(1883-1933)
Born in Oil City, Pennsylvania, the playwright originally studied law at St. Thomas College in Scranton and was admitted to the New York bar, but took up trouping instead. It was while he was prospecting for gold that he took up writing as a distraction. His situation comedies, produced in New York and popular in little theatres, include Nothing Doing (1920), The Blackmailers, The Clean-Up, and The Mad Honeymoon (all 1923), So This Is Politics and Applesauce (1924), The Patsy and Hell's Bells (1925), Girl Trouble (1928), and Unexpected Husband (1931).
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.