Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner ( born May 19, 1876 in Benicia, † April 3, 1933 in Los Angeles ) was an American playwright, storyteller and entrepreneur. His best-known pieces are The Deep Purple and The Greyhound. He was Managing Director and co-owner of the restaurant The Brown Derby in Los Angeles. Together with his brother Addison Mizner, he was embroiled in a series of scams and picaresque misadventures that inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical Road Show.
Life
Wilson "Bill" Mizner was one of eight children. Joshua Reynolds was her great-great uncle. Their father, Lansing Bond Mizner (1825-1893), was Benjamin Harrison's diplomatic envoy to Central America, which is why the family moved to Guatemala. Followed Wilson in 1897 with three of his brothers the Klondike Gold Rush, where he became friends with Wyatt Earp. Skagway he learned Soapy Smith, whom he regarded as his mentor.
Wilson moved to New York, where he was married a short time with the much older widow of industrialist Charles Tyson Yerkes.
In Florida, Mizner brothers were involved in a real estate scandal that T. Coleman du Pont revealed.
Wilson returned to California and began screenplays for the emerging sound films to write.
Works
Pieces
- The Only Law, 1909
- The Deep Purple, 1910
- The Greyhound, 1912
Stories
- The Discord of Harmony, The All- Story Magazine, November 1908
- The Cock - Eyed World ( 1929)
- You're Dead! , Argosy (UK) May 1937th ( reprint )