Sarah Y. Mason (March 31, 1896 – November 28, 1980) was an Academy Award winning American

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 ...

and

script supervisor A script supervisor (also called continuity supervisor or script) is a member of a film crew who oversees the continuity of the motion picture including dialogue and action during a scene. The script supervisor may also be called upon to ensure wa ...

.Vazzana, Eugene Michael (2001). ''Silent Film Necrology.'' McFarland,

Biography

Mason was born Sarah Yeiser Mason in Pima, Arizona. She and her husband Victor Heerman married in 1921 and won the Academy Award for best screenplay adaptation for their adaptation for the 1933 film ''

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters— Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details th ...

'', based on the novel by

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...

. She left no known records or documentation of her life or work. All the knowledge acquired about her is gathered though the records her husband left. After that success, she and Heerman were the first screenwriters involved in early, never-produced scripts commissioned for what would become MGM's ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1940 film). Mason's career is also notable as she was the very first

in Hollywood, having invented the craft of

film continuity In fiction, continuity is the consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the audience over some period of time. It is relevant to many genres and forms of storytelling, especially if it is long-running. Conti ...

when the industry switched from

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

talkies 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 ...

.Schallert, Edwin (February 4, 1929)
Wow of a sound film on screen.
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''Staff report (April 7, 1929). Rivoli To Have 'Fancy Baggage.' ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

'' She died at age 84 in Los Angeles and was cremated. Victor and Sarah had two children, Catharine Anliss Heerman, an artist and teacher of art in Southern California who was previously married to record producer Lester Koenig; and Victor, Jr., a successful breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.Daily Racing Forum: "Heerman, prominent bloodstock agent, dies at 89"
July 11, 2014 The Academy Award for ''Little Women'' remains with the family.

Partial filmography

*''

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

'' (1918) (continuity) *'' Bound in Morocco'' (1918) (continuity) *'' The Poor Simp'' (1920) (scenario) *'' Held In Trust'' (1920) (scenario) *'' The Chicken in the Case'' (1921) * '' A Divorce of Convenience'' (1921) * '' The Girl from Nowhere'' (1921) * '' Modern Matrimony'' (1923) * '' Backstage'' (1927) *'' Cradle Snatchers'' (1927) (scenario) *'' The Broadway Melody'' (1929) (continuity) *'' Alias Jimmy Valentine'' (1928) (continuity) *''

'' (1933) (screenplay) *'' The Age of Innocence'' (1934) (screenplay) *'' Imitation of Life'' (1934) (uncredited) *'' The Little Minister'' (1934) (screenplay) *'' Break of Hearts'' (1935) (screen play) *'' Magnificent Obsession'' (1935) (screenplay) *'' Stella Dallas'' (1937) (screenplay) *'' Golden Boy'' (1939) (screenplay) *''

Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is the second published novel (but third to be written) by English author Jane Austen, written when she was age 20-21, and later published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabe ...

'' (1940) (uncredited) *'' Meet Me in St. Louis'': 1944 (uncredited) *''

'' (1949) (screenplay) *'' A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob'' (1941) (uncredited) *'' Magnificent Obsession'' (1954) (based upon the screenplay by)

References

External links

*
"Sarah Y. Mason"
by Victoria Sturtevant at the Women Film Pioneers Project at Columbia.edu. Retrieved October 24, 2024. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Sarah Y. 1896 births 1980 deaths American script supervisors Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners Women film pioneers American women screenwriters 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters