a movie actress from New York City. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917).
Lloyd Hughes was an American actor of both the silent and sound film eras.
Frederick Clifton Thomson was an American silent film cowboy who rivaled Tom Mix in popularity before dying at age 38 of tetanus.
Beatrice Van was an American silent film actress. She was also a screenwriter for both silent and sound films.
Martha Mattox was an American silent film actress most notable for her portrayal of Mammy Pleasant in the 1927 film The Cat and the Canary. She also played a role in Torrent (1926). She died from a heart ailment at age 53.
Milla Davenport was an American stage and film actress who first appeared with the repertory company of her husband, actor Harry J. Davenport (1870-1929), for fifteen years.
Eva Barbara Novak was an American film actress, who was quite popular during the silent film era.
Agnes Herring was an American actress. She appeared in more than 100 films between 1915 and 1939.
A.P. Younger; born Andrew Percival Younger was an American screenwriter active during the silent era and early sound period. He worked for Universal Pictures on a number of productions, and also wrote for other studios including Tiffany and Metro.
Ethel Wales was an American actress who appeared in more than 130 films during her 30-year career.
Lloyd Whitlock was a prolific American actor who began working during Hollywood's silent era. Born in 1891, he appeared in nearly 200 films between 1916 and 1949. Distinguished by his height and stature, he became especially known for playing heavies in B-movie westerns.
Charles Gardner Sullivan was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was a prolific writer with more than 350 films among his credits. In 1924, the magazine Story World selected him on a list of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture industry from its inception forward. Four of Sullivan's films, The Italian (1915), Civilization (1916), Hell's Hinges (1916), and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), have been listed in the National Film Registry.
Betty Bouton was an American actress from Pennsylvania. She appeared in 16 films between 1919 and 1924, with her last film being the Samuel Goldwyn part-Technicolor production Cytherea (1924).
Raymond Cannon was an American actor, film director, screenwriter, journalist, and author known for his work with D. W. Griffith and Buster Keaton.
Twinkletoes is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Charles Brabin and starring Colleen Moore. The film, as with most of Moore's vehicles at this time, was produced by her husband John McCormick with the couple distributing through Moore's resident studio First National. This film is one of Moore's surviving films from the late silent era and is available on DVD.
Templar Saxe was a British-born stage actor, opera singer and silent film actor. In films, he usually was a character actor as his singing voice could not be used in silent films. He was born in Redhill, Surrey, England and died in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dorothy Farnum was an American actress and screenwriter. She was noted for her work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the silent era and later in Britain during the 1930s.
Lois Zellner was an American screenwriter active during Hollywood's silent era. She also went by the name Lois Leeson later in her career.
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