Mary C. McCall, Jr.

AKA: Mary C. McCall, Jr., Mary McCall
0.2751

1904-04-04

New York City, New York, USA

Biography

Mary C. McCall, Jr. (April 4, 1904, New York, New York – April 3, 1986, Los Angeles, California) was a writer best known for her screenwriting. She was the first woman president of the Writers Guild of America, serving from 1942–44 and 1951-52. Born in 1904, McCall was a graduate of Vassar College and Trinity College, Dublin. She began writing advertising copy and fiction after graduation. McCall got into the film industry when Warner Bros. hired her to help with the screenplay of the film Scarlet Dawn (1932), based on her novel Revolt. Among her screen credits are the 1935 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring James Cagney as Puck, The Fighting Sullivans, and Mr. Belvedere Goes to College. She also wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten films in the Maisie series. In the late 1930s, she was one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild. In the 1950s and 1960s, she branched out into television, being credited with four episodes of The Millionaire and one each of Sea Hunt, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gilligan's Island, among others. A number of her stories were published in such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Collier's, and The Saturday Evening Post from the 1930s to the 1950s. McCall was one of many who clashed with the conservative Motion Picture Alliance. On July 27, 1954, she had to defend herself in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee against reports that she was a communist sympathizer. She was completely exonerated by the separate California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities of the General Research Committee in its report to the California Senate. Mary C. McCall, Jr. died of "complications of cancer" at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, one day shy of her 82nd birthday. She was survived by two sons and two daughters. She was the first recipient of the Writers Guild's Valentine Davies Award in 1962. In 1985, she also received the Guild's Edmund J. North Award.

Crew Roles

The Fighting Sullivans
Writer
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Screenplay
Congo Maisie
Writer
The Woman in Red
Writer
Craig's Wife
Screenplay
Maisie Gets Her Man
Screenplay
Gold Rush Maisie
Screenplay
Maisie Was a Lady
Screenplay
Desirable
Story
Desirable
Writer
Street of Women
Screenplay
Babbitt
Screenplay
Women of Glamour
Screenplay
Dramatic School
Screenplay
Keep Your Powder Dry
Screenplay
Maisie Goes to Reno
Screenplay
I Promise to Pay
Screenplay
Dr. Socrates
Adaptation
Juke Box Rhythm
Screenplay
Slim Carter
Story
Ringside Maisie
Screenplay
Kathleen
Screenplay
Ride the Man Down
Screenplay
Mr. Belvedere Goes to College
Writer
Scarlet Dawn
Novel
Thunderbirds
Screenplay
Ready, Willing and Able
Treatment
Swing Shift Maisie
Writer
Reward Unlimited
Writer
Maisie
Screenplay
On the Sunny Side
Story
Panama Hattie
Story
It's All Yours
Screenplay
The Secret Bride
Screenplay
Dancing in the Dark
Screenplay
Breaking the Ice
Screenplay
A Slight Case of Murder
Additional Writing
Writer
Writer
Writer
Writer
Writer
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