Today is the birthday of playwright Marc Connelly (1890-1980), member of the Algonquin Roundtable, frequent collaborator of George S. Kaufman, and 1930 Pulitzer Prize winner for the first all-black Broadway show The Green Pastures.
But NONE of that is even REMOTELY as impressive to me as the fact that for five years (1930-1935) he was married to silent film beauty Madeline Hurlock (who later traded up by marrying the much better playwright Robert Sherwood).
I’m not even remotely kidding or exaggerating when I say I find the most interesting thing about Connelly is his marriage to Hurlock. To learn more about her, who was a fox and not a bald, mediocre playwright, go here.
For more on silent and slapstick comedy please see my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
To find out more about show business past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
(Travalanche) 