HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 26 (AP)-William Slavens McNutt, whose writing career ranged from the battlefields of France to the sound stages of movieland, died last night.
The fifty-two-year-old screen playwright succumbed to bronchial pneumonia and a weakened heart at his La Canada estate, where he had been under treatment a few days.
When the end came unexpectedly, his wife, Louise, and his brother, Patterson, film writer and producer, were at the bedside. His father, George L. McNtutt, of suburban Van Nuys, also survives.
McNutt, whose last script was "Stolen Honeymoon" for Ginger Rogers and Charles Boyer, returned to R-K-O studio last week after a vacation of several months.
His death was a shock to the motion picture industry, in which he had been an ace scenarist since 1930. Among the big money-making pictures which he helped prepare for the screen were "Lives of a Bengal Lancer," "So Red the Rose," "Rhythm on the Range," "Annapolis ‘Farewell," "Lady and Gent," "Night of June 13," "The Broken Wing" and "Ladies of the Big House."
McNutt, born in Urbana, Ill., September 12, 1885, crowded far-flung adventure into his fifty-two years. From Emerson College, he went on the stage for three years, then gave up acting to write short stories. After two years on the staff of the Post Intellingencer in Seattle, Wash., he came to New York in 1914, did magazine articles, news syndicate reporting, war correspondence and plays. His droll fiction, published in national magazines, attracted the attention of Hollywood film producers. Paramount was the first to sign him to a contract and teamed him for a time with another scenarist, Grover Jones.
With his film earnings he bought a baronial estate at La Canada in the foothills and a yacht in which he frequently cruised off the Southern California coast.
He had a "hideout," where he did some of his motion picture writing, in preference to a studio office.
Reno (Nevada) Evenig Gazette, January 26, 1938.
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 26. -- AP --William Slavens McNutt, whose writing career ranged from the battlefields of France to the sound stages of movieland, died last night-- so unexpectedly his Hollywood friends did not know he had been ill.
The 52-year-old screen playwright succumbed to bronchial pneumonia and a weakened heart at his La Canada estate.
McNutt, whose last script was "Stolen Honeymoon" for Ginger Rogers and Charles Boyer, returned to R.K.O. studio last week after a vacation of several months.
He had bean an ace scenarist since 1930. Among the big money-making pictures which he helped prepare for the screen were "Lives of a Bengal Lancer," "So Red the Rose," "Rhythm on the Range," "Annapolis Farewell," "Lady and Gent," "Night of June 13," "The Broken Wing," and "Ladies of the Big House."
McNutt, born in Urbana, Ill., September 12, 1885, crowded far-flung adventure into his 52 years. From Emerson College, he went on the stage for three years, then gave up acting to write short stories. After two years on the staff of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, he went to New York in 1914, did magazine articles, news-syndicate reporting, war correspondence and plays.
His droll fiction, published in national magazines, attracted attention of Hollywood film producers.
Indiana (Pennsylvania) Evening Gazaette, January 26, 1938.