Theatre Register

Ben Hecht

Shows · Ben Hecht

Book Writer 1894–1964

Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films, including six Academy Award nominations and two wins. After graduating from high school in 1910, Hecht ran away to Chicago, where, in his own words, he "haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls, and bookshops." In the 1910s and 19…

Also credited on2 works

Jumbo
Hazel Flagg

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • The news here is good. We have had much success in your absence. Felicia [Montealegre] has a lead role in Swan Song , the Ben Hecht–C. MacArthur affair and seems to be doing well in it considering she's a nervophysical wreck and can't swallow food any more, what with 3 days notice on her role. But H[elen] Hayes came up to her dressing roo…ebooks/Bernstein, Leonard/Leonard Bernstein Letters, The - Leonard Bernstein.txt
  • 60 During the summer of 1946, Felicia performed in the Broadway production of Swan Song by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht at the Booth Theatre.ebooks/Bernstein, Leonard/Leonard Bernstein Letters, The - Leonard Bernstein.txt
  • Based on a story by James Street and the 1937 film Nothing Sacred (screenplay by Ben Hecht and direction by William Wellman).ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1932 show-business farce, Twentieth Century (which they had based on a play by Bruce Millholland) was turned into a musical that was not so much backstage as on track, since most of the action takes place aboard the Twentieth Century Limited (in a stunning art-deco set by Robin Wagner) as it speeds from C…ebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • CHARLES MAC ARTHUR and Ben Hecht cowrote several hit plays, including The Front Page . One of their few flops was Ladies and Gentlemen , in 1939, starring MacArthur’s wife Helen Hayes. Screenwriter Anita Loos, a close friend of Hayes, later explained, “A certain critic of homosexual persuasion took strong exception to the play and to Hele…ebooks/Hadleigh, Boze/Broadway Babylon - Boze Hadleigh.txt
  • Fun to be Free (pageant, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Moss Hart), New York, Madison Square Garden, 5 October 1941; sponsored by Fight for Freedom, Inc.ebooks/Hinton, Stephen/Weill's Musical Theater_ Stages of Reform - Stephen Hinton.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — book writer — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.