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Josephine Quirk

{{short description|American screenwriter}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Josephine Quirk

| birth_date = May 15, 1882https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/ssdi/news/112D287A3B5AA1D4

| birth_place = New York, New York, USA

| death_date = July 1976

| death_place = New York, New York, USA

| occupation = Screenwriter, film producer

| years_active = 1921–1929

| spouse =

| relatives =

}}

Josephine L. Quirk (May 15, 1882 – July 1976) was an American screenwriter, film producer, and writer active during Hollywood's silent era.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/490374167/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+scenario|title=14 Mar 1920, 27 - The Vancouver Sun at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pRUXAQAAMAAJ&q=%22josephine+quirk%22+los+angeles&pg=RA4-PA91-IA7|title=Motion Picture|date=1923|publisher=Macfadden-Bartell.|language=en}}

Biography

Quirk was born in New York City into an Irish family, the daughter of Irish emigrants Timothy and Kate Quirk. She had two siblings who died young and three brothers who survived into adulthood: Cornelius, James, and John. Cornelius was a successful cotton merchant and left her $2,000 ({{Inflation|US|2000|1931|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) when he died in 1931.{{cite news |title=Cornelius J. Quirk – Clothing Trade Veteran Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/560462220/?match=1&terms=Josephine%20Quirk%2C%20writer |access-date=16 April 2024 |work=Brooklyn Times-Union |date=June 4, 1931 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=70}}{{cite news |title=Widow Gets Life Interest in Bulk Of Quirk Estate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle/4523424/ |access-date=April 16, 2024 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=June 25, 1931 |page=19}}

Quirk began her career as a publicity woman and magazine writer on the East Coast before transitioning into scenario writing in Los Angeles.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/30115212/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+writer|title=13 May 1922, Page 2 - The Galveston Daily News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pSHDwAAQBAJ&q=%22josephine+quirk%22+writer&pg=PA99|title=Go West, Young Women!: The Rise of Early Hollywood|last=Hallett|first=Hilary|date=2013-01-15|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520274099|language=en}} She worked as a scenarist at Famous Players–Lasky before writing scripts for Chadwick Pictures.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/380658825/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+scenario|title=25 Nov 1920, 32 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}} In 1929, she was hired to write a series of 12 two-reel stories featuring actor George McIntosh.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/356601180/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+scenarist|title=23 Mar 1929, 10 - The Courier at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}

A devout Catholic, she eventually became disenchanted with Hollywood and what she perceived as its moral failings, and became a contributing editor at The Victorian (a Catholic magazine) and The Catholic Boy{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6aYwDwAAQBAJ&q=%22josephine+quirk%22+catholic&pg=PA167|title=Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda During World War II|last=Horten|first=Gerd|date=October 2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520240612|language=en}} during the 1940s and 1950s, where she covered topics like juvenile delinquency,{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/183335656/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+victorian|title=18 Sep 1942, Page 7 - The Catholic Advance at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}} the ills of marijuana, the perils of alcohol,{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/56816292/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+victorian|title=15 Aug 1949, Page 10 - The Times Record at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}} and Communism.{{Cite journal|last=Hartel|first=Heather A.|date=2006|title=Producing Father Nelson H. Baker|url=https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1244&context=etd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724053013/http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1244&context=etd|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 24, 2010|journal=University of Iowa Research Online|pages=117–118}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/518275083/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+victorian|title=19 Oct 1950, 36 - The Capital Times at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/458035230/?terms=%22josephine+quirk%22+catholic|title=31 Jul 1938, 85 - The San Francisco Examiner at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}

Selected filmography

References

{{Reflist}}

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Category:American women screenwriters

Category:American women film producers

Category:1882 births

Category:Year of death missing

Category:Screenwriters from New York City

Category:Film producers from New York (state)

Category:American people of Irish descent

Category:20th-century American writers

Category:20th-century American women writers

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