Owen Davis | |
|---|---|
 Owen Davis in 1950 | |
| Born | Owen Gould Davis (1874-01-29)January 29, 1874 Portland, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | October 14, 1956(1956-10-14) (aged 82) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Pen name | John Oliver |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Education | University of Tennessee, Knoxville Harvard University (BA) |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1923) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Breyer |
| Children | Owen Davis Jr. Donald Davis |
Owen Gould Davis (January 29, 1874 – October 14, 1956) was an American dramatist known for writing more than 200 plays and having most produced. In 1919, he became the first elected president of theDramatists Guild of America. He received the 1923Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his playIcebound,[1] His plays and scripts included works for radio and film.
Before theFirst World War, he wrote racy sketches of New York high jinks and low life for thePolice Gazette under the name ofIke Swift. Many of these were set in theTenderloin, Manhattan. Davis also wrote under several otherpseudonyms, includingMartin Hurley,Arthur J. Lamb,Walter Lawrence,John Oliver, andRobert Wayne.[2]
Davis was born into a large family inPortland, Maine.[3] They moved toBangor, where he lived until he was 15. As a boy, Davis wrote plays for his eight siblings, who performed them for the town. His parents were Owen Warren Davis, an iron manufacturer, and his wife Abigail Augusta Gould.[4]
His brotherWilliam Hammatt Davis later served as chairman of theNational War Labor Board in PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's administration.
Davis attended theUniversity of Tennessee in 1888–1889 and transferred toHarvard University in 1890, completing his degree there in three years. At Harvard, he was active with the Society of Arts drama organization. For a time, he coached a New York preparatory school's football team.[5]
He married Elizabeth Drury Breyer, an actress, in 1901 or 1902, and they had two sons. Both entered the theater world;Owen Davis Jr. became an actor, andDonald Davis a playwright.[4]
Davis lived in New York City for much of his life, and died there.
For the first two decades of his writing career, Davis produced melodramas that followed a formula. His entry in theEncyclopedia of American Drama notes, "The plays all contain life-threatening, visually exciting predicaments out of which the good emerge at the ultimate expense of the villains who put them there."[6]
In 1897,Through the Breakers, Davis's first play, opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It ran for three years.[3] His first Broadway play wasReaping the Whirlwind, which opened on September 17, 1900. He wrote or was otherwise involved in 75 additional Broadway productions, either under his own name or as John Oliver.[7]
Davis was on the staff ofParamount Pictures as a screenwriter from 1927 to 1930. His work during that time includedThey Had to See Paris (1929) andSo This Is London (1930), both of which starred humoristWill Rogers.[3]
Davis wrote scripts for the radio programThe Gibson Family, which presented each episode in the form of a Broadway musical.[8]
Davis wrote two autobiographies,I'd Like to Do It Again, which was published in 1931,[9] andMy First Fifty Years in the Theatre, which focused on the years 1897–1947.[3]
On October 13, 1956, Davis died in New York City at age 82. He had been suffering from a long illness and had recently been released from a hospital after three years. He was survived by his wife, their second son Donald, one of his brothers,William Hammatt Davis, and a sister, Perley Davis.[10]
Works by or aboutOwen Gould Davis atWikisource
