Maurine Dallas Watkins

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maurine Dallas Watkins (born July 27, 1896 in Louisville , Kentucky , † August 10, 1969 , Jacksonville , Florida ) was an American reporter and screenwriter . She wrote the template for the successful Broadway musical Chicago .

life and work

As a young reporter, Maurine Dallas Watkins worked for the Chicago Tribune in the mid-1920s . During this time, three spectacular criminal cases kept the whole of Chicago in suspense: the (alleged) murder of Belva Gaertner of her lover Walter Law, the (alleged) murder of Beulah Sheriff Annan of her lover Harry Kalstedt and the kidnapping and murder of the 14-year-old son of a millionaire Bobby Franks by Leopold and Loeb. While the latter received life imprisonment, the former were acquitted, despite all the evidence against them. The reporting by Watkins, who was less interested in the criminal facts than in the media-effective circumstances of the crime, may have played a role in this verdict: in both cases the lovers of the women had been murdered, not the husbands, in both cases alcohol and Jazz music played a certain role, and in both cases the alleged perpetrators were young, attractive women who were markedly different in class and style from other murderers. Annan was dubbed the “beauty of the cell block” by Watkins , and Gaertner the “most stylish on Murderess Row” . Watkins even conducted interviews with the defendants and arranged a photo shoot for the two women, who had never met in real life. In the end, shrewd defenders succeeded twice in a row in exploiting the public's sympathies for their respective clients and obtaining acquittals by - all male - juries.

Soon after, Maurine Dallas Watkins turned his back on journalism and turned to screenplay writing. To this end, she attended a renowned writing workshop run by George Pierce Baker at Yale University . The final thesis was the comedy Chicago , in which Watkins processed her sensational reporting dramaturgically - Beulah Sheriff Annan became Roxie Hart, Belva Gaertner then Velma Kelly.

The former reporter's first work was a success and was one of the most frequently adapted stage designs in the following years: it was staged in 1926 under the direction of George Abbott and had 172 performances. In 1927 Cecil B. DeMille produced a silent film version, from which the film Roxie Hart with Ginger Rogers in the leading role was made in 1942 . In 1975, Bob Fosse adapted the play as a musical , which was filmed in 2002 and won several Oscars .

Following her debut, Watkins wrote about 20 other plays, but was never able to build on the success of Chicago . In the 1930s she went to Hollywood and wrote a number of screenplays for the film industry. Here, too, however, the big breakthrough was denied.

Broadway productions (selection)

  • 1926: Chicago
  • 1927: Revelry

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Thomas H. Pauly (Ed.): Chicago: With the Chicago Tribune Articles that Inspired It. Southern Illinois University 1997. ISBN 0-8093-2129-7 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dallas Watkins, Maurine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watkins, Maurine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American reporter and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Louisville , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 1969
Place of death Jacksonville , Florida