Born in
Savannah, Georgia, Ward Morehouse first worked as a reporter for
The Savannah Press and
The Atlanta Journal. He arrived in New York City in 1919 and wrote for
The New York Tribune, and
The Herald Tribune. In 1926, he began writing the
Broadway After Dark column for the
New York Sun. He remained at the
Sun for 25 years where he was also a drama critic and roving correspondent. When the
Sun stopped publishing in 1950, Morehouse continued writing "Broadway After Dark" until his death, first at the
New York World-Telegram and Sun, then for other papers and the General Features Syndicate. Morehouse, who was best known for his dynamic interviews with theater celebrities, organized his own theater company when he was a teenager. As an adult he wrote three plays:
Miss Quis, which ran for 37 performances at the Henry Miller Theatre in 1937;
Gentlemen of the Press (1928) which ran for 128 performances and was made into a film in 1929; and
U.S. 90, from 1941. In the early 1930s Morehouse worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for the films
Central Park (1932),
Big City Blues (1932) (both starring
Joan Blondell), and
It Happened in New York (1935). In 1932 Morehouse married the New York theatrical producer
Jean Dalrymple. The marriage ended in divorce five years later, as Morehouse was thought to have had numerous infatuations and side relationships with many of his cast members. Morehouse's rather promiscuous behaviour may have also been the primary reason for the lack of longevity in his future marriages. Morehouse was a world traveler who drove across the United States over 23 times and visited 80 foreign countries in search of stories and interviews with such personalities as
Sergeant Alvin York,
Eugene O'Neill,
Christopher Fry,
H. L. Mencken,
"Alfalfa Bill" Murray, and
Shoeless Joe Jackson. Morehouse stayed in so many hotels that he was quoted as saying his
epitaph should read "room service, please." During
World War II, Morehouse traveled on a US Navy destroyer, and went to London and Paris to write columns called "Atlantic After Dark", "London After Dark", and "Paris After Dark". The stories he wrote in 1946, called "Report on America", received an award from the
Society of the Silurians, a prestigious journalism organization. Fond of a good meal and a good drink, his favorite interview location was the
21 Club in New York. The slightly overweight Morehouse was one of several newspapermen who took lunch regularly at
Sardi's. The lunch group, who referred to themselves as "The Cheese Club", included
Walter Winchell. In 1949,
Time magazine referred to Morehouse as "the New York Sun's pudgy, pungent drama critic and columnist." Morehouse was married four times and had two children, a daughter and a son, with Broadway actress Joan Marlowe.
Ward Morehouse III also became a drama critic and writer. Like his father, he tried his hand at playwriting, co-writing a play entitled
If It was Easy. Ward Morehouse died in New York City at the age of 71, and is buried in
Statesboro, Georgia. ==Works==