Violet Lucille Fletcher (March 28, 1912August 31, 2000) was an American screenwriter of film, radio and television. Her credits include ''

The Hitch-Hiker ''The Hitch-Hiker'' is a 1953 American independent film noir thriller directed by Ida Lupino, who co-wrote it with her former husband Collier Young, and starring Edmond O'Brien, William Talman and Frank Lovejoy. Based on the 1950 killing ...

,'' an original radio play written for

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

and adapted for a notable episode of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'' television series. Lucille Fletcher also wrote ''

Sorry, Wrong Number ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' is a 1948 American thriller and film noir directed by Anatole Litvak, from a screenplay by Lucille Fletcher, based on her 1943 radio play of the same title. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. It foll ...

'', one of the most celebrated plays in the history of American radio, which she adapted and expanded for the 1948

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

classic of the same name. Married to composer

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...

in 1939, she wrote the libretto for his opera ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...

'', which he began in 1943 and completed in 1951, after their divorce.

Biography

Early life

Violet Lucille Fletcher was born March 28, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Matthew Emerson Fletcher, a marine draftsman for the Standard Ship Company (a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey), and Violet (Anderson) Fletcher.Lucille Fletcher Wallop in ''

Contemporary Authors ''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work that has been published by Gale since 1962. The work provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers and is a major source of information on over 116,000 liv ...

Online''. Gale. August 1, 2001. Retrieved June 18, 2012. After attending Public School 164 and the Maxwell Training School, Fletcher went to

Bay Ridge High School Bay Ridge High School was a school based in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Initially, the school was co-educational, but when New Utrecht High School was formed, it became an all-girls high school. It served as the sister school to Brooklyn Technical Hi ...

and became president of the Arista honor society and editor of the school magazine. At age 17 she was declared the champion student orator at the regional competition of the National Oratorical Contest on the Constitution of the United States, sponsored by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' at The Town Hall May 17, 1929. The only female finalist in the New York zone, Fletcher received an all-expenses paid trip to South America, a gold medal, a cash prize of $1,000 and an opportunity to compete for the national championship. Fletcher placed third in the national competition May 25, 1929, judged by five justices of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

, with an address titled, "The Constitution: A Guarantee of the Personal Liberty of the Individual." Fletcher attended

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in 1933.

Career

From 1934 to 1939, Lucille Fletcher worked as a music librarian, copyright clerk and publicity writer at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. There she met her future husband, composer

, who conducted the CBS orchestra. The couple dated for five years, but delayed marriage due to her parents' objections. They finally married on October 2, 1939. Fletcher's first success came when one of her magazine stories, "My Client Curley", was adapted for radio by

Norman Corwin Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during th ...

. Broadcast on the ''

Columbia Workshop ''Columbia Workshop'' was a radio series that aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1936 to 1943, returning in 1946–47. Irving Reis The series began as the idea of Irving Reis. Reis had begun his radio career as an engineer and dev ...

'' March 7, 1940, it was later adapted for the 1944

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...

film, ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narrative ...

''.Bernstein, Adam, "Lucille Fletcher Dies; Radio Suspense Writer"; ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', September 4, 2000 Herrmann wrote the score for the November 17, 1941, radio debut of Fletcher's famous story, ''

'' on '' The Orson Welles Show''. Fletcher's greatest success, ''

'', premiered on May 25, 1943, as an episode of the radio series ''

Suspense Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...

''.

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning five decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary '' Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...

created the role in the first performance and again in several later radio productions. It was broadcast nationwide seven times between 1943 and 1948. Fletcher's daughter Dorothy Herrmann told ''

'' that Fletcher got the idea for ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' when she was buying food for her sick child at a local grocery on Manhattan's East Side, and a well-dressed woman with an obnoxious manner refused to allow Fletcher to go ahead of her in line. Herrmann described the drama as an "act of revenge".

Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career, she was known for her strong, realistic screen p ...

starred in the 1948 film version of ''Sorry, Wrong Number''. A 1959 version produced for the CBS radio series ''Suspense'' received a 1960

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...

for Best Radio Drama. Two operas were based on the play, which Orson Welles called "the greatest single radio script ever written". Fletcher adapted the first part of the

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel, ''Wuthering Heights''. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte and Anne Bront� ...

novel ''

'' into a libretto for Bernard Herrmann's opera of the same name, conceived in 1943. He completed the opera in June 1951, by which time they had divorced. Fletcher said the opera was "perhaps the closest to his talent and heart". The work was never produced on stage during Herrmann's lifetime. Fletcher is interviewed in the 1992 documentary, '' Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann'', which was

nominated A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group or election to an office, in which case a ...

for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

Personal life

Lucille Fletcher and Bernard Herrmann had two daughters, Wendy and Dorothy. The couple divorced in 1948, over his affair with her cousin Kathy Lucille (Lucy) Anderson. Anderson and Herrmann were married the following year. Fletcher married

Douglass Wallop John Douglass Wallop III (March 8, 1920 – April 1, 1985) was an American novelist and playwright. Early life John Douglass Wallop III was born on March 8, 1920, in Washington, D.C., to Marjorie (née Ellis) and John Douglass Wallop Jr. His ...

, a writer, on January 6, 1949. They remained married until his death in 1985. Fletcher died of a stroke on August 31, 2000.

Works

Radio plays

*''My Client Curly''. WHP-CBS, March 7, 1940 *''The Man with the One Track Mind''. ''Columbia Workshop'', June 30, 1940. *''

Carmilla ''Carmilla'' is an 1872 Gothic fiction, Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It is one of the earliest known works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897) by 25 years. First published ...

''. ''Columbia Workshop'', July 28, 1940. *''Alf, The All-American Fly''. ''Columbia Workshop'', September 1, 1940. *''

''. '' The Orson Welles Show'', November 17, 1941. Welles, Orson, and

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...

, edited by

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

, '' This is Orson Welles''. New York:

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

Publishers 1992 . *''Someone Else''. ''

'', July 20, 1942. *''Remodeled Brownstone''. ''Columbia Workshop'', October 19, 1942. *''Gremlins''. '' Ceiling Unlimited'', December 21, 1942. *''The Diary of Saphronia Winters''. ''Suspense'', April 27, 1943. *''

''. ''

'', May 25, 1943. *''Fugue in C Minor''. ''Suspense'', June 1, 1944. *''The Search for Henri Le Fevre''. ''Suspense'', July 6, 1944. * ''Night Man''. ''Suspense'', October 26, 1944. *''The Furnished Floor''. ''Suspense'', September 13, 1945. *''Dark Journey''. ''Suspense'', April 25, 1946. *''The Thing in the Window''. ''Suspense'', December 19, 1946. *''Bela Boczniak's Bad Dreams''. '' The Clock'', April 25, 1948.

Novels

*''

: A Novelization'', with Allan Ullman. New York: Random House, 1948. OCLC 2312888 *''Night Man'', with Allan Ullman. New York: Random House, 1951. OCLC 1387009 *''The Daughters of Jasper Clay''. New York: Holt, 1958. OCLC 1442341 *''Blindfold''. New York: Random House, 1960. OCLC 1807238 *''And Presumed Dead''. New York: Random House, 1963. OCLC 1439426 *''The Strange Blue Yawl''. New York: Random House, 1964. OCLC 1416360 *''The Girl in Cabin B54''. New York: Random House, 1968. *''Night Watch''. New York: Random House, 1972. *''Eighty Dollars to Stamford''. New York: Random House, 1975. *''Mirror Image''. New York: W. Morrow and Co, 1988.

Plays

*''Sorry, Wrong Number, and The Hitch-Hiker; Plays in One Act''. ew York Dramatists Play Service, 1952. *''Night Watch; A Play of Suspense in Two Acts''. ew York Dramatists Play Service, 1972. . This play was the basis for the film

Night Watch (1973 film) ''Night Watch'' is a 1973 mystery thriller film directed by Brian G. Hutton from a screenplay by Tony Williamson, based on the 1972 play of the same name by Lucille Fletcher. The film reunited Elizabeth Taylor with co-star Laurence Harvey fr ...

Librettos

*'' Wuthering Heights; Opera in 4 Acts and a Prologue'', with

. London: Novello, 1965. OCLC 13572509

Awards

''Sorry, Wrong Number'' received the

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor ...

from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

References

External links

*
Obituary
''The New York Times'', September 6, 2000 *
''Suspense'': Sorry, Wrong Number
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Lucille 1912 births 2000 deaths American radio writers American women radio writers Screenwriters from New York (state) Edgar Award winners Writers from Brooklyn Vassar College alumni American women screenwriters Novelists from Pennsylvania 20th-century American women writers American opera librettists Women opera librettists American women novelists American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Novelists from New York (state) Screenwriters from Pennsylvania 20th-century American screenwriters Bernard Herrmann