Edwin Justus Mayer
Edwin Justus Mayer ( born November 8, 1896 in New York; † September 11, 1960 ) was an American screenwriter and comedy specialist.
The Early Years
The descendant of Czech immigrants - Father Paul Mayer came from Carlsbad - started to work after graduating from school, in the office, before turning to the writing activity. Initially he worked as a newspaper reporter. Until mid- July 1924 held by the end of March, Mayer in Europe, where he toured a number of countries and also walked in the footsteps of his ancestors in Germany and Austria. Back in New York, Mayer began writing stage plays, which should be later performed on Broadway: The Firebrand (1924, filmed ten years later as The Affairs of Cellini ), Children of Darkness (1930 and 1958 ), The Firebrand of Florence (1945, musical with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin after Mayer's piece from 1924 ) and The Last Love of Don Juan ( 1955).
In the film
In the late 1920s he made first contacts to Hollywood, as the producer Samuel Goldwyn signed him as his press representative. Still silent film era, was allowed Mayer incidentally movie title (like on The Devil Dancer and Our Blushing Brides ) write, and later the dialogues. Just before the dawn of the talkie era, he was allowed to try for the first time as a screenwriter. Mayer's specialty was the feather-light comedy, the playful comedy and the elegant romance. In these genres, he brought it to Championship in conjunction with Ernst Lubitsch, for which he 's manuscripts into beads fortunately ( created under Lubitsch's catenary ), To Be or Not and wrote scandal at court.
In Mitchell Leisen's turbulent sophisticated comedy Midnight - unveiling at midnight, a masterpiece of the genre, he participated in 1938 at the Story template. In the same year he was also one of the many remaining anonymous authors who cooperated in the film classic Gone with the Wind. Most cooperated Mayer, a dialogue specialist, in the preparation of his manuscripts with colleagues.
His son was the film producer and screenwriter Paul Avila Mayer and his granddaughter is the director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.