Laurence Stallings (November 25, 1894 - February 28, 1968) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
,
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
, literary critic,
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
, novelist, and
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
. The
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
veteranA war veteran is a person who has or is serving in the armed forces, or a person who has had long service or experience in an occupation or office....
was noted for his anti-war book
The First World War: A Photographic History.
Stallings was born Laurence Tucker Stallings in
Macon, GeorgiaMacon is a city located in central Georgia, USA. It is among the largest metropolitan areas in Georgia, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. It lies near the geographic center of Georgia, approximately 85 miles south of Atlanta, hence the...
. He graduated from Wake Forest College prior to his war service. In 1917, he joined the United States Marine Reserve.
Laurence Stallings (November 25, 1894 - February 28, 1968) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
,
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
, literary critic,
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
, novelist, and
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
. The
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
veteranA war veteran is a person who has or is serving in the armed forces, or a person who has had long service or experience in an occupation or office....
was noted for his anti-war book
The First World War: A Photographic History.
Stallings was born Laurence Tucker Stallings in
Macon, GeorgiaMacon is a city located in central Georgia, USA. It is among the largest metropolitan areas in Georgia, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. It lies near the geographic center of Georgia, approximately 85 miles south of Atlanta, hence the...
. He graduated from Wake Forest College prior to his war service. In 1917, he joined the United States Marine Reserve. He was assigned to active duty and arrived in France in time to participate in the fighting at
Chateau-ThierryChâteau-Thierry is a commune in northern France about east-northeast of Paris. It is a sub-prefecture of the Aisne department in Picardie.-History:...
, where he was wounded in the leg. (He further damaged it with a fall on the ice, and it was amputated in 1922. Many years later he had to have his remaining leg amputated as well.)
Stallings received a
Master of ScienceA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries...
degree from
Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown University is a Jesuit private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the...
, after which he worked as a reporter, critic, and entertainment editor at the
New York WorldThe New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. It played a major role in the history of American newspapers.-Early years:...
. He was impressed by
Maxwell AndersonJames Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist. He was a founding member of The Playwrights Company.-Early years:...
's first play,
White Desert, and the two joined forces to collaborate on
What Price Glory, which opened at the Plymouth Theatre in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
in 1924. The critically acclaimed play ran for 433 performances and spawned two film adaptations. The two went on to co-write the plays
The First Flight and
The Buccaneer, both in 1925. Stallings continued his theatre career with the book and lyrics for the
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Deep River (1926), adapted
A Farewell to ArmsA Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1929. The novel is told through the point of view of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American serving as an ambulance driver in the Italian army during World War I...
for the stage in 1930, co-wrote the book for the musicals
Rainbow (1928) with
Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American writer, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song", and much of his work is part of the unofficial Great...
and
Virginia (1937) with
Owen DavisOwen Gould Davis, Sr. was an American dramatist. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1923 play Icebound, and penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film....
, and penned the play
The Streets Are Guarded in 1944.
Stallings was called back to service with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II as a Lieutenant Colonel but did not serve overseas.
Stallings first (and only) novel, the
autobiographicalAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Plumes, was published in 1924 and was a huge success, with nine printings in that year alone. It was adapted into
King VidorKing Wallis Vidor was an acclaimed American film director whose career spanned nearly seven decades.He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900...
's
The Big ParadeThe Big Parade is a 1925 silent film which tells the story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.The film...
, which was quite successful and remained MGM's largest grossing film until
Gone with the WindGone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...
in 1939. He was regarded as a key influence on three of
John FordJohn Ford was an American film director of Irish heritage famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach and The Searchers and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's greatest films, serving as writer or co-writer for
3 Godfathers,
She Wore a Yellow RibbonShe Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The film was the second of Ford's trilogy of films focusing on the US Cavalry , the other two films being Fort Apache and Rio Grande...
, and
The Sun Shines BrightThe Sun Shines Bright is a 1953 comedy film directed by John Ford. It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Charles Winninger - Judge William Pittman Priest* Arleen Whelan - Lucy Lee Lake* John Russell - Ashby Corwin...
. Additional screenwriting credits included
Northwest Passage,
The Man from DakotaThe Man from Dakota is a 1940 film directed by Leslie Fenton and starring Wallace Beery. The movie was adapted by Laurence Stallings from the novel by MacKinlay Kantor.-Cast:*Wallace Beery as Bar Barstow*John Howard as Oliver Clark...
, and
On Our Merry WayOn Our Merry Way is a American comedy film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith, and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of...
.
Stalling's last book,
The Doughboys: The Story of the AEF, 1917-1918, was published in 1963. The
non-fictionNonfiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be...
account of World War I partly explores the racism and discrimination faced by the
blackThe term black people usually refers to a racial group of humans with skin colors that range from light brown to nearly black. It also has been used to categorize a number of diverse populations into a common group. Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan...
troops during the war.
On March 8, 1919, Stallings married Helen Purefoy Poteat, the daughter of Dr. William Louis Poteat, who was president of Wake Forest College. The couple had two daughters, Sylvia (born 1926) and Diana (born 1931), before divorcing in 1936. The following year he married Louise St. Leger Vance, his secretary at Fox Studios. They had two children, Laurence, Jr. (born 1939) and Sally (born 1941).
Stallings died of a heart attack in Pacific Palisades, California. He was buried with full military honors at
Fort Rosecrans National CemeteryFort Rosecrans National Cemetery is situated in the city of San Diego on the Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation. The cemetery is located approximately 10 miles west of downtown San Diego, overlooking the bay and the city...
in Point Loma near San Diego.
External links