Don Mullally

Don Hiram Mullally (27 April 1886, St. Louis – April 1, 1933, Duarte, California)[1] was an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, and actor. He penned several plays which were staged on Broadway, beginning with Conscience in 1924. His play The Desert Flower (1924) was adapted into a film in 1925. He also directed many of his own plays on Broadway as well as works by other writers. He wrote the screenplays to three Hollywood films released in 1933, the year that he died. One of these films, Mystery of the Wax Museum, was an important early horror film.[2]

Career

Don Mullally was born in Saint Louis, Missouri into a family of actors.[2] He started writing plays in 1918 in his native city.[3] He worked as performer in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage prior to his career as a playwright and director in New York City.[3] In 1921 he formed a stage partnership with the actor Roy Walling.[3] The pair attempted to stage works written by Mullally but without much success.[3]

Mullally's breakthrough came in 1924 when his play Conscience was staged at Broadway's Belmont Theatre.[3] The work was initially scheduled to premiere Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, but a chance meeting between Roy Walling and Broadway producer A. H. Woods led to the latter attending rehearsals and deciding to produce the play on Broadway instead.[3] The play was a tremendous success for the dramatic actress Lillian Foster (died 1949), and the role launched her career.[4]

Mullally's The Desert Flower was also staged on Broadway in 1924,[5] and it was adapted into the 1925 film The Desert Flower.[6] His other Broadway plays include Laff That Off (1925),[7] Wanted (1928),[8] The Camels Are Coming (1931),[9] and Coastwise (1931).[10] He also penned several plays which never made it to Broadway, including Maggie which premiered in Baltimore in 1924.[11] The Federal Theatre Project staged a revival of his play Laff That Off in 1936.[12]

In addition to writing his plays, Mullally often directed them as well. He directed the Broadway productions of Wanted, The Camels Are Coming and Coastwise. He also directed works by other writers on Broadway, including Michael Grismaijer's The Noble Experiment (1930),[13] Preston Sturges's Recapture (1930),[14] and Fanny Hatton and Frederic Hatton's Love, Honor and Betray (1930).[15] He also founded and ran an experimental theatre in Woodstock, New York which was active in the 1920s and early 1930s.[2]

In July 1932, Mullally left New York City for California to pursue a career as a contracted scriptwriter for Warner Brothers.[2] With the screenwriter Carl Erickson, he co-authored the screenplay to Girl Missing (1933, originally titled The Blue Moon Murder Mystery),[2] and the 1933 pre-Code mystery-horror film Mystery of the Wax Museum.[2][16] The latter film was an important early film in the horror genre and has been re-adapted several times.[2] He also co-authored the screenplay to another 1933 film, She Had To Say Yes, this time with writer Rian James.[17]

Death

In January 1933 Mullally entered a tuberculosis sanatorium in Duarte, California.[2][1] He died there at the age of 46 on April 1, 1933.[2][1]

References
  1. Eugene Michael Vazzana (2001). Silent Film Necrology. McFarland & Company. p. 383. ISBN 9780786410590.
  2. Richard Koszarski, ed. (1979). Mystery of the Wax Museum. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. p. 17. ISBN 9780299076740.
  3. Wheeler, Edward Jewitt; Crane, Frank (November 1924). "The Drama: "Conscience", A New Play by a New Playwright, Reveals a New Star". Current Opinion.
  4. "LILLIAN FOSTER, 68, DRAMATIC ACTRESS; Broadway Player Best Known for 'Conscience' Role Dies --Called 'American Duse'". The New York Times. May 16, 1949. p. 21.
  5. "THE DESERT FLOWER' BLO OMS AT LONGACRE; Don Mullally's Melodrama of Nevada Goldfields Heightened by Helen MacKellar's Acting". The New York Times. November 19, 1924. p. 18.
  6. Alan Goble, ed. (2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Bowker-Saur. p. 734. ISBN 9783110951943.
  7. Murray Phillips, ed. (1925). "Laff That Off". Actors Directory and Stage Manual, Volumes 1-2. Philrose Publishing Company. p. 233.
  8. "WANTED" IS BRISK FARCE.; Miss Alney Alba Makes Good Impression in Mullally's Play". The New York Times. July 3, 1928. p. 19.
  9. "THREE PREMIERES SEPT. 25.; "The Camels Are Coming," "Nikki" and "People on the Hill."". The New York Times. September 15, 1931. p. A30.
  10. Brooks Atkinson (December 1, 1931). "The Play: Honor in the Big Woods". The New York Times. p. 23.
  11. "NEW PLAYS TESTED IN THE PROVINCES". The New York Times. November 2, 1924.
  12. Compiled by the Staff of the Fenwick Library, George Mason University (1986). The Federal Theatre Project : A Catalog-Calendar of Productions. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 88.
  13. "TOPICAL ISSUE IN NEW PLAY.; "The Noble Experiment" at the Waldorf Offers Its Censure". The New York Times. October 28, 1930. p. 19.
  14. Diane Jacobs (2022). Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges. University of California Press. p. 480. ISBN 9780520335400.
  15. Edwin Bronner (1980). "Love, Honore and Betray". The Encyclopedia of the American Theatre, 1900-1975. A. S. Barnes. p. 282.
  16. Johnny D. Boggs (2022). American Newspaper Journalists on Film: Portrayals of the Press During the Sound Era. McFarland & Company. p. 238. ISBN 9781476679938.
  17. "She Had To Say Yes". The Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures, 1933. The Film Daily. 1934. p. 183.
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