Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner (born May 19, 1876 in Benicia , † April 3, 1933 in Los Angeles ) was an American playwright , storyteller and entrepreneur. His most famous pieces are The Deep Purple and The Greyhound . He was the managing director and co-owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles. Along with his brother Addison Mizner, he was embroiled in a series of frauds and picaresque mishaps that inspired Stephen Sondheim to create the Musical Road Show .
Life
Wilson "Bill" Mizner was one of eight children. Joshua Reynolds was her great-great-uncle. Her father, Lansing Bond Mizner (1825-1893), was Benjamin Harrison's diplomatic envoy for Central America , which is why the family moved to Guatemala . In 1897 Wilson followed the Klondike gold rush with three of his brothers , where he befriended Wyatt Earp . In Skagway , he met Soapy Smith , whom he considered his mentor.
Wilson moved to New York, where he was briefly married to the industrialist Charles Tyson Yerkes' much older widow .
In Florida, the Mizner brothers were embroiled in a real estate scandal that T. Coleman du Pont uncovered.
Wilson returned to California and began writing scripts for the emerging talkies .
Works
Pieces
- The Only Law , 1909
- The Deep Purple , 1910
- The Greyhound , 1912
Stories
- The Discord of Harmony , The All-Story Magazine , November 1908
- The Cock-Eyed World (1929)
- You're dead! , Argosy (UK), May 1937 (reprint)
Filmography
- 1914: The Greyhound
- 1915: The Deep Purple
- 1917: The Law of Compensation
- 1920: Outlaws of the Deep
- 1920: The Deep Purple
- 1920: The Five Dollar Plate
- 1929: Gamecocks of love
- 1932: 20,000 years in Sing Sing
- 1932: Frisco Jenny
- 1932: Lawyer Man
- 1932: Journey of no return
- 1932: The Dark Horse
- 1932: Winner Take All
- 1933: Hard to Handle
- 1933: Heroes for Sale
- 1933: Strictly Personal
- 1933: The Little Giant
- 1933: The Mind Reader
- 1934: Merry Wives of Reno
- 1957: Lux Video Theater
- 1957: One Way Passage
literature
- John Burke: Rogue's Progress . New York 1975, ISBN 0-399-11423-8 .
- Alva Johnston: The Legendary Mizners . Farrar, Straus and Young, 2003, ISBN 0-374-51928-5 (first edition: 1953).
- Stuart B. McIver: Dreamers, Schemers and Scalawags . Pineapple Press, Florida 1994, ISBN 1-56164-155-3 .
- Caroline Seebohm: Boca Rococo . Clarkson Potter, New York 2001, ISBN 0-609-60515-1 .
- Edward Dean Sullivan: The Fabulous Wilson Mizner . The Henkle Company, New York 1935.
Web links
- Literature by and about Wilson Mizner in the catalog of the German National Library
- Wilson Mizner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Wilson Mizner in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Pictures by Wilson Mizner In: Virtual History
- Chef Anton: Mizner in the School for Scoundrels ( Memento from January 2, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Jerry Floyd: Les Miz Brothers : The Brothers Bio
Individual evidence
- ↑ Seebohm 2001, p. 22.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mizner, Wilson |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American playwright, storyteller, and entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 19, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Benicia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 3, 1933 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |