Elmer Blaney Harris

Elmer Blaney Harris (January 11, 1878 – September 6, 1966) was an American author, dramatist, and playwright.

Harris was born in Chicago, Illinois as the youngest of eight children. He moved with his family to Oakland, California, after his father's broom factory burned to the ground. After high school, he attended the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated in 1901 with a B.S. in writing, and as an actor for the university theater troupe, he had gained a patron, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst. With her financial backing, Harris was able to study in New York City and Europe for the next four years.

When he returned to San Francisco, he became a newspaper reporter for the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, and lectured at clubs and universities on authors and playwrights, such as George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. However, this didn't last long: when the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed the newspaper's office and the newspaper, Harris left for New York City. There he wrote feverishly for newspapers and magazines, contributing articles, reviews, and short stories. At the same time he was translating with Cora Older. He began to travel back and forth from Manhattan to the Bay Area, and in California he helped to found the Carmel-by-the-Sea artists' colony. At Carmel he dramatized his first play, Sham, a short story by Geraldine Bonner.

Harris was married in 1908, and after his honeymoon he built a summer home in Fortune Bridge, Prince Edward Island, helping to establish a second artists' colony there. At Fortune Bridge he worked on his next three plays, The Offenders (1908), Trial Marriage (1909), and Thy Neighbor's Wife (1911). During this period, he divided his time between Fortune Bridge and New York City.

When World War I broke out, he was 39, and so was ineligible for combat. He went to work for the Food Board under Herbert Hoover, but tired of working with Graham flour, he took a new position as civil aide to the commander in charge of amusements and morale at Camp Bowie, Texas, as a dramatic director with the Fosdick Commission. He was also stationed in San Diego.

Tras la guerra, escribió su primer guion, Lottery Man , en 1919. Durante los siguientes veinte años, fue muy prolífico, colaborando, dirigiendo, adaptando o supervisando la producción de casi 35 películas mudas y sonoras. Vivía la mitad del tiempo en Nueva York, escribiendo para el teatro , y la otra mitad en Hollywood, escribiendo para la industria cinematográfica. En la década de 1920, escribió seis guiones producidos por Peninsula Studios, entre ellos Chalk Marks (1924), The Girl on the Stairs (1924), The Wise Virgin (1924), The Awful Truth (1925), Beauty and The Badman (1925) y Let Women Alone (1925). También trabajaba en siete guiones originales de su propia autoría. Fue testigo de las principales transiciones en la industria cinematográfica, tanto del traslado de Nueva York a Hollywood como de la transición del cine mudo al sonoro .

Su película más conocida fue probablemente Johnny Belinda , estrenada en 1948. Basó la historia en los residentes de la zona donde se ubicaba su casa de verano en Fortune Bridge y en hechos reales ocurridos allí. El personaje principal se inspiró en Lydia Dingwell (1852-1931), de Dingwells Mills, Isla del Príncipe Eduardo .

Elmer Blaney Harris falleció a los 88 años en Washington, D.C.

• Biografía en la página web oficial de Elmer Blaney Harris
• Elmer Harris en IMDb
• Elmer Blaney Harris en la base de datos de Broadway en Internet