Happy 95th Anniversary
to St. Louis Writers Guild!
By
Brad R. Cook
St. Louis in 1920 was city of brick. A city
on the rise. The brick wars, yes it was a war had reshaped the gateway to the
west. The landscape was smaller than we know today. The city wasn’t as
connected. Webster Groves was an orchard outside of town. None of the highways
had been built – the main thoroughfares were Grand, Kingshighway, Lindell,
Locust, and Natural Bridge. Clayton Road was listed on a map of the day as the road
to Jefferson City. Imagine how long that would take.
St. Louis Writers Guild first meeting was
held on Thursday evening, October 28th, 1920 in the living room of Shirley
Seifert’s home on De Giverville Ave. About thirty people meet to discuss novel
writing. A group of six local writers from various fields created an
organization that would gather more often than the biannual meetings of
Missouri Writers Guild. The topic for the first meeting was novel writing. They
had high ideals for what it meant to be writer, and were drawn to surround
themselves with only the best in the literary world.
Sam Hellman, the first SLWG president and
a paragon of the silver screen, had a razor wit and his finger on the pulse of
his times. A longtime newspaperman, Hellman was the managing editor of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, but would turn his attention to Hollywood. He penned
approximately 40 movies, many of which are considered classics of the golden
age. He loved playing bridge and talking endlessly about writing. Elinor
Maxwell McCord was quoted as saying, “Mr. Hellman is a riot in conversation. It
was better listening to him than reading one of his stories. He keeps a running
chatter of conversation, couched in the most marvelous slang imaginable, and
some unimaginable.”
Hellman was an established writer for 20th
Century Fox beginning in the 1920’s, and later switched to Warner Bros in the
1940’s. He wrote for Will Rogers (The
County Chairman, 1935), Spencer Tracy (It’s
a Small World, 1935), and the Ritz Brothers (The Three Musketeers, 1939), and worked with other major Hollywood
names including John Carradine, Jane Darwell, Guy Kibbee, and Donald Meek. He
wrote numerous Shirley Temple hits including (Poor Little Rich Girl, 1936)
and (Captain January, 1936).
A few of his other masterpieces include, (Flying Fists, 1924) (writer), (The Lottery Lover, 1935) (writer), (Stanley and Livingstone, 1939)
(historical research and story outline), (The
Doughgirls, 1944) (writer), (My
Darling Clementine, 1946) (story), and his final film (Powder River, 1953) (writer).
Shirley Seifert, the second president of
St. Louis Writers Guild, was born in St. Peters, Missouri. Seifert attended Washington
University in St. Louis where she majored in classical and modern languages. Her
journalism professors encouraged her writing, and this led her to sell an
article to Population Science Monthly. In 1919 Seifert wrote “The Girl
Who Was Too Good Looking” and earned $100 from American magazine. Seifert’s regularly published in Redbook, McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, and New
York Herald-Tribune Magazine.
Seifert’s literary career centered on historical
fiction and many of her novels were set in the American Midwest, featuring
ordinary people living in extraordinary times. She maintained a positive
outlook regarding the Great Depression saying, “I am no defeatist. When I am
doing research for a novel, I see how America will work out of its present
crisis.” She wrote fifteen novels, and earned a noteworthy place in American
literature when The Wayfarer was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Ralph Mooney, wouldn’t be president
until 1941, but was instrumental in the early years of St. Louis Writers Guild.
Mooney published short stories in popular magazines like
the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy All-Story Weekly, The Popular Magazine,
Munsey's, American
Magazine, and People's Favorite Magazine. His
most well-known stories include “Look like a Million” in American Magazine, 1921, and “Polysynthetic Football” published in The Saturday Evening Post, 1922.
He is most famous for his novel David Rudd, published in 1927, sometimes
called a memoir; it has been explained as a romance of the
Mississippi River. His
next novel was a work of fiction titled Mr. Pelly’s Little Home and was published in
1936.
Mooney also ventured into
the theater with
friend C. Eugene Smith. In 1914, a three-act operetta, The Love Star was produced by W. Gus Haenschen, the words
and lyrics were written by Mooney and Smith. This instrumental ensemble for
chorus and piano was produced in St. Louis, Missouri by the Quadrangle Club of
Washington University.
Jay Gelzer was born in England and she published many
short stories in popular magazines including Goodhousekeeping, Collier’s,
Woman’s World, and Cosmopolitan. She wrote two books: a
collection of stories published under the title, The
Street of a Thousand Delights, and Compromise:
A Novel. In 1924, she copyrighted a dramatic comedy screenplay
called Lonely Woman, and the 1929 film, Broadway
Babies, was based on one of her stories.
William Brennan was a newspaperman who
wrote for the Saturday Evening Post, he later became a screenplay writer.
Lenora McPheeters wrote short stories.
Unfortunately we are still working to find
verifiable information on William Brennan and Lenora McPheeters, both were
integral to the formation of St. Louis Writers Guild, but have not left as
large a footprint on history as the other founders. Research continues in hopes
that within some dusty corner more records can be discovered.
Thank you to Founders, the Charter Members, and the writers
who attended those early meetings. Thank you to 95 years of writers who have
continued their honored traditions and kept this organization alive and
thriving. Without all of you we'd just be a footnote in history instead of one
of the oldest and largest literary organizations in the Midwest.
Here's too many more years of gathering together to
discuss what else – writing!
Thank you to the today's board, President David Lucas, Jennifer
Stolzer, T.W. Fendley, Jamie Krakover, Peter Green, Lauren Miller, and Brad R.
Cook.
I should also mention – Today is the 50th
Anniversary for the Arch. I’m certain they chose this date to honor St. Louis
Writers Guild’s 45th Anniversary.
Visit www.stlwritersguild.org for more information about St. Louis Writers Guild.
Visit www.stlwritersguild.org for more information about St. Louis Writers Guild.
Brad
R. Cook, author of the YA steampunk series, The
Iron Chronicles. http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Horsemen-The-Chronicles/dp/0989207951. Iron Zulu, Book II is coming in November 2015. He currently serves
as Historian of St. Louis Writers Guild after three and half years as its
President. Learn more at www.bradrcook.com, on Twitter @bradrcook https://twitter.com/bradrcook,
or on his
blog Thoughts from Midnight on tumblr http://bradrcook.tumblr.com/
