Mary Alice Scully

{{short description|American screenwriter}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Alice Scully

| image = Mary Alice Scully - Aug 1925 EH.jpg

| caption = 1925 advertisement

| birth_name =

| birth_date = October 26, 1902

| birth_place = Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

| death_date = July 1, 1978 (aged 75)

| death_place = San Diego, California, USA

| occupation = Screenwriter

| spouse = Pierre Gendron (1928-1956)

}}

Mary Alice Scully (1902-1978) was an American screenwriter active during the 1920s.

Biography

Mary Alice was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Phillip Scully and Mary Ahearn. She attended Ten-Acre School and Dana Hall before going off to Wellesley; she left without a degree in order to take care of her sick mother.

The pair headed west to California for her mother's health, where Mary Alice studied shorthand, won typing awards, opened a public stenographer service, served as secretary to Christine Wetherill Stevenson, and eventually gained work at a film studio.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/158777724/?terms=%22mary+alice+scully%22|title=Sugar and Spice|last=|first=|date=12 Jul 1925|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-01-09}}

Eventually she got the chance to work on her own screenplays and adaptations; by 1925, she had sold four scripts to First National and six more to other studios.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380257394/?terms=%22mary+alice+scully%22|title=Authoress Arrives by Hard Study|last=|first=|date=7 Jun 1925|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-01-09}} She formed a collaboration with Arthur F. Statter, secretary of the Screen Writers Guild.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380521979/?terms=%22mary+alice+scully%22|title=Partners at Work on New Scenario|last=|first=|date=17 Jul 1924|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-01-09}}

In 1928, she married actor and screenwriter Pierre Gendron in Riverside, California.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/383074320/?terms=%22mary+alice+scully%22|title=Screen Writer Weds Broker|last=|first=|date=30 Sep 1928|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-01-09}} The pair had two children, Peter and Diane. She seems to have retired from filmmaking at this point.

Filmography

References