Born
Homer DeWitt Bodeen on July 25, 1908, in
Fresno,
California, He published his first book-length contribution to entertainment history in 1937,
Ladies of the Footlights, a slim volume of theater celebrity profiles. In the late 1930s, he began working for RKO and worked his way up to a script writer. His screenwriting credits include
Cat People (1942),
The Curse of the Cat People (1944),
The Enchanted Cottage (1945),
I Remember Mama (1948),
Night Song (1948), and
Billy Budd (1962). His play
Harvest of Years premiered on Broadway in January 1948. It ran for two weeks. Beginning in the 1950s he moved to television, writing mainly for anthology shows including
Robert Montgomery Presents,
Climax!, and
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars among others. Bodeen was gay. In the 1950s he was
Val Dufour's companion, living with him. In his later years he became a historian of Hollywood and the film industry. He wrote articles for the journal
Films in Review and
Focus on Film. His books included
The Films of Cecil B. DeMille (1969),
The Films and Career of Maurice Chevalier (1973), He was still writing in 1979 at the age of 70, when he lived at the
Motion Picture Country Home in
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He died there on March 12, 1988. ==Notes==