Maxine Finsterwald Explained

Maxine Finsterwald (1906 – April 7, 1993) wrote radio scripts, plays, short stories, and newspaper features in the United States. She sometimes used the pen name Maxine Wood.^[1]

Early life and career

She was born Maxine Flora Finsterwald in Marion, Wisconsin,^[1] Mr. and Mrs. Charles Finsterwald were her parents.^[2] She grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She studied at Wellesley, Cornell, and Carnegie Institute.^[3]

She wrote radio scripts for Kaffee Klatch^[4] and Playhouse of the Air before moving to New York City.

Her play Giants in Chains won the Otto H. Kahn prize in 1928. Her play On Whitman Avenue was staged in Buffalo and then on Broadway in 1946. It addressed relations between African Americans and whites. Canada Lee was an actor and a producer for the show and Margo Jones directed.^[5]

She was a supporter of a proposed Conference on Civil and Human Rights organized in the wake of jailings of Communist Party organizers in the United States.^[6]

Carnegie Mellon University has a collection of papers related to her early career and plays up through 1946.^[7] The University of Iowa has a collection of her papers.^[8]

She was interviewed December 10, 1974.^[9]

Death

She died of congestive heart failure.^[10]

Plays

• Giants in Chains (1928)
• The Severed Cord (1929)^{[1] [11]}
• Seven Against One (1930)^[1]
• On Whitman Avenue,^[12] staged on Broadway in 1946^[13]
• Sandals and Golden Heels (1948)^[1]

See also

• Civil rights dramas
• List of members of the League of American Writers

Notes and References

1. News: Maxine Wood Dead; Playwright Was 87. The New York Times. April 15, 1993.
2. Web site: March 25, 1921 - Image 6. The Detroit Jewish News Digital Archives.
3. Web site: Vassar Chronicle 28 September 1946 — Vassar Newspaper & Magazine Archive. newspaperarchives.vassar.edu.
4. Web site: Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and Motion Pictures. New Series]. Library of Congress Copyright. Office. November 16, 1934. Google Books.
5. Web site: On Whitman Avenue. uflib.ufl.edu. 4 August 2023.
6. Web site: Hearing[s] Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, First-second Sessions]. United States Congress House Committee on Un-American. Activities. November 14, 1955. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.
7. Web site: Maxine Flora Finsterwald Collection. library.cmu.edu. 4 August 2023.
8. Web site: UI Collection Guides -Maxine Finsterwald Papers, 1928-1983. collguides.lib.uiowa.edu.
9. Book: Burrell, Julie. The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966: Staging Freedom. March 27, 2019. Springer. 9783030121884. Google Books.
10. News: Obituaries: Elsewhere (Maxine Flora Finsterwald). Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 16, 1993. 39. newspapers.com.
11. Web site: Patsy from Dakota: A Comedy in Three Acts. Evelyn. Watson. December 4, 1914. Eldridge Entertainment House. Google Books.
12. Book: Barlow, Judith E.. Plays by American Women, 1930-1960. December 4, 2001. Hal Leonard Corporation. 9781557834461. Google Books.
13. Three Views of the Returning Black Veteran. 2904227. Pawley. Thomas D.. Black American Literature Forum. 1982. 16. 4. 163–167. 10.2307/2904227.