Arthur Hopkins (October 4, 1878 – March 22, 1950) was a well-known Broadway theater director and producer in the early twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1948, he produced and staged more than 80 plays – an average of more than two per year – occasionally writing and directing as well. His repertoire included plays by playwrights in American
Expressionist theater, including
Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays ''The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, ''Street Sce ...
,
Sophie Treadwell
Sophie Anita Treadwell (October 3, 1885 – February 20, 1970) was an American playwright and journalist of the first half of the 20th century. She is best known for her play '' Machinal'' which is often included in drama anthologies as an examp ...
, and
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
.
Biography
Hopkins was born on October 4, 1878, in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...
. He was the youngest of ten children born to a Welsh couple, David and Mary Jane Hopkins. His autobiography is titled ''To a Lonely Boy''.
After leaving high school, he began life as a reporter and then worked for a while as a theater press agent. This led to his writing a play, ''The Fatted Calf'' (1912) and to producing a show, ''Poor Little Rich Girl'', in 1913; it was a hit and launched his
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
career. Arthur Hopkins married Australian actress Eva MacDonald in August 1915. At the time she declared that she had retired from the stage, but in 1919 she appeared as Natasha in ''Night Lodging'', produced by Hopkins.
[''New York Times'' (December 2, 1915)]
He was one of Broadway's most admired producers with credits including ''What Price Glory'', and ''Anna Christie''. He also co-wrote ''
Burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.