Mark Hellinger(1903-1947)
- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Mark Hellinger made his name as a New York theater critic and as one of
the first of the nationally known "Broadway columnists", a craft which
his friend Walter Winchell was the most
famous practitioner. Born on March 21, 1903, Hellinger was the embodiment of the hard-boiled, hard-living, hard-drinking journalist
that became a stereotype of the early talkies. Fittingly, he married
Gladys Glad, a beautiful cast member of the Ziegfeld Follies, a series
of lavish Broadway revues by
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. that glorified
the American girl.
Hellinger, like the other great Broadway columnist and raconteur 'Damon
Runyon', was a purveyor of stories of New York's demimonde, filled with
wise-guy jargon. His stories were different from Runyon's, which relied
on mythic archetypes, as they featured realistic depictions of actual
people. Many of Hellinger's characters were composites of people he met
on the Broadway beat.
The realistic cant of Hellinger's stories, as well as their Broadway
background made him a natural for the movies. He contributed to the
screenplay of Night Court (1932), and
Frank Capra's
Broadway Bill (1934) was based on
one of his stories. His story "The World Moves On" was adapted for the
screen as
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
directed by Raoul Walsh and starring
James Cagney and
Humphrey Bogart. It was a crime tale
whose characters were all based on actual criminals and their fellow
travelers during the wide-open era of Prohibition. The success of the
film led Warner Brothers to make Hellinger an associate producer.
Although successful, Hellinger grew increasingly unhappy at Warner
Brothers over screen credit (specifically on Bogie's
It All Came True (1940)) and
assorted personal and professional conflicts with Jack L. Warner. 20th
Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck hired
Hellinger away from Warner Brothers in 1941, making him a real
producer. Hellinger returned to Warner Brothers before striking out as
an independent at Universal, where he produced three seminal and
classics of film noir:
The Killers (1946) (based on a
short-story by fellow newspaperman
Ernest Hemingway most recently glossed
in David Cronenberg's
A History of Violence (2005)),
the prison drama Brute Force (1947), and the paradigmatic Big City police drama,
The Naked City (1948) , for
which Hellinger also voiced the narration.
On December 21, 1947, just as Hellinger was entering into a new
independent production company (one of the partners was Humphrey
Bogart) he died suddenly at the age of 44. He was buried in Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. A Broadway Theatre in New
York was named for him from 1949 - 1989. The theater has been renamed
the Times Square Church.
the first of the nationally known "Broadway columnists", a craft which
his friend Walter Winchell was the most
famous practitioner. Born on March 21, 1903, Hellinger was the embodiment of the hard-boiled, hard-living, hard-drinking journalist
that became a stereotype of the early talkies. Fittingly, he married
Gladys Glad, a beautiful cast member of the Ziegfeld Follies, a series
of lavish Broadway revues by
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. that glorified
the American girl.
Hellinger, like the other great Broadway columnist and raconteur 'Damon
Runyon', was a purveyor of stories of New York's demimonde, filled with
wise-guy jargon. His stories were different from Runyon's, which relied
on mythic archetypes, as they featured realistic depictions of actual
people. Many of Hellinger's characters were composites of people he met
on the Broadway beat.
The realistic cant of Hellinger's stories, as well as their Broadway
background made him a natural for the movies. He contributed to the
screenplay of Night Court (1932), and
Frank Capra's
Broadway Bill (1934) was based on
one of his stories. His story "The World Moves On" was adapted for the
screen as
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
directed by Raoul Walsh and starring
James Cagney and
Humphrey Bogart. It was a crime tale
whose characters were all based on actual criminals and their fellow
travelers during the wide-open era of Prohibition. The success of the
film led Warner Brothers to make Hellinger an associate producer.
Although successful, Hellinger grew increasingly unhappy at Warner
Brothers over screen credit (specifically on Bogie's
It All Came True (1940)) and
assorted personal and professional conflicts with Jack L. Warner. 20th
Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck hired
Hellinger away from Warner Brothers in 1941, making him a real
producer. Hellinger returned to Warner Brothers before striking out as
an independent at Universal, where he produced three seminal and
classics of film noir:
The Killers (1946) (based on a
short-story by fellow newspaperman
Ernest Hemingway most recently glossed
in David Cronenberg's
A History of Violence (2005)),
the prison drama Brute Force (1947), and the paradigmatic Big City police drama,
The Naked City (1948) , for
which Hellinger also voiced the narration.
On December 21, 1947, just as Hellinger was entering into a new
independent production company (one of the partners was Humphrey
Bogart) he died suddenly at the age of 44. He was buried in Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. A Broadway Theatre in New
York was named for him from 1949 - 1989. The theater has been renamed
the Times Square Church.