On Ben Hecht (1894 - 1964) and Charles MacArthur (1895-1956)

Hecht - a screenwriter, novelist, director, playwright-known as the "Shakespeare of Hollywood" - lived in New York state most of his life, but bloomed as a writer during Chicago's post-World War I literary renaissance where he wrote novels and short stories inspired by the colorful characters he encountered when he was a reporter for the Chicago Journal and Chicago Daily News. "1001 Afternoons in Chicago" is the best known of Hecht's collections of short stories.

MacArthur, at 19, went to the City News Bureau of Chicago as a journalist. The excitement of working in brawling pre-1920s Chicago didn't quite satisfy his hunger, however, and he soon hooked up with General "Black Jack" Pershing, galloping off to Mexico to join in the hunt for the infamous Pancho Villa. Returning to Chicago and the Roaring 20s, Charlie became one of Chicago Tribune's most well-known and widely read reporters with his inventive and witty style. Eventually he headed off to the greener pastures of New York where he began to shift his efforts toward playwrighting.

In 1927, MacArthur and Hecht, long time friends, collaborated on The Front Page. The phenomenal success of their play prompted both men to head to Hollywood and screenplay work where they hit the jackpot with the movie version of The Front Page which won Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

It was during this period that Hecht and MacArthur produced their second smash theatrical effort, Twentieth Century, which debuted on Broadway in December 1932, and was later made into the well-received 1934 movie starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard.

Their partnership produced many other classic Hollywood films including the 1939 reworking of Rudyard Kipling's epic poem into Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and their adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which garnered the two yet another Academy Award screenplay nomination in 1940. That year also saw the remake of The Front Page into the popular movie, His Girl Friday, starring Rosalind Russell.

Regarding their craft, Hecht had this to say: "Writing cheaply, writing falsely, writing with 'less' than you have, is a painful thing. To betray belief is to feel sinful, guilty -- and taste bad. Nor is movie writing easier than good writing. It's just as hard to make a toilet seat, as it is a castle window. But the view is different."