John Colton (December 31, 1887 – December 26, 1946) was an American playwright and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spent the first 14 years of his life in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

where his English father was a diplomat. After returning to the US he soon worked for a

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

newspaper. He is notable for adapting, with Clemence Randolph,

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

's novella ''

Rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

'' into a 1922 smash hit play starring

Jeanne Eagels Jeanne Eagels (born Eugenia Eagles; June 26, 1890 – October 3, 1929) was an American stage and film actress. Eagels appeared in many Broadway productions, and in the emerging medium of sound films. She was posthumously nominated for the Acad ...

. He wrote the original play, ''The Shanghai Gesture,'' produced on

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 Stre ...

in 1926. He excelled at writing plays dealing with Americans in far-off lands, an experience Colton knew firsthand from his early youth in Japan. With these huge successes Colton was lured to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, primarily

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, where he wrote

intertitle In films and videos, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (hence, ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred ...

s for some silent films and scenarios for others. In the

talking film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

era he wrote numerous screenplays. Three of his stage plays found motion picture production: ''

'' (1932); '' The Shanghai Gesture'' (1941); and, posthumously, '' Under Capricorn'' (1949). His 1933 play ''Nine Pine Street'', written with Carleton Miles, was based around the

Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman who was Trial, tried and Acquittal, acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her Patricide, father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was c ...

story. Lizzie Borden's character was changed to "Effie Holden", played by

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "F ...

. It ran for only 28 performances. Colton suffered a stroke in 1945. He died of a second stroke in Gainesville, Texas in 1946. Colton, a gay man, never married.''The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine'' by E.J. Fleming c. 2005; McFarland & Company publishers
/ref>

References

External links

*
John Colton, in 1935 back row in specs & tie
standing with several literary friends i.e. Blanche Oelrichs,

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...

Peggy Wood Mary Margaret Wood (February 9, 1892 – March 18, 1978) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best remembered for her performance as the title character in the CBS Television show, television series ''Mama (American TV ...

, Howard Greer,

Dudley Murphy Dudley Bowles Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) was an American film director. Early life Murphy was born on July 10, 1897, in Winchester, Massachusetts, to the artists Caroline Hutchinson (Bowles) Murphy (1868–1923) and Herma ...

''The Shanghai Gesture'' printed programme, the West Coast production (additional notes on Broadway production)
Biltmore Theatre, Los Angeles, June 1927 (Wayback)
isolated headshot image of Colton from 1935 group photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colton, John 1887 births 1946 deaths Writers from Minneapolis American gay writers American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American LGBTQ screenwriters American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers