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Edna Ferber

Born: August 15, 1885 in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Died: April 16, 1968 in New York City, New York
 
Daughter of Jacob Charles Ferber, an emigrated storekeeper from Hungary, and Julia Newmann, daughter of an affluent Chicago family. After moving to Ottumwa, Iowa, a rude, anti-Semitist town, her family relocated to Appleton, Wisconsin, a liberal town with a Jewish mayor and progressive schooling, at the age of twelve. From a young age, Ferber was interested in theatre and dramatic arts. She would play with a toy theatre crafted by her grandfather during dinner, as well as write, direct, perform, and stage her own works ("Edna Jessica Ferber"). At the age of seventeen, the editor of the Appleton Daily Crescent offered her a job of reporting for three dollars a week. Even though Ferber wished to study elocution (Elocution is the study of how to speak clearly. At that time, it was meant for a career on the stage), her family could not afford to send her to Northwestern University, requiring her to remain working for the Appleton Daily Crescent until she was let go. She, then, declared that was “acquiring the skills of observation and characterization that would be of value to her later career” ("Edna Jessica Ferber"). She then moved on to working for the Milwaukee Journal, producing police-court news until 1905, after she fell ill with anemia ("Edna Jessica Ferber").
 
Throughout Ferber’s literary career, she constantly brought various causes to light. As a young, Jewish woman, Ferber became notorious for presenting the reality of American culture and society, no matter the repercussions. Ferber stood up for what she believed to be right; campaigning for Franklin Delanor Roosevelt’s presidential election and writing to the New York Times attacking her congresswoman, Clare Boothe Luce, saying that she supported Hitler and the Nazi regime (Shafer 80). Expressing Jewish pride, dissolving racism, and revamping the educational system encompassed her ideas of changing America; however, creating characters embodying these ideals was a rare occurrence (Shapiro). Instead, she focused on ordinary Americans based out of the heart of it all: The Midwest (Shapiro). While many of her characters originated from the Midwest, they also held a quality of strong characteristics. She was regularly writing about the arbitrary treatment of those of different race, religion, or gender, and she ultimately created characters due to her “thorough knowledge of the background, an emphasis on characterization rather than plot, a tendency to present strong women and weak me, and an ability to excite the emotions of her readers without offending them” ("Edna Jessica Ferber").

Based off of the Rehearsal Club in on West 45th Street in New York, Kaufman and Ferber decided to create a work about the theatre life at the time. Ferber went undercover, taking a tour and a two hour interview with the manager claiming that she was interested in a room for her niece (Shafer 95). According to the manager, Ferber was looking for every factual and atmospheric detail to make Stage Door as realistic as possible (Shafer 95). Even though the play reached high praise, critics thought that it was not at the same level as their previous works, Dinner at Eight and The Royal Family​ specifically.

Ferber passed away on April 16, 1968 in New York City; however she lives on as a prominent Jewish feminist of 1930s America.

George S. Kaufman

Born: November 16, 1889 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died: June 2, 1961 in New York, New York
 
Son of less affluent parents Joseph Kaufman, a commonly discharged worker, and Henrietta Myers. Kaufman attended public schools, graduating from Pittsburg Central High with the class of 1907. Throughout many years of his life, he performed with a student group, through the help of his rabbi, leaving him in awe of the stage (“George S. Kaufman”). He went off to Western University of Pennsylvania, now called the University of Pittsburgh, studying law. This brief stint ended when he realized that his heart lay in the theatre. With financial aspects in mind, Kaufman took up many jobs, ultimately landing him at the Evening Mail in New York (“George S. Kaufman”). In 1912, Kaufman moved to the Washington Times, until his publisher realized Kaufman was a Jew at their first meeting in late 1913. Throughout the next fifteen years or so, Kaufman moved from newspaper to newspaper, ending in August 1930. By this point in his life, his playwriting career had already taken off, making him one of the most popular Broadway playwrights (“George S(imon) Kaufman”). While still jumping from publication to publication, Kaufman joined the Alveine School of Dramatic Art in New York City, while taking classes in playwriting and modern drama at Columbia.
 
In March 1917, Kaufman married Beatrice Bakrow. A little over a year later, Beatrice gave birth to a stillborn child, causing them to create other romantic attachments; however, they never proposing divorce (“George S. Kaufman”). They adopted a baby girl in 1925.
 
Kaufman was a writer set on collaborating. Throughout his years of writing, the only influential noncollaborative work was a satirical comedy called The Butter and Egg Man in 1925 (“George S. Kaufman”). His initial partnership was with a young theatrical journalist, Marc Connelly (“George S. Kaufman”). After Kaufman noticed that Connelly’s attentiveness to their work was fading away, he met with Edna Ferber. Together they wrote six plays with The Royal Family (1927), Dinner at Eight (1932), and Stage Door (1936) being their most highly acclaimed works (Freedley). Together their wit and critical ideas towards dynastic families allowed for the creation of compelling plots and characters. Kaufman would often work by demonstrating ideas, lines, and entire scenes by acting them out and working on his feet (Freedley). While he continued to write, in 1928, after Kaufman was asked to direct The Front Page by Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur, he directed numerous other playwrights work, as well as a majority of his own.
 
In 1936, the same year Stage Door premiered, Kaufman’s longtime affair with Hollywood actress Mary Astor was leaked to the press (“George S. Kaufman”). Even though this was a large blow, his career and marriage to Beatrice Bakrow was not affected. Beatrice died in August 1945. Three years later, on May 26, 1949, Kaufman married an English actress, Leueen MacGrath, who he divorced eight years later. Shortly after his divorce, Kaufman directed the musical production of Guys and Dolls (“George S. Kaufman”). While is did not affect his urge to work, a series of debilitating illnesses lessened his strength (“George S. Kaufman”). Kaufman continued to work with multiple collaborators until his death in 1961 in New York City.