When Women Wrote Hollywood – 2 in a series – Adela Rogers St. Johns

To highlight the wonderful yet largely forgotten work of a collection of female screenwriters from the early years of Hollywood (and as a companion to the book, When Women Wrote Hollywood) we will be posting quick bits about the many films they wrote along with links to further information and clips from their works which are still accessible online. Take a few moments once or twice a week to become familiar with their names and their stories. I think you’ll be surprised at how much bold material these writers tackled at the birth of this new medium. — Rosanne Welch

When Women Wrote Hollywood – 2 in a series – Adela Rogers St. Johns

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When Women Wrote Hollywood - 2 in a series - Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Nora Rogers St. Johns (May 20, 1894 – August 10, 1988) was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies but is best remembered for her groundbreaking exploits as “The World’s Greatest Girl Reporter” during the 1920s and 1930s and her celebrity interviews for Photoplay magazine.

She obtained her first job in 1912 working as a reporter for Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner. She reported on crime, politics, society, and sports news before transferring to the Los Angeles Herald in 1913.[1]

 After seeing her work for that newspaper, James R. Quirk offered her a job writing for his new fan magazine  Photoplay. St. Johns accepted the job so she could spend more time with her husband and children. Her celebrity interviews helped the magazine become a success through her numerous revealing interviews with Hollywood film stars.[3]

She also wrote short stories for Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines and finished nine of her thirteen screenplays before returning to reporting for Hearst newspapers. — Wikipedia

More information on Adela Rogers St. Johns

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Related posts:

  1. When Women Wrote Hollywood – 1 in a series – “The Red Kimono” – Story by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Directed and Starring Dorothy Davenport
  2. When Women Ran Hollywood: Citizen Jane Film School 2016 [Video] (1 hour)
  3. Required Reading My Background from  Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch
  4. When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry — Now Available!
  5. Introduction from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1 min)

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