Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 19, 1876 Benicia, California,U.S. |
| Died | April 3, 1933(aged 56) Los Angeles, California |
| Resting place | Cypress Lawn Memorial Park,Colma, California |
| Occupation | Writer, entrepreneur,con man |
| Years active | 1908–1933 1909–1912 (as playwright) 1931–1933 (in Hollywood) |
| Notable works | One Way Passage 20,000 Years in Sing Sing The Little Giant |
| Relatives | Lansing Bond Mizner,Ella Watson (parents) Addison Mizner(sibling) |
Wilson Mizner(May 19, 1876 – April 3, 1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays areThe Deep Purple,produced in 1910, andThe Greyhound,produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner ofThe Brown Derbyrestaurant in Los Angeles, California, and was part of the failed project of his older brotherAddisonto create a new resort inBoca Raton, Florida.He and Addison are the protagonists ofStephen Sondheim's musicalRoad Show(alternately known asWise Guys,Gold!,andBounce).
Life
[edit]Wilson ( "Bill" ) Mizner was born inBenicia, California,one of eight children, including brothers William, Edgar, Murray,Addison,Henry, and Lansing and sister Mary.[1]SirJoshua Reynoldswas their great-great-uncle. Their father,Lansing Bond Mizner,was namedBenjamin Harrison's Envoy Extraordinary andMinister Plenipotentiaryto the Central American states, and the family moved toGuatemalafor a year, the brothers spending their free time robbing churches, they later claimed.[citation needed]Both brothers made up unverifiable details about their foreign experiences.
In 1897, Addison and Wilson, with brothers William and Edgar, traveled north to theKlondike Gold Rushin Canada, which he spent bilking miners rather than looking for gold. As he himself told it, Wilson operatedbadger games,managed fighters, robbed a restaurant to get chocolate for his girlfriend "Nellie the Pig" Lamore (saying "Your chocolates or your life!" ),[2]: 25 and grub-staked prospectorSid Grauman,later ofGrauman's Chinese Theatre.[citation needed]He also claimed to have metWyatt Earp,who became a lifelong friend. InSkagway, Alaska,Wilson metJefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith,whom Wilson considered his mentor.[3]
He followed gold seekers toNome, Alaskawhen theNome Gold Rushstarted in 1899. As he told it (there is no confirmation), he was known as the "Prince of Nome", established McQuestion, a saloon/casino, and was appointed deputy sheriff, where his "primary duty" was "to warnEskimosthat they'd have to smell better. "[2]: 25
After leaving Alaska, he claimed to have run abanana plantationin Honduras for a few months, but returned to San Francisco to resume his career as a professional gambler.[2]: 25 Once Addison had established himself in New York, Wilson joined him, and became a New York dilettante, raconteur, andBroadwayplaywright. He married Mary Adelaide Yerkes, widow of industrialistCharles Tyson Yerkes,in 1906. Wilson was penniless (and 29 years old), while his new wife, aged 48,[4]brought between $2 million and $7.5 million to the marriage and a $4 million mansion on Fifth Avenue, as well as several artistic masterpieces by Rembrandt,Van Gogh,and others, that Wilson duplicated, selling the copies as originals. The marriage did not last long, as the publicity generated "numerous" letters from California and Alaska warning the new Mrs. Mizner about her husband's past criminal activities;[2]: 26 their divorce was finalized in May 1907.[5]
He then made his living by gambling on luxury liners between New York and London, until the companies prohibited it.[2]: 26 Wilson then managed the Rand Hotel on West Forty-ninth Street in New York,[6]posting signs that read "Carry out your own dead"[7][8]and "No opium smoking in the elevators."[8]He managed several boxers, fi xing the fights to enhance his gambling revenues. One of his fighters,Stanley Ketchel,the greatest middleweight of his day, was murdered,[2]: 26 and Wilson joked, "Tell 'em to start counting ten over him, and he'll get up."
Wilson's playwriting career was undermined by his laziness and anopiumaddiction that started when he was prescribed painkillers after an assault. He was convicted in 1919 for running a gambling den onLong Island,and received a suspended sentence.[2]: 26 After he was nearly beaten to death – the details are unknown – at Addison's invitation he followed him toPalm Beach, Florida,where Addison and other investors were announcing a new resort,Boca Raton, Florida.[9]: 53 Wilson was secretary and treasurer of the Mizner Development Corporation created in 1925, in effect working for his brother.[2]: 24 Unfortunately Addison's plans were financially unsound and the Corporation was forced intoreceivershipwithin a year, and bankruptcy soon after.
Addison could no longer pay Wilson, so he returned to California. There, he obtained backing fromJack L. WarnerandGloria Swansonand bought into and managed theBrown Derby,and wrote screenplays for some of the earlytalkies.His best known film work is the screenplay for theMichael Curtizfilm20,000 Years in Sing Sing.Wilson called his Hollywood years "a trip through a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat."[10]Several of the brothers' friends from New York, includingMarie DresslerandBen Hecht,helped him in his later escapades.
Wilson Mizner is noted for manybons motssuch as, "Be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet the same people on the way down," "Never give a sucker an even break" (also attributed toW. C. Fields),[11]and "When you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research."[12]When PresidentCalvin Coolidgedied in 1933, Mizner's comment was "How do they know?"[13](Coolidge was known astaciturn.) Mizner has suffered the same fate asDorothy Parker;both are vividly remembered today for their witty repartee rather than for specific literary works.
Irving Berlin(a friend of Addison) wrote a song about Wilson: "Black Sheep Has Come Back to the Fold".[2]: 26 He began but did not complete a musical based on Wilson's life.[citation needed]
Anita LoosandRobert Hopkinsbased the character played byClark Gablein the movieSan Franciscoon Wilson Mizner,[14]whom Loos described as "America's most fascinating outlaw".
BiographerAlva Johnstonwrote:
[Wilson] Mizner had a vast firsthand criminal erudition, which he commercialized as a dramatist on Broadway and a screenwriter in Hollywood. At various times during his life, he had been a miner, confidence man, ballad singer, medical lecturer, man of letters, general utility man in a segregated district, cardsharp, hotel man, songwriter, dealer in imitation masterpieces of art, prizefighters, prizefight manager, Florida promoter, and roulette-wheel fixer. He was an idol of low society and a pet of high. He knew women, as his brother Addison said, from the best homes and houses.
That Wilson was a ballad singer, medical lecturer, "general utility man in a segregated district," songwriter, and a roulette-wheel fixer are all undocumented except in Wilson's own unreliable words.
Warner Bros.
[edit]Around 1931,Warner Bros.head producerDarryl Zanuckhired Mizner to work as a top screenplay writer for the studio's First National films.[15]While at the studio, Mizner had hardly any respect for authority and found it difficult to work with studio Boss Jack Warner.[15]Mizner, however, would indeed become a valuable asset to the studio's films.[15]As time went by, Warner became more tolerant of Mizner and invested in theBrown Derbyrestaurant.[15]
Writings
[edit]Plays
[edit]- The Only Law,1909
- The Deep Purple,1910
- The Greyhound,1911
Stories
[edit]- "The Discord of Harmony",The All-Story Magazine,November 1908
- "Three Saved!",Collier's,December 26, 1908
- The Cock-Eyed World,(1929)
- "You're Dead!",Liberty,May 3, 1930 andArgosy(UK), May 1937 (posthumous reprint)
Filmography
[edit]| Year | Film | Activity (if not main writer) |
|---|---|---|
| 1914 | The Greyhound | from his play |
| 1915 | The Deep Purple(lost) | from his play |
| 1917 | The Law of Compensation | story |
| 1920 | Outlaws of the Deep(short) | scenario |
| 1920 | The Five Dollar Plate(short) | scenario |
| 1920 | The Deep Purple(survival unknown) | from his play |
| 1929 | The Cock-Eyed World | story |
| 1932 | The Dark Horse | |
| 1932 | Winner Take All | adaptation |
| 1932 | One Way Passage | |
| 1932 | Lawyer Man | uncredited |
| 1932 | 20,000 Years in Sing Sing | |
| 1932 | Frisco Jenny | |
| 1933 | Hard to Handle | |
| 1933 | Strictly Personal | story |
| 1933 | The Mind Reader | story |
| 1933 | The Little Giant | original screenplay |
| 1933 | Heroes for Sale | |
| 1934 | Merry Wives of Reno | uncredited |
| 1957 | "One Way Passage" (episode ofLux Video Theatre) | original screenplay |
Notes
[edit]- ^Seebohm 2001 p. 22
- ^abcdefghiVickers, Raymond B. (1994).Panic in Paradise. Florida' Banking Crash of 1926.University of Alabama Press.ISBN0817307230.
- ^Johnson, 1953. p. 84.
- ^Johnson, 1953. p. 104.
- ^MIZNERS DIVORCEDinThe Tacoma Times;published May 18, 1907; viaChronicling America
- ^Fadiman, Clifton (October 31, 2009).The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes.Little, Brown.ISBN9780316084727.
- ^Collins, Paul (April 24, 2012).The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars.Crown.ISBN9780307592217.
- ^abPietrusza, David (September 13, 2011).Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series.Basic Books.ISBN9780465029396.
- ^Silvin, Richard René (2014).Villa Mizner: The House that Changed Palm Beach.Star Group Books.ISBN978-1884886744.
- ^Bubil, Harold (January 27, 2008)."Architect Addison Mizner: Villain or visionary?".Sarasota Herald Tribune.RetrievedJanuary 2,2018.
- ^Benicia Historical Society (May 19, 2014)."The Mizners. A Very Interesting Family".RetrievedJanuary 4,2018.
- ^Johnson, 1953. p. 66.
- ^Tully, Jim (July 1938). "California Playboy".Esquire.
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|url=(help) - ^David Thomson,"Have You Seen...?",Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008,ISBN978-0-307-26461-9,p.751
- ^abcdThomas (1990), pp. 89–92.
- ^"Wilson Mizner – IMDb".IMDb.RetrievedJune 9,2016.
References
[edit]
- John Burke,Rogue's Progress,New York, 1975,ISBN0-399-11423-8
- Alva Johnston,The Legendary Mizners,Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953. (Reissued in paperback 2003,ISBN978-0-374-51928-5)
- Stuart B. McIver,Dreamers, Schemers and Scalawags,Pineapple Press, Florida, 1994.ISBN978-1-56164-155-0
- Caroline Seebohm,Boca Rococo,Clarkson Potter, New York, 2001.ISBN0-609-60515-1
- Edward Dean Sullivan,The Fabulous Wilson Mizner,The Henkle Company, New York, 1935.
Further reading
[edit]- School for Scoundrels (2002)."Wilson Mizner".Archived fromthe originalon March 18, 2008.RetrievedOctober 15,2018.
External links
[edit]- Wilson MizneratIMDb
- School for Scoundrels:includes a lengthy biography of Mizner, paying special attention to his more unsavory activities.
- Les Miz Brothers:another lengthy biography of Wilson and his brother Addison, including source material used forBounce.
- Wilson Miznerat Virtual History
