Joel Sayre

Joel Grover Sayre (born December 13, 1900 in Marion , Indiana , † September 9, 1979 in Taftsville , Vermont ) was an American writer , journalist and screenwriter .

Life

Joel Grover Sayre was born in 1900 to the businessman Joel Grover Sayre and the photographer and interior designer Nora Clemens. He grew up in Columbus , Ohio . In his youth he was friends with the later writer James Thurber . When the United States entered World War I , he wanted to enlist in the United States Army at the age of 16 , but was turned away because of his minority. Instead, he reported to the Canadian Army with a forged birth certificate and was deployed to Siberia with the Canadian Expeditionary Force . After the war, he completed a literature degree at Oxford University in England and dropped out of medical school at Heidelberg University Hospital .

Upon his return to Columbus, he began working as a journalist for the Columbus Journal. He later worked as a sports journalist for the Boston Herald . He then moved to New York City as a crime reporter , where he worked for the New York World and the New York Herald Tribune . He reported on organized crime, police operations and court hearings. The Irish Legs Diamond was a common theme at the time . From this experience he began to write his first novels.

Sayre made his debut as a writer in 1932 with the novel Rackety Rax . The book was made into a film by Fox Film Corporation that same year . Alfred L. Werker directed the crime comedy with Victor McLaglen and Greta Nissen in the leading roles. In the following years Sayre was able to establish himself as a screenwriter and co-wrote 15 film and television projects. His best-known screenplay work was the adventure film Uprising in Sidi Hakim, directed by George Stevens , with Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

When the Second World War broke out, he began working as a war reporter for the New Yorker . He reported on the Persian Gulf Command and the Tehran Conference . His experience flowed into the book Persian Gulf Command: Some Marvels On The Road To Kazvin , published in 1945 . At the end of the war he was sent to Germany , where he reported on the last days of the war. He processed his impressions with the novel The House Without a Roof , which describes the life of a Jewish family under the Nazi regime.

After the war he wrote for Time magazine, among others . His short story The Man on the Ledge , published in New York in 1949 , was filmed two years later by 20th Century Studios under the title Fourteen Hours . The thriller, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart , was nominated for an Oscar .

Sayre traveled the world for several years before accepting a teaching position at the Annenberg School of Communications , the Faculty of Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania . He taught until 1971 and then retired as a privateer.

Sayre was married to the journalist Gertrude Sayre from 1930 until her death in 1960 . His daughter was the journalist Nora Sayre . Four days before his 79th birthday, he died on September 9, 1979 of complications from a heart attack in Taftsville. There he lived in seclusion for the last few years with his long-time partner Jeanette Lowe.

Filmography (selection)

• 1934: Come On, Marines!
• 1934: The Hell Cat
• 1935: His Family Tree
• 1935: The Payoff
• 1936: The Road to Glory
• 1937: Meet the Missus
• 1937: The Toast of New York
• 1938: There's Always a Woman
• 1939: Uprising in Sidi Hakim (Gunga Din)

Works (selection)

• Rackety Rax (1932)
• Hizzoner the Mayor (1933)
• Persian Gulf Command: Some Marvels On The Road To Kazvin (1945)
• The House Without a Roof (1948)
• The Man on the Ledge (1949, short story)

Web links

• Joel Sayre in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Joel Sayre on nypl.org