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Mary Eunice McCarthy

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Not to be confused with Mary McCarthy, another screenwriter active around the same time.
Mary Eunice McCarthy
BornMarch 4, 1899
San Francisco, California, USA
DiedAugust 7, 1969 (aged 70)
North Hollywood, California, USA[1]
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, journalist, playwright, author
Years active1920 – 1963
SpouseEdward G. Boyle
FamilyJohn P. McCarthy
Francis Joseph McCarty
Henry McCarty (brothers)

Mary Eunice McCarthy (March 4, 1899 – August 7, 1969) was an American screenwriter, playwright, journalist and author, perhaps best known today as the screenwriter of, and driving force behind, the biopic Sister Kenny (1946).[2][3]

Biography

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Beginnings

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One of 13 children born to John Henry McCarty and Catherine Elizabeth Theresa Lynch,[4][5][6][7] Mary graduated from Star of the Sea Parish High School in 1917.[8] She then attended College of the Holy Names before embarking on a career as a journalist in the Bay Area.[9] One of her positions in the early 1920s was as a reporter at The San Francisco Bulletin.[10]

Hollywood career

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Around 1921, McCarthy followed her brothers to Hollywood, where she worked at an advertising agency while trying to teach herself the fundamentals of screenwriting.[11] Between 1925 and 1957, she wrote a number of films and at least two stage plays—the latter of which also featured the playwright, under her married name Mary Boyle, in the lead role.[12][13] During this period, McCarthy lived in Los Angeles but frequently traveled to San Francisco for work.[14] McCarthy also wrote two nonfiction books: Hands of Hollywood was published in 1929,[14] while Meet Kitty (a memoir about her mother) was published in 1957.[15] That same year, both Matinee Theater and O. Henry Playhouse featured new McCarthy teleplays.[16][17][18]

In 1939, a syndicated profile/interview highlighted McCarthy's "pet dislike at present," paraphrased by UP's Alex Kahn as "the so-called Hollywood 'Intellectuals' who, she says, try so hard to be different and become so utterly confused." Quoted directly, McCarthy continues:

What they need to do is to look more closely at the fundamentals of American life, sympathetically, not with intent to "commit a message."[19]

Aside from foreshadowing the anti-message 'message' of Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, McCarthy's gripe also sheds light on a script she had recently completed and another she would soon begin, namely Irish Luck (1939) and Chasing Trouble (1940), vehicles designed for the newly minted, interracial comic team of Mantan Moreland and Frankie Darro (the latter having previously been singled out for praise in McCarthy's Hands of Hollywood).[20] Despite playing the duo's nominal leader, Darro's leadership is typically so compromised by harebrained schemes and arcane, questionable methodology—in effect, "try[ing] so hard to be different"—that he can scarcely help but "become utterly confused."[21][22] Moreover, while it is unclear to what extent, if any, she herself was responsible for the Moreland-Darro pairing, the following excerpts from McCarthy's 1957 biography of her mother provides a useful reference point, regarding "the fundamentals of American life" as practiced and preached in the McCarty/McCarthy household.

"I don't like the word tolerance. It sounds stuck up". It was a little old lady speaking, very little and quite old. Her name was Kitty, and she was my mother. "There ain't any respect in tolerating," she continued, the blue of her eyes grown darker with indignation. "That's just putting up with them, like with bad plumbing when you can't afford to move..." [...] She did not "tolerate" the Negro or the Asiatic, the Protestant or the Jew, despite their racial or religious difference. Instead, she respected every human being equally, because she thought Thomas Jefferson had meant every word of the Declaration.[23]

Reviewing Meet Kitty for The New York Times, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey wrote:

What lasting impact does a mother make on her daughter's mind and heart? In her first book, [McCarthy] has chosen to answer this question with gusto and courage. [...] Through no quirk of chance the writer highlights her mother against a panorama of beautiful, bustling San Francisco rather than of kitchen, washtub, nursery and parlor. By the time Mary was 6 years old, five of Kitty's children had died; within another few years an unusually gifted son followed them. Meanwhile additional sorrow had developed when Kitty's scamp of a husband deserted her, leaving no financial support. [...] In spite of such undertones, this account is predominantly gay, nostalgic and alive with humor. Yet its canvas and colors seem stretched thin occasionally. For when the seething chemistry of inter-family relationships is bottled up for obvious reasons, even San Francisco with its colorful history and humanity can't substitute. Nevertheless, Miss McCarthy has given us a delightful portrait—one which is sure to be warmly welcomed and enjoyed.[24]

In October 1958, McCarthy would briefly resume her journalistic career as author of a weekly column published in the West Los Angeles Independent. It ran for a little under three years and was entitled simply "Mary McCarthy's Column".[25][26] But, as her new employer noted prior to the column's debut, "Anything more pretentious would offend Mary Eunice McCarthy."[27]

Personal life

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She had two brothers who were writer-directors in the industry: John P. McCarthy and Henry McCarty. Another brother, Francis Joseph McCarty, built one of the first radiotelephone sets in 1902, but died in a road accident in 1906. From January 1922 until at least July 1931, McCarthy was married to Edward G. Boyle, a set decorator.[28][29][30][13]

In the weeks leading up to the 1928 presidential election, McCarthy—dubbed "the Joan of Arc of the Democratic Party"[31]—harshly criticized the Hoover presidency and campaigned on behalf of his Democratic opponent, Al Smith.[32][33]

The dedicatee of her 1929 film-making guide, Hands of Hollywood, was longtime friend and colleague Lucy Beaumont, who had starred in at least two McCarthy-scripted films.[34][35]

Dedicated
to
Lucy Beaumont
DISTINGUISHED ACTRESS,
ALWAYS STARRED IN
THE ROLE OF MY FRIEND

'Tis thanking you, we are, for being so
small—you fit the heart so snug.[36]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "California Deaths and Burials, 1776-2000", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HG8S-K3N2 : 4 February 2020), Mary McCarthy, 1969.
  2. ^ a b Cohn, Victor (February 10, 1954). "The Story of Sister Kenny: Seven Questions at Party Tested Nurse's Character". pp. 1-A, 10-A. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Mary Eunice McCarthy At Work In Studio (12/18/34)". Getty Images.
  4. ^ "Sues Father of Thirteen". The San Francisco Examiner. December 7, 1907. p. 15. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  5. ^ "Husband Arrested for Failure to Support Wife". The San Francisco Examiner. September 19, 1908. p. 5. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  6. ^ Nichols, Luther (November 8, 1957). "S.F. Mother Was Spunky". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 59. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  7. ^ McCarthy, Mary Eunice (1957). Meet Kitty. Cornwall, NY : The Cornwall Press. p. 1. OCLC 949663933.
  8. ^ "Cross and Flag Given Homage at Church Ceremony". San Francisco Chronicle. June 4, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  9. ^ "'The Soul's Year,' Impressive Dramatic Selection, Is Feature of Exercises Held in Auditorium of School". Oakland Tribune. June 10, 1916. p. 16. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  10. ^ "Another Booster for Petaluma". Petaluma Daily Morning Courier. August 12, 1920. p. 5. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  11. ^ McCarthy, Mary Eunice (1957). Meet Kitty. Cornwall, NY : The Cornwall Press. p. 1. "When Kitty was well past sixty, and her hair turning white, she acquired a dancing partner—young, handsome, and 'so light on his feet.' This was Edward George Boyle, who became her son-in-law and my husband. By this time I had left the newspaper and had gone to Hollywood, where I was working for an advertising agency and trying to learn how to write for motion pictures." OCLC 949663933.
  12. ^ Bennett, Buford Gordon (April 20, 1925). "Mary Carr Stars in Playlet by S. F. Writer". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 11. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  13. ^ a b "News From the Dailies: New York". Variety. July 21, 1931. p. 39. "Mary Eunice McCarthy, Pacific Coast Newspaper woman, took leading role in her own play, 'Mrs. Garibaldi,' when tried out at Woodstock, N.Y. Stage name Mary Boyle." Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Old Anson (June 23, 1929). "Play-at-Home". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  15. ^ "Seeking Youngsters" by Hedda Hopper, Pittsburgh Press. October 11, 1957. Page 19. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  16. ^ Shalit, Sid (August 16, 1957). "News Around the Dials". New York Daily News.
  17. ^ "Saturday Evening Television Programs". Bristol Daily Courier. January 12, 1957. p. 16. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  18. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series, Volume 11, Parts 3–4, Number 1; Drama and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery, January—June, 1957. Washington : Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1957.
  19. ^ Kahn, Alexander; United Press (June 29, 1939). "Hollywood Film Shop". Oroville Mercury Register. p. 6. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  20. ^ McCarthy, Mary Eunice (1929). Hands of Hollywood. Hollywood, CA: Photoplay Research Bureau. p. 74. "[L]ittle Frankie Darro could teach many of the trained actors."
  21. ^ Miller, Steve (July 19, 2018). "'Irish Luck' Sets a Path for Darro & Moreland". Shades of Gray. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  22. ^ Hewson,. Chris (December 24, 2018). "The 12 Days of Mantan Moreland: Chasing Trouble (1940)". Not This Time, Nayland Smith. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  23. ^ McCarthy, Mary Eunice (1957). Meet Kitty. Cornwall, NY : The Cornwall Press. pp. 1, 3. OCLC 949663933.
  24. ^ Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth (October 27, 1957). "Portrait of Mama". The New York Times. pp. BR19. ProQuest 114103323.
  25. ^ "Mary McCarthy's Column Starts". West Los Angeles Independent. October 16, 1958. p. 1. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  26. ^ "Mary McCarthy's Column: Nightmare in the Sun". West Los Angeles Independent. August 3, 1961. p. 18. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  27. ^ "Sparkling New Columnist Starts". West Los Angeles Independent. October 9, 1958. p. 1. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  28. ^ "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K889-SQY : 9 March 2021), Edward George Boyle and Mary Eunice McCarthy, 25 Jan 1922; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,074,274.
  29. ^ "Bad Movies Blamed to Showgoers". The Oakland Tribune. March 7, 1928. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  30. ^ "Woman Writer of Scenarios Here Assails Censors". The San Francisco Examiner. May 25, 1928. p. 7. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  31. ^ "Pasadena Gets Ready for Row". The Los Angeles Times. November 5, 1928. p. 26. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  32. ^ "Women Speak Here Friday to Aid Al Smith". The Fresno Bee. October 17, 1928. p. 13. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  33. ^ "Miss Mary Eunice McCarthy". Petaluma Argus-Courier. Oct 22, 1928. p. 8. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  34. ^ a b K.L. (January 10, 1926). "The Feud Again!". The Los Angeles Times. p. 146. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  35. ^ "Ted Wells at Crown in 'Beauty and Bullets'". Hartford Courant. February 17, 1929. p. 51. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  36. ^ McCarthy, Mary Eunice (1929). Hands of Hollywood. Hollywood, CA : Photoplay Research Bureau. p. 5.
  37. ^ Mark. (March 16, 1927). "Film Reviews: The Fighting Failure". Variety. p. 19. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  38. ^ "With Universal". Hollywood Filmograph. September 3, 1932. p. 3. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  39. ^ "Rewrite for 'Chance'". Variety. September 6, 1932. p. 10. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  40. ^ "The Inside Dope: 'I Hate Women'". Hollywood Filmograph. December 16, 1933. p. 7. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  41. ^ "'I Hate Women' with Wallace Ford and June Clyde". Harrison's Report. June 16, 1934. p. 95. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  42. ^ Gifford, Dennis (1975). A Pictorial History of Horror Movies. London : Hamlyn. p. 111. ISBN 0-600-36926-9.
  43. ^ McCarthy (January 12, 1935). "Showmen's Reviews: Life Returns (Universal), Drama". Motion Picture Herald. p. 33. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  44. ^ Schallert, Edwin (January 25, 1935). "'Life Returns' Sketches Experiment of Cornish". The Los Angeles Times. p. 13. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  45. ^ "Reviews of the New Films". The Film Daily. January 2, 1935. p. 38. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  46. ^ "Feature Films: 'Life Returns'". Motion Picture Reviews. February 1935. p. 7. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  47. ^ "'Theodora' to Swerling". The Hollywood Reporter. May 1, 1935. p. 4. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  48. ^ Hanson, Patricia King; Dunkleberger, Amy (1999). American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States; Feature Films, 1941–1950. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. p.551. ISBN 0-520-21521-4.

Further reading

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Books

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