The Mary H. O’Connor Collection, 1908-1940, primarily consists of programs, flyers, leaflets and other promotional material produced by the Writers, a social club organized by the Screen Writers’ Guild during the 1920s and 1930s. The collection also contains some business records of the Club, including financial statements, receipts, property records, and stockholder documents. Lastly the collection contains some personal Papers of Mary O’Connor including some correspondence.

Mary Hamilton O’Connor was a silent film scenario writer who was a founding board member of the Screen Writers’ Guild in 1920 and its social club The Writers. Born on September 1, 1872 in St. Paul Minnesota, she was one of seven children born to Thomas J. and Bridget Nash O’Connor. Her father was a businessman and her mother was a writer. The O’Connor family moved from St. Paul to Portland, Oregon and later settled in Santa Cruz, CA. Mary moved to Los Angeles and worked on films from 1913-1921, along with her sister Loyola who was an actress in silent films during this time. Mary was employed in the story departments of Vitagraph, Majestic-Reliance, Fine Arts and finally Famous Players-Lasky, including its London division under Jesse Lasky. Her writing credits include title cards for D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance, although she is uncredited on screen. She was active in the early Screen Writers’ Guild and its social club, The Writers, during the 1920s-1930s. She died in 1959 in Los Angeles.

0.21 linear feet

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