Maxine Finsterwald
Maxine Finsterwald (1906 – April 7, 1993) wrote radio scripts, plays, short stories, and newspaper features in the United States. She sometimes used the pen name Maxine Wood[1]
Early life and career[edit]
She was born Maxine Flora Finsterwald in Marion, Wisconsin,[1] Mr. and Mrs. Charles Finsterwald were her parents.[2] She grew up in Detroit, Michigan.[3] She studied at Wellesley, Cornell, and Carnegie Institute.[4]
She wrote radio scripts for Kaffee Klatch[5] and Playhouse of the Air before moving to New York City.[3]
Her play Giants in Chains won the Otto H. Kahn prize in 1928.[3] Her play On Whitman Avenue was staged in Buffalo and then on Broadway in 1946. It addressed relations between African Americans and whites. Canada Lee was an actor and a producer for the show and Margo Jones directed.[6]
She was a supporter of a proposed Conference on Civil and Human Rights organized in the wake of jailings of Communist Party organizers in the United States.[7]
Carnegie Mellon University has a collection of papers related to her early career and plays up through 1946.[8] The University of Iowa has a collection of her papers.[3]
She was interviewed December 10, 1974.[9]
Death[edit]
She died of congestive heart failure.[10]
Plays[edit]
- Giants in Chains (1928)
- The Severed Cord (1929)[1][11]
- Seven Against One (1930)[1]
- On Whitman Avenue,[12] staged on Broadway in 1946[13]
- Sandals and Golden Heels (1948)[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e "Maxine Wood Dead; Playwright Was 87". The New York Times. April 15, 1993.
- ^ "March 25, 1921 - Image 6". The Detroit Jewish News Digital Archives.
- ^ a b c d "UI Collection Guides -Maxine Finsterwald Papers, 1928-1983". collguides.lib.uiowa.edu.
- ^ "Vassar Chronicle 28 September 1946 — Vassar Newspaper & Magazine Archive". newspaperarchives.vassar.edu.
- ^ Office, Library of Congress Copyright (November 16, 1934). "Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and Motion Pictures. New Series" – via Google Books.
- ^ "On Whitman Avenue". uflib.ufl.edu. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
- ^ Activities, United States Congress House Committee on Un-American (November 14, 1955). "Hearing[s] Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, First-second Sessions". U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
- ^ "Maxine Flora Finsterwald Collection". library.cmu.edu. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
- ^ Burrell, Julie (March 27, 2019). The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966: Staging Freedom. Springer. ISBN 9783030121884 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Obituaries: Elsewhere (Maxine Flora Finsterwald)". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 16, 1993. p. 39 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Watson, Evelyn (December 4, 1914). "Patsy from Dakota: A Comedy in Three Acts". Eldridge Entertainment House – via Google Books.
- ^ Barlow, Judith E. (December 4, 2001). Plays by American Women, 1930-1960. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9781557834461 – via Google Books.
- ^ Pawley, Thomas D. (1982). "Three Views of the Returning Black Veteran". Black American Literature Forum. 16 (4): 163–167. doi:10.2307/2904227. JSTOR 2904227.