Sally Benson
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss
Junior Miss
Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in The New Yorker, some under her pseudonym of Esther Evarts...
and Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904...
.
Early life and career
Benson, the daughter of Alonzo Redway and Anna Prophater Smith, moved with her family from St. Louis to New York, where she attended the Horace Mann School, studied dance and then started working when she was 17 years old. At age 19, she married Reynolds Benson. The couple had a daughter and later divorced.She began her career writing weekly interview articles and film reviews for the New York Morning Telegraph. Between 1929 and 1941, she published 99 stories in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, including nine signed with her pseudonym Esther Evarts.
Her stories "The Overcoat" and "Suite 2049" were selected as O. Henry prize stories for 1935 and 1936. Her collection, People are Fascinating (Covici Friede,1936) includes almost all the stories Benson had then published in The New Yorker, plus four from American Mercury. She followed with another collection, Emily (Covici Friede, 1938). Stories of the Gods and Heroes (Dial Press, 1940) was juvenile fiction adapted from Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well educated Bostonian merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C....
's Age of Fable. Women and Children First was a collection published by Random House in 1943.
Junior Miss
Junior Miss was published by Doubleday in 1941. This collection of her stories from The New Yorker, was adapted by Jerome ChodorovJerome Chodorov
Jerome Chodorov was an American playwright and librettist.-Biography:He was born in New York City, and entered journalism in the 1930s. He is best known for his 1940 play My Sister Eileen, its 1942 screen adaptation, and the musical Wonderful Town, which based on his play. Joseph A. Fields was...
and Joseph Fields
Joseph Fields
Joseph Albert Fields was an American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Life and career:Fields was born in New York City, the son of vaudevillean Lew Fields...
into a successful play that same year. Directed by Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
, Junior Miss ran on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. In 1945, the play was adapted to the film Junior Miss
Junior Miss (film)
Junior Miss is a 1945 American comedy film starring Peggy Ann Garner as a teenager who meddles in people's love lives.Junior Miss was published by Doubleday in 1941. This collection of Sally Benson's stories from The New Yorker, was adapted by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields into a successful...
with George Seaton
George Seaton
George Seaton was an American screenwriter, playwright, film director and producer, and theatre director.Born George Stenius in South Bend, Indiana, Seaton moved to Detroit after graduating from college to work as an actor on radio station WXYZ. John L...
directing Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
in the lead role. The Junior Miss radio series, starring Barbara Whiting
Barbara Whiting Smith
Barbara Whiting Smith was an actress in movies and on radio and television, primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Background:...
, was broadcast weekly on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1949.
Meet Me in St. Louis
MGM's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was one of the most popular movies made during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The stories in Sally Benson's book, Meet Me in St. Louis, were first written as short vignettes in a series, 5135 Kensington, which The New Yorker published from June 14, 1941 to May 23, 1942. Benson took her original eight vignettes and added four more stories for a book compilation with each chapter representing a month of a year (from 1903 to 1904). When the book was published by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
as Meet Me in St. Louis in 1942, it was titled after the MGM film, then in the very early stages of scripting. At MGM, Benson wrote an early draft of the screenplay, but it was not used.
Screenplays
Her other screen work includes Shadow of a DoubtShadow of a Doubt
Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell...
(1943) for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, Come to the Stable
Come to the Stable
Come to the Stable is a 1949 American film which tells the story of two French nuns who come to a small New England town and involve the townsfolk in helping them to build a children's hospital...
(1949), Summer Magic
Summer Magic
Summer Magic is a 1963 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, and Dorothy McGuire in a story about a Boston widow and her children taking up residence in a small town in Maine. The film was based on the book "Mother Carey's Chickens" by Kate Douglas Wiggin and was...
(1963), aViva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas is a 1964 American romantic musical movie starring music icon Elvis Presley and actress/dancer Ann-Margret. This movie is regarded by many fans of these actors and by film critics as one of Presley's best movies, and it is noted for the apparent on-screen chemistry between Presley...
(1964) and The Singing Nun
The Singing Nun (film)
The Singing Nun is a 1966 American semi-biographical film about the life of Jeanine Deckers, a nun who recorded the chart-topping hit song "Dominique". It starred Debbie Reynolds in the title role. It was Henry Koster's final directing job....
(1966). Her screenplay for Anna and the King of Siam (1946) was nominated for an Academy Award.
Her work for television includes episodes of Bus Stop (1961).
Although she has been nominated a number of times, she is not included on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
She died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, aged 74.