The origins of media storytelling
in the 1920s and 1930s
“…it is very interesting but most exasperating, as you have to write every scene over and over again, and at the fifth time it is no better than the first…“
– Hugh Walpole, British writer in Hollywood, 1934
Elinor Glyn
Frame from the lost film of Elinor Glyn's novel Man and Maid (Victor Schertzinger 1925)
Early attempts
Early attempts at co-operation between media companies and publishers particularly in the sale of broadcast rights, film options and in the timing and release of book, film and radio tie-ins were made in the 1920s and 1930s.
Storylines originally published novels or short stories are retold some daring authors in films, and the characters’ own stories extended though complementary media.
More Authors
Who were the British authors, involved in films in the 1920s and 1930s? Some had films made of their work, others went to Hollywood to learn scriptwriting and adaptation.
Popular and prolific novelists in their day they sought to monetise their publishing success with film options.
Both Clemence Dane and A.E.W. Mason had been actors in their youth and had written play adaptations of their own work.
Hugh Walpole and Clemence Dane were both active in promoting reading through The Book Society, and Dane was chairwoman of The Society of Women Journalists for a time.
G.B. Stern, Clemence Dane and Hugh Walpole went to Hollywood in the early 1930s to work for the studios. Stern and Dane were both there on March 10, 1933 when the Long Beach earthquake struck.
There are biographies of Hugh Walpole and A.E.W. Mason, but none of Clemence Dane or G.B. Stern.
