''Louder, Please'' is a play by

Norman Krasna Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year ca ...

, the first of Krasna's plays to be produced on Broadway. It was heavily influenced by ''

The Front Page ''The Front Page'' is a Broadway comedy about newspaper reporters on the police beat. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, it was first produced in 1928 and has been adapted for the cinema several times. Plot T ...

'' and also ''

Five Star Final ''Five Star Final'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film about the excesses of tabloid journalism directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Aline MacMahon (in her screen debut) and Boris Karloff. The screenplay was by Rober ...

''. He wrote it while working as a press agent at

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and many of the characters were rumored to be based on real people. Krasna admitted the lead was based on publicity man Hubert Voight and other characters were based on Warners cameraman Buddy Longworth, Bernie Williams and Jack Warner.Characters From Real Life Basis for "Louder Please" Los Angeles Times 15 Oct 1933: A7. The original production was directed by

George Abbott George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...

and starred

Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawye ...

. The ''New York Times'' said "the entertainment spurts out of the direction rather than the play. It was successful enough for Krasna to be hired as a writer for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. That studio bought the film rights by March 1932. The film was never made. In March 1962

Edward Buzzell Edward Buzzell (November 13, 1895 – January 11, 1985) was an American film actor and director whose credits include '' Child of Manhattan'' (1933); ''Honolulu'' (1939); the Marx Brothers films '' At the Circus'' (1939) and '' Go West'' (1 ...

bought the film rights. Again it was not made.Rights Secured Los Angeles Times (1 Mar 1963: C13.

Plot

Publicity men fake the disappearance of a film star.

References

External links

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archive

Review of film
at Variety {{Norman Krasna 1931 plays Plays by Norman Krasna Broadway plays Plays set in Los Angeles Hollywood, Los Angeles in fiction