Walter Hackett

Walter Laurence Hackett was born in Oakland, California, on November10, 1876. Walter later attended boarding school in Canada, He later attended the University of California, Berkeley. In his young adulthood, Hackett worked in a variety of professions, including careers as a horse trainer, school teacher, journalist, and writer of short stories. By 1895 he was working in Oakland as a horse trainer. He was head of the planning committee for the horse races held at the 1895 Mayday fete of the Fabiola Hospital Association which took place at Oakland Trotting Park as a fund raiser for the hospital. This also included organizing a burro race for which he acquired ten donkeys. He also served as one of the judges for the horse races, and was praised for his work on the front page of The Oakland Times on May13, 1895. The following year he was appointed to the executive committee of the fete. His 1896 voter registration record indicates he was living in the Hackett family home on Jackson Street. He had his first professional experiences in theatre working as a "corner-man" in a minstrel show operated by J. H. Haverly. ==Early writing career in the United States==

Short story writer and journalist Hackett began his writing career as a writer of short stories. His short story "In the Service of the Czar" was published by the Short Story Publishing Company in 1899 under his full name, Walter Laurence Hackett. It was later republished in The Kansas Review on July29, 1904, and was subsequently picked up by other American newspapers. Hackett also worked as a journalist and by 1901 was in Chicago working as the city editor for the Chicago American. and succeeded A. P. Dunlap as lead drama critic and editor in 1903. He was present at the First inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, and his reporting on that event appeared as a special dispatch in newspapers nationally. In 1903, he was listed as a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Auxiliary Committee. Hackett's short ghost story "Bill Bowden, A.B. Sees Things" was published in American and Canadian newspapers in February 1906. This was followed by the short story "Bill Bowden on Hoodoos" the following month. On July29, 1906, several larger papers published his short story "In the Valley of the Shadow", including The Washington Star and the New-York Tribune. These papers also published his short stories "The Governors Decision" (1906), "His Father's Son" (1907), "The Cardinal's Decision" (1907), "The Derelict" (1907), "Winchester and Company" (1907), "The Oasis in the Desert" (1907), "The District Attorney" (1907), "A Life for a Life" (1907), "Sonia" (1908), and "Pardners" (1908). He also contributed work as a journalist to The Washington Star and New-York Tribune. Hackett's short story "The Society Dinner" was published in Broadway Magazine in June 1907. Other short stories written by Hackett that were published in periodicals included "Captain Arthur's Bride" (1907) "Pie" (1907), "The Electric Light Bill" (1907), "Rodman's Ambition" (1907), "The Name She Whispered" (1907), "In Deep Waters" (1908), "Mr Garfield's Matrimonial Experiment" (1908), "Miss Lowell's Lover" (1908), "The Theft of the Dudley Diamonds" (1908), "The Wheel of Fortune" (1909), "The Gazebrook Necklace" (1909), and "Otto Schmalz, Hypnotist" (1909). In addition to working as a writer, Hackett also worked on the business staff of producers Klaw and Erlanger in the first decade of the 20th century. Playwright Early plays starred in Hackett's first plays. Hackett's first stage work, the musical "playlet" ''Jessie's Jack and Jerry'' was given its premiere at Keith's Theatre in Philadelphia on March11, 1901. He co-wrote this work with playwright Francis Livingston, and the production starred Camille D'Arville and Lillian Burkhart. The production toured in 1901–1902, including performances at Chicago's Olympic Theater and Shea's Garden Theatre in Buffalo, New York. Hackett collaborated with Livingston again on a second play, the one-act farce The Way to Win a Husband , which they wrote specifically for Burkhart. Burkhart toured in this play in 1901–1902, including performances in Chicago, In 1902, the actor Emmett Corrigan acquired the rights to Hackett's first full-length play, the three act comedy The Prince of Dreams. It premiered at the Grand Opera House in Freeport, Illinois, on November17, 1902, in a performance by the Player's Stock Company of Chicago. It then transferred to the Bush Temple of Music in Chicago. The production toured the United States, including a stop at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago where it opened in March 1908. In Chicago the play was reworked and re-titled The Regeneration. Daly brought the play to Broadway later in the year but with some cast alterations. It opened at Wallack's Theatre on September1, 1908, to a glowing review in The New York Times which predicted a long run for the play. Hackett co-wrote his next play, The Invader, with Robert Hobart Davis. It was given its premiere in Milwaukee by the Pabst Theatre English Stock Company on May18, 1908, with a cast led by Christine Norman, Janet Beecher, Jack Standing, and Robert Conness. The play was based on the real life events of the Panic of 1907 and the role F. Augustus Heinze played in that financial crises. The play was then staged at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. The Chicago production was with a completely different cast which included the actors Florence Rockwell, Edmund Breese, Thomas A. Wise, Charles H. Riegel, and William B. Mack. Later that year the play was staged at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The White Sister Hackett co-wrote The White Sister with Francis Marion Crawford, a work which Crawford had previously written as first an unperformed play and then as a serialized novel in ''Munsey's Magazine''. The idea for this collaborative project was birthed in 1907 when Hackett visited Crawford at his home in Sorrento, Italy. The play tells the tale of lovers Giovanna and Giovanni who separated by the events of a war. Giovanni is believed to have been killed and Giovanna becomes a nun only to be unexpectedly reunited with him years later while nursing him in a hospital. Crawford then collaborated with Hackett on a new stage adaptation which was the dramatic version that ultimately made it to the stage. and ran on Broadway later that year at Daly's Theatre with Viola Allen as Giovanna and William Farnum as Giovanni. A success, The New York Times later listed The White Sister along with ''It Pay's to Advertise and Captain Applejack as the works for which Hackett was "best known" when he died in 1944. After this he collaborated with dramatist Stanislaus Stange on the play Get Busy With Emily, an English-language adaptation of the 1906French farce Vous n'avez rien à déclarer?'' by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber. Produced by A. H. Woods, it premiered at the Cort Theatre in Chicago on May8, 1910. He next collaborated with Ren Shields in writing the book for the musical The Simple Life which had a score by composer P. D. DeCoster. It premiered on August8, 1910, at the Savoy Theatre in Atlantic City with a cast of 50 led by Charles J. Ross. Hackett sold the rights to a play he wrote entitled C.O.D. to playwright Eugene Walter. and was retitled yet again as Fine Feathers for a production in Chicago. In 1912, Hackett sued Walter for failing to credit him as a co-author of the work. Ultimately the court determined that Walter had sufficiently transformed the work, and could claim to be the sole author of the piece. Hackett's play Our World was given its premiere at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January27, 1911, with Amelia Gardner, Doris Keane, Campbell Gullan, Malcolm Duncan, and Vincent Serrano in the lead roles. It then toured to Broadway's Garrick Theatre where it opened on February6, 1911. The play investigated the theme of heredity with an examination of the daughter of a courtesan, and whether or not she was able to rise above the vices of her mother's tainted past. After this, Hackett was one of many writers who worked on the book for the musical A Certain Party which toured prior to reaching Broadway's Wallack's Theatre on April23, 1911. He then created the play Honest Jim Blunt for the character actor Tim Murphy, but the play had only a short life on the New York stage in 1912. Marriage and plays of 1913 and 1914 '' On September16, 1911, Hackett and the actress Marion Lorne acquired a marriage license in Jersey City, New Jersey, with plans to have a wedding ceremony at a future date. The couple remained married until his death in 1944, and Lorne starred in many of her husband's plays. That play was produced by William A. Brady and George Broadhurst, and ran on Broadway for a short period at Maxine Elliott's Theatre. While The Brooklyn Citizen gave the play a glowing review that described it as "out of the ordinary", The New York Times described the work as "pleasant" and an "optimistic little comedy" but found the work derivative and therefore unlikely to generate much interest. ''Don't Weaken was preceded by another failure for Hackett, the one act play To Die Like a Man. It premiered on Labor Day1913 at the Colonial Theater in Cleveland, Ohio to scathing reviews in the local press. Hackett rebounded however with the hit 1914play It Pays to Advertise'' which he co-authored with Roi Cooper Megrue. It had a lengthy run of more than a year at the George M. Cohan's Theatre, and was notably the longest running play of the 1914–1915 Broadway season. Samuel Field converted the play into a novel which was published in 1915 by Duffield & Company. ==Life in England==

Move to London and 1910s plays In February1914, Hackett and his wife traveled to England on what was supposed to be a belated honeymoon. They ended up staying and lived in London for the next 25years. It opened there one July14, 1914, with a cast led by Allan Aynesworth and Lettice Fairfax. The Times described the work as a "wild burlesque of the detective romance", and, while noting positive response from the audience, its critic stated that the play "may be found amusing by playgoers whose critical sense melts in the July temperatures." American newspapers reported that the play might have been plagiarized off of Charles Hawtrey's Seven Keys to Baldspate which was planned to premiere in the autumn of 1914; however, the Boston Evening Transcript was skeptical of the accusation stating "the similarity is very difficult to discover". Hackett's second play for the London stage, ''He Didn't Want to Do It, premiered at the Prince of Wales Theatre on March6, 1915, with a cast led by Joseph Coyne, Frederick Kerr, and Lydia Bilbrook. Co-written with George Broadhurst It fared better with the critics. The Observer'' stated in its review, "This is the most audacious piece of farcical complication ever attempted. If it had not 'come off' it would have been silly beyond endurance. But it does 'come off'; it goes on coming off until the spectator can bear it no longer." The play notably marked the London stage debut of Hackett's wife who portrayed Marjorie Thompson in the production. Lorne also starred in Hackett's next play, Mr. and Mrs. Ponsonby, which premiered at London's Comedy Theatre in June 1915. The American press noted at the time that Hackett had achieved greater success with London audiences and critics than he had in America. Hackett's next work was the murder mystery play The Barton Mystery which was first performed to success at the Savoy Theatre in London where it opened on March22, 1916. The character of Beverley in the play, portrayed by Harry Brodribb Irving, is a psychic medium who is brought in to investigate a murder. An article in The Theosophist described the play "as being remarkable, if only for the fact it is the first in which psychic research has been introduced seriously on the English stage." While the London production had a respectable run of 165 performances, a 1917 Broadway production at New York's Comedy Theatre closed after just 20 performances. However, the work was successfully staged in a French-language translation at the Théâtre Antoine-Simone Berriau in Paris in 1917, with Firmin Gémier as Beverley. In October 1916, Hackett's play Mr. Jubilee Drax premiered at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He co-wrote the work with Horace Annesley Vachell. Another play in the detective genre, it failed to repeat the success of The Barton Mystery. The Daily Telegraph noted in its critical assessment that "the American trick of presenting past events in action was carried beyond the limits of all reason." Actor Walker Whiteside portrayed the role of the lead detective in production staged in Chicago in 1917. His next work, the revue £150, was also a critical failure. It premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre on April30, 1917. Charles B. Cochran produced the work, and the cast included Daisy Burrell and Alec Clunes. Hackett's next play, The Invisible Foe, fared far better when it premiered at the Savoy Theatre in August 1917. The actress Fay Compton received high praise in the press for her role in this production. It closed in December 1917. In 1918, Hackett's play The Freedom of the Seas was staged at the Royalty Theatre. He wrote the play on commission from Seymour Hicks. 1920s plays and Fay Compton in ''Other Men's Wives'' In 1920, Hackett's play ''Mr. Todd's Experiment'' was staged at the Queen's Theatre. His play ''Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in July 1921 before running on the West End in 1921–1922 at first the Criterion Theatre and later the Savoy Theatre. It was also staged on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 1921 under the name Captain Applejack''. Hackett's ''Other Men's Wives'' (1928) was another play that premiered Theatre Royal, Brighton before moving to the West End in May 1928 where it played first at Wyndham's Theatre followed by further performances at St Martin's Theatre, ultimately closing there in August 1928. His next play, 77 Park Lane, premiered at St Martin's Theatre on October25, 1928, and was later revived in the West End at the Regent Theatre in 1930. Hackett also had two plays premiere at His Majesty's Theatre in the 1920s, The Wicked Earl (1927), and ''Sorry You've Been Troubled'' (1929). 1930s plays On September 29, 1930, Hackett's The Way to Treat a Woman was performed for the inauguration of the newly built Whitehall Theatre near Trafalgar Square after previously having that play's premiere at the Duke of York's Theatre on June11, 1930. Hackett was manager of the Duke of York's Theatre in 1930, He left the Apollo in 1938 when he took over the lease of the Vaudeville Theatre. His tenure at that theatre began with the premiere of his play Toss of a Coin on March17, 1938; a murder mystery in which Hackett's wife Marion portrayed both a mother and her daughter. It was the 22nd of Hackett's plays staged in the West End that Marion starred in. ==Later life in New York==

in the 1957 American television sitcom Sally In 1940, Hackett returned to the United States and settled with his wife in New York City. He died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being ill for a short period of time on January20, 1944. ==Works==

Selected short stories • "In the Service of the Czar" (1899) Selected plays and film adaptations The following is an incomplete list of plays by Walter Hackett. Many of Hackett's plays were adapted into films. Only film adaptations with articles on the English Wikipedia are included in this chart. This is not a complete list of all film adaptations of Hackett's plays. The dashed cells only indicate the absence of coverage of a film adaption of a particular play currently on the English Wikipedia. '' '' '' '' based on Hackett's Captain Applejack ==Notes==