Catherine Chisholm Cushing

Catherine Chisholm was born in Mount Perry, Ohio.James Fisher, Felicia Hardison Londré, eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Pro7DwAAQBAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA169 Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism] (Rowman & Littlefield 2017): 169. {{ISBN|9781538107867}} She attended the Pennsylvania College for Women in Pittsburgh."Mrs. C. C. Cushing, Author of Plays" New York Times (October 21, 1952): 29. via ProQuest{{Full citation needed|date=April 2025|reason=Lacks URL}}

Cushing started her literary career as an editor at Harper's Bazaar, before finding success as a writer on Broadway. Her first show, The Real Thing (1911),"Miss Crosman in Amateurish Play" New York Times (August 11, 1911): 9. via ProQuest{{Full citation needed|date=April 2025|reason=Lacks URL}} was a comedy that ran for sixty performances and starred Henrietta Crosman and Minnie Dupree.Dixie Hines, Harry Prescott Hanaford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qts9AQAAMAAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA408 Who's who in Music and Drama] (H. P. Hanaford 1914): 408. This was followed by her Widow by Proxy (1913) with May Irwin,"May Irwin Shines in 'Widow by Proxy'" New York Times (February 25, 1913): 11. via ProQuest{{Full citation needed|date=April 2025|reason=Lacks URL}} Kitty MacKay (1914),Catherine Chisholm Cushing, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fqqHuAAACAAJ&q=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing Kitty MacKay: A Scotch Comedy in Three Acts] (S. French 1914)."Laughter and Tears for 'Kitty MacKay'" New York Times (January 8, 1914): 11. via ProQuest Sari (1914, book by Cushing and Eugene Percy Heath),[https://books.google.com/books?id=LHMhAQAAMAAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA606 "Sari"] Green Book Magazine (April 1914): 606. Jerry (1914) starring Billie Burke,Catherine Chisholm Cushing, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ii9wuAEACAAJ&q=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing Jerry: A Comedy in Three Acts] (S. French 1930).[https://books.google.com/books?id=LHMhAQAAMAAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA1017 "Jerry"] Green Book Magazine (June 1914): 1017. Pollyanna (1915, based on the book by Eleanor H. Porter),Catherine Chisholm Cushing, [https://archive.org/details/pollyannagladgir00cush Pollyanna, the Glad Girl] (Klaw and Erlanger 1915).[https://books.google.com/books?id=4j08AQAAMAAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA327 "The Glad Play Still"] Book News Monthly (March 1916): 327. Glorianna (1918-1919, a musical based on Cushing's own Widow by Proxy), Lassie (1920, a musical version of Kitty MacKay), Marjolaine (1922), Topsy and Eva (1924-1925, a burlesque based loosely on Uncle Tom's Cabin),[http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/duncanhp.html "The Duncan Sisters in 'Topsy and Eva'"] at "Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture", an online exhibit by Stephen Railton at University of Virginia. Edgar Allan Poe (1925),"The Play: Poe on Stage" New York Times (October 6, 1925): 31. via ProQuest{{Full citation needed|date=April 2025|reason=Lacks URL}} and The Master of the Inn (1925-1926, based on a book by Robert Herrick)."'Master of the Inn' Laden with Romance" New York Times (December 23, 1925): 22. via ProQuest{{Full citation needed|date=April 2025|reason=Lacks URL}}

Film adaptations of plays or stories by Cushing include Kitty MacKay (1917), Widow by Proxy (1919) starring Marguerite Clark,T. A. Phelps, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5MEOAQAAIAAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing&pg=PA112 "How it Feels to be a Widow"] Theatre Magazine (August 1919): 112. Pollyanna (1920) starring Mary Pickford, Don't Call Me Little Girl (1921) starring Mary Miles Minter, Topsy and Eva (1927) starring Rosetta Duncan and Vivian Duncan, and The Prince and the Pauper (1937, based on the book by Mark Twain). Songs by Cushing included "L'amour, toujours, l'amour" (1922, music by Rudolf Friml),Catherine Chisholm Cushing and Rudolf Friml, [https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/collections/item/32701 "L'amour, toujours, l'amour"] (Harms 1922), Sheet Music Collection, Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives, University Libraries, Bowling Green State University. which was on several film soundtracks, and ""Love's Own Sweet Song (Sari Waltz)" (1947).

Her Topsy and Eva was among the first American musicals adapted for early television; a one-hour version aired in July 1939. "Possibly because the program was so racist, history has chosen to forget this broadcast," commented one historian of television.Sandy Thornburn, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzpeBAAAQBAJ&dq=Catherine+Chisholm+Cushing+Harpers&pg=PT273 "Unifying the Audience: An Overview of Television Musicals"] in Graeme Harper, Ruth Doughty, Jochen Eisentraut, eds., Sound and Music in Film and Visual Media: A Critical Overview (Bloomsbury 2014). {{ISBN|9781501305443}}

Catherine Chisholm married Henry Howard Cushing in 1904. She was widowed in 1937 and died in New York in 1952, aged 78 years.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22682626/catherine_chisholm_cushing_1952/ "Mrs. Catherine Cushing, Playwright, Lyricist Dies"] Los Angeles Times (October 21, 1952): 18. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}

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• {{IMDB name|0193693}}
• {{IBDB name|4708}}
• [https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3990&context=mmb-vp Sheet music for "Love, Love, Love!"] from Glorianna (1918), lyrics by Catherine Chisholm Cushing and music by Rudolf Friml; in the Digital Commons collection, University of Maine

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Category:1874 births

Category:1952 deaths

Category:American women dramatists and playwrights

Category:Chatham University alumni

Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:People from Perry County, Ohio

Category:Writers from Ohio