DeWitt Bodeen explained

DeWitt Bodeen
Birth Name:Homer DeWitt Bodeen
Birth Date:July 25, 1908
Birth Place:Fresno, California, United States
Death Place:Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation:Screenwriter, television writer

DeWitt Bodeen (July 25, 1908 – March 12, 1988) was an American film screenwriter and television writer best known for writing Cat People (1942).

Biography

Born Homer DeWitt Bodeen on July 25, 1908, in Fresno, California, he began his career as an actor and wrote more than 20 plays before entering the film business. He began his career in the film industry when his stage work drew the attention of film writer and producer Val Lewton, who arranged for Bodeen to work as a research assistant to British novelist Aldous Huxley.[1]

He published his first book-length contribution to entertainment history in 1937, Ladies of the Footlights, a slim volume of theater celebrity profiles.[2]

In the late 1930s, he began working for RKO and worked his way up to a script writer. His screenwriting credits include Cat People (1942),[3] The Curse of the Cat People (1944), The Seventh Victim (1943),[4] The Enchanted Cottage (1945),[5] I Remember Mama (1948),[6] Night Song (1948),[7] and Billy Budd (1962).

His play Harvest of Years premiered on Broadway in January 1948.[8] It ran for two weeks.

Beginning in the 1950s he moved to television, writing mainly for anthology shows including Robert Montgomery Presents, Climax!, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars among others.

Bodeen was gay.[9] [10] In the 1950s he was Val Dufour's companion, living with him.[11]

In his later years he became a historian of Hollywood and the film industry. He wrote articles for the journal Films in Review and Focus on Film. His books included The Films of Cecil B. DeMille (1969), The Films and Career of Maurice Chevalier (1973), From Hollywood!: the careers of 15 great American stars (1972), and More from Hollywood!: the careers of 15 great American stars (1977). He wrote one novel, the 1975 gothic roman à clef mystery 13 Castle Walk, which fictionalized the unsolved 1922 murder of film director William Desmond Taylor.[12]

He was still writing in 1979 at the age of 70, when he lived at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.[13] He died there on March 12, 1988.[14]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bansak, Edmund F. . July 4, 2021 . 89 . Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career . McFarland . 2003. 9780786417094 .
  2. Book: Bodeen, DeWitt . July 4, 2021 . The Ladies of the Fooights . 1937 . Logan Printing . Pasadena, California. 5011627 . Republished in 2013 by Literary Licensing.
  3. News: July 3, 2021 . New York Times . 'Cat People,' With Simone Simon and Jack Holt, at Rialto -- New Swedish Film at 48th Street . Bosley . Crowther . December 7, 1942 .
  4. Book: Benshoff, Harry M. . July 3, 2021 . Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film . 102. 1997 . Manchester University Press . 9780719044731 .
  5. News: New York Times . Bosley . Crowther . July 3, 2021 . 'Enchanted Cottage,' Remake of Play by Sir Arthur Pinero, With Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, New Film at the Astor . April 28, 1945 .
  6. News: July 3, 2021 . New York Times . Bosley . Crowther . Irene Dunne and Oscar Homotka Head Brilliant Cast in RKO' 'I Remember Mama' . March 12, 1948 . a free-wheeling script by DeWitt Bodeen .
  7. News: New York Times . July 3, 2021 . Bosley . Crowther . 'Night Song,' Story of a Blind Composer, Opens at Palace -- Dana Andrews in Lead . January 29, 1948.
  8. News: July 3, 2021 . Bosley . Crowther . New York Times . January 13, 1948 . Esther Dale Appears in 'Harvest of Years,' by DeWitt Bodeen, at the Hudson Theatre .
  9. News: Out of Hollywood's Closet. December 30, 2001. Los Angeles Times . David . Ehrenstein . DeWitt Bodeen--a brilliant gay screenwriter . July 3, 2021 .
  10. Book: Hernandez, David . Broken Face In The Mirror (Crooks and Fallen Stars That Look Very Much Like Us) . 132 . 2010 . Dorrance Publishing . 9781434947239 . as gay writer DeWitt Bodeen noted .
  11. Web site: Overview for DeWitt Bodeen. Turner Classic Movies.
  12. Book: Slide, Anthony . 1995 . The Hollywood Novel: a Critical Guide to Over 1200 Works. Bodeen, DeWitt. McFarland & Company. Jefferson. 46.
  13. News: July 3, 2021 . New York Times . June 2, 1979 . A Retirement Home That Retains a Bit Of Hollywood Dazzle . Sharon . Johnson.
  14. Web site: Los Angeles Times. 'Cat People,' 'Billy Budd': DeWitt Bodeen, 79; Screenwriter and Author. March 18, 1988.