Willard Mack — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Willard Mack, one of America’s best known actors and playwrights, did not know he could write until the job was forced upon him. Since that time he has written more than twenty well-known stage plays and hundreds of vaudeville sketches.

Mr. Mack’s real name is Charles McLaughlin and his close friends call him Bill He was born in Morrisburg, Ontario, June 18, 1877. His parents moved to Brooklyn when he was five, and two years later settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He went to school there, and graduated from Georgetown University. Washington, D. C, in the class of 1899.

His first stage work was done while in college. John and Lionel Barrymore were also students there at the time and all played together in the Georgetown Dramatic Club.

In the fall of 1899, following his graduation, Mr. Mack, armed with a letter from his father to William A, Brady, called on the latter. Mr. Brady asked the young man what experience he had had and was told he had none. The noted producer had just begun to express his regrets when James J. Corbett, then world’s heavyweight boxing champion, walked in. Introduction followed. The handsome “Pompadour Jim” told Mr. Brady, who was starring him in a play called The Naval Cadet, that he wanted a villain for his boxing scene, which came in the last act.

Mr. Mack declared his willingness to take a chance and as a result he played two years with Corbett in this role.

At the termination of his second year with Corbett, the young actor spent a year playing Shakespearian repertoire with Thomas W. Keene.

The following year he wrote his first play, “The Next Witness.”

While visiting his parents in Northwest Alberta, he wrote “In Wyoming.” This play, a story of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, was a success. Since that time he has added a score of successes, including the following: “The World and the Woman,” “Scandal Alley,” “Men of Steel,” “God’s Country.” “So Much For So Much,” “Miracle Mary,” “Kick In,” “King, Queen, Jack,” “Broadway and Buttermilk,” “Too Many Husbands,” “Blind Youth,” “Breakfast in Bed,” “Tiger Rose,” “The Big Chance,” “Near Santa Barbara,” “Smooth as Silk,” “Let Me Explain,” “Her Market Value,” “Red Bulldogs.”

He has collaborated in a dozen plays besides adapting several novels for the stage.

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After first writing the story, Willard Mack collaborates with the director in producing it.

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)