Mary C. McCall, Jr.
Personal Info
Known for
Writing
Gender
Female
Birthday
1904-04-04
Day of Death
1986-04-03 (81 years old)
Place of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Mary C. McCall, Jr.
Biography
Mary C. McCall, Jr. (April 4, 1904, New York, New York – April 3, 1986, Los Angeles, California) was a writer best known for her screenwriting. She was the first woman president of the Writers Guild of America, serving from 1942–44 and 1951-52. Born in 1904, McCall was a graduate of Vassar College and Trinity College, Dublin. She began writing advertising copy and fiction after graduation. McCall got into the film industry when Warner Bros. hired her to help with the screenplay of the film Scarlet Dawn (1932), based on her novel Revolt. Among her screen credits are the 1935 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring James Cagney as Puck, The Fighting Sullivans, and Mr. Belvedere Goes to College. She also wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten films in the Maisie series. In the late 1930s, she was one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild. In the 1950s and 1960s, she branched out into television, being credited with four episodes of The Millionaire and one each of Sea Hunt, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gilligan's Island, among others. A number of her stories were published in such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Collier's, and The Saturday Evening Post from the 1930s to the 1950s. McCall was one of many who clashed with the conservative Motion Picture Alliance. On July 27, 1954, she had to defend herself in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee against reports that she was a communist sympathizer. She was completely exonerated by the separate California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities of the General Research Committee in its report to the California Senate. Mary C. McCall, Jr. died of "complications of cancer" at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, one day shy of her 82nd birthday. She was survived by two sons and two daughters. She was the first recipient of the Writers Guild's Valentine Davies Award in 1962. In 1985, she also received the Guild's Edmund J. North Award.
Known For
Crew
(1959)
Juke Box Rhythm
Screenplay
(1957)
Slim Carter
Story
(1952)
Ride the Man Down
Screenplay
(1952)
Thunderbirds
Screenplay
(1949)
(1949)
Dancing in the Dark
Screenplay
(1945)
Keep Your Powder Dry
Screenplay
(1944)
The Fighting Sullivans
Writer
(1944)
Maisie Goes to Reno
Screenplay
(1944)
Reward Unlimited
Writer
(1943)
Swing Shift Maisie
Writer
(1942)
Maisie Gets Her Man
Screenplay
(1942)
On the Sunny Side
Story
(1942)
Panama Hattie
Story
(1941)
Maisie Was a Lady
Screenplay
(1941)
Ringside Maisie
Screenplay
(1941)
Kathleen
Screenplay
(1940)
Congo Maisie
Writer
(1940)
Gold Rush Maisie
Screenplay
(1939)
Maisie
Screenplay
(1938)
Dramatic School
Screenplay
(1938)
Breaking the Ice
Screenplay
(1937)
Women of Glamour
Screenplay
(1937)
I Promise to Pay
Screenplay
(1937)
Ready, Willing and Able
Treatment
(1937)
It's All Yours
Screenplay
(1936)
Craig's Wife
Screenplay
(1935)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Screenplay
(1935)
The Woman in Red
Writer
(1935)
Dr. Socrates
Adaptation
(1934)
Desirable
Story, Writer
(1934)
Babbitt
Screenplay
(1934)
The Secret Bride
Screenplay
(1932)
Street of Women
Screenplay
(1932)
Scarlet Dawn
Novel