Otis Love Guernsey Jr. (August 9, 1918 – May 2, 2001) was an American journalist, writer, and editor of books about theatre. He was a former arts editor of the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' and edited 36 volumes of the ''Best Plays'' series (formally ''The Best Plays Theater Yearbook'').
Guernsey had the idea which influenced the plot of
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
's 1959 thriller ''
North by Northwest''. Guernsey was inspired by a true story during
World War II when
British Intelligence obtained a dead body, invented a
fictitious officer who was carrying secret papers, and arranged for the body and misleading papers to be discovered by the Germans as a disinformation scheme called
Operation Mincemeat. Guernsey turned his idea into a story about an American salesman who travels to the Middle East and is mistaken for a fictitious agent, becoming "saddled with a romantic and dangerous identity". Guernsey admitted that his treatment was full of "corn" and "lacking logic", and he urged Hitchcock to do what he liked with the story. Hitchcock bought the 60 pages for $10,000.
Guernsey was inducted into the
American Theater Hall of Fame on January 29, 2001.
References
External links
* ''Brief profile with portrait''
1918 births
2001 deaths
New York Herald Tribune people
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