Frank Fenton (writer)
Encyclopedia
Frank Edgington Fenton was an English-born but American-bred writer of screenplays, short stories, magazine articles, and novels. He was the brother of noted actor and director Leslie Fenton
.
, which they soon sold to Warner Bros. Studios on the strength of the latter’s exaggerated resume. Within five years, Fenton’s partner would write the classic novel, Ask the Dust, but at the time he was just another fledgling screenwriter and novelist. In 1935, Fenton began working with another friend with writing ambitions. Lynn Root, an acting protégé of Antoinette Perry
, had four Broadway roles under his belt, and the two chose to collaborate on a play of their own.
“Stork Mad” premiered at Broadway’s Ambassador Theater on September 30, 1936. The show, which starred the comically taciturn Percy Kilbride
, met with tepid reviews and closed after five performances. The two wrote one other play, “It’s a Cinch,” which remained un-produced. But the ever-resilient pair reworked “Stork Mad” and shopped it to Twentieth Century-Fox, who bought it as a vehicle for child-star Jane Withers.
Following their initial success on juvenile scripts for Withers and others, the two expanded into screwball comedy (Woman Chases Man, Keep Smiling), intrigue (International Settlement and While New York Sleeps) and happy hokum (Down on the Farm). They also provided two scripts for both the Saint (The Saint in London and The Saint Takes Over) and Falcon (The Gay Falcon and A Date with the Falcon) series pictures. Both series starred George Sanders
.
From 1937 to 1946, Fenton and Root partnered on twenty-one film projects for Twentieth Century-Fox, Goldwyn, RKO and MGM.
In 1938, Fenton branched out into magazine writing, penning a total of nine short stories for Collier's in just over a two-year period (see "Short Stories" in "Selected Bibliography" below). He also wrote what many consider to be a classic (and satirically biting) look at the way "original stories" and screenplays were produced in Hollywood in an article for The American Mercury. During these years, Fenton could be found in one of three primary places: behind his typewriter, out on the town with his writer friends (often in the back room of Musso & Frank's restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard), or on a golf course.
to positive reaction on both coasts. This from The New York Times:
Out west, the Los Angeles Times critic had this to say:
Over the next few years, others continued to champion the novel. San Francisco book critic Joseph Henry Jackson included a chapter from the novel in Continent’s End, his 1944 anthology of California writing. In 1946, Carey McWilliams
, one of the most prolific, talented and influential of all western writers of non-fiction, placed Fenton’s novel in high company in his remarkable (and still in print) Southern California Country: An Island on the Land:
Fenton’s second novel, titled What Way My Journey Lies, arrived in late April, 1946 to similar acclaim. It's the story of a war-weary WWII veteran returning home to a life filled with changing worldviews and difficult choices. Again, The Los Angeles Times:
More recently, historian Kevin Starr
used Fenton’s “tightly written, highly philosophical second novel” as a good example of the challenges faced by returning WWII veterans in Embattled Dreams, the sixth volume in his Americans and the California Dream series.
But despite the positive reaction to his work, Fenton didn’t write another novel, returning instead to the frustrating but lucrative world of screenwriting. The remainder of his print work may be summed up as follows: one short story in each of two early ‘50s science fiction anthologies, two magazine articles and an introduction to a quiz book.
section of Los Angeles, just down the street from his home golf links, The California Country Club.
On the studio front, he'd graduated to "A" pictures by the mid 1940s, and was now writing bigger scripts with longer development periods for the likes of James Stewart
& Spencer Tracy
(Malaya), Robert Mitchum
(His Kind of Woman), Stewart Granger
(The Wild North), Robert Taylor
(Ride, Vaquero!), William Holden
(Escape From Fort Bravo), Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe
& Rory Calhoun
(River of No Return), Gary Cooper
& Richard Widmark
(Garden of Evil), Tyrone Power
& Susan Hayward
(Untamed), James Cagney
& Barbara Stanwyck
(These Wilder Years) and John Wayne
(The Wings of Eagles). His final produced screenplay was for the 1959 release, The Jayhawkers, starring Jeff Chandler
and Fess Parker
.
By the end of the decade, however, things had become less steady. Mary Jane Fenton filed for divorce in 1957, and the near-constant shake-ups and re-organizations in the studio world had led to several announced writing projects being put on the back burner or simply being cancelled. Fortunately for Fenton, the early 1960s brought him steady work in the voracious television market, where he successfully adapted some of his unproduced screenplays for the small screen programs Kraft Mystery Theater and Kraft Suspense Theater. Another project originally developed by MGM for the big screen, The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones, was instead released in 1966 through their television arm.
After completing several assignments for episodic series dramas (including six for The Virginian), Fenton's final script — the well-regarded Something for a Lonely Man
— came in collaboration with an old friend: John Fante. The two had last worked together in 1940 (along with Lynn Root on MGM's The Golden Fleecing), but it was clear that much time had passed, and neither was in good health. Fante would eventually lose both his legs and his eyesight to diabetes, and Fenton's fondness for nightlife and the 19th hole (bourbon, rum and gin rocks) had taken a toll as well. Neither man would receive another screen credit in their lifetimes.
On Monday, August 23, 1971, Frank Edgington Fenton died, a week after suffering a stroke.
's character is named Reg Fenton.
In John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill, the final installment of The Saga of Arturo Bandini, the author partially based a character on Fenton, a screenwriter named "Frank Edgington".
He is often confused—in print and online—with film and stage actor Frank Fenton
Moran (April 9, 1906 - July 24, 1957). Even his own obituary had an incorrect age based on the actor's birthdate of 1906.
Leslie Fenton
Leslie Fenton was an English-born American actor and film director. He appeared in 62 films between 1923 and 1945....
.
Working Writer
In the fall of 1934, Fenton co-wrote an original story, “Dinky,” with John FanteJohn Fante
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent. He is perhaps best known for his work, Ask the Dust, a semi-autobiograpical novel about life in and around Los Angeles, California, which was the third in a series of four novels, published between 1938...
, which they soon sold to Warner Bros. Studios on the strength of the latter’s exaggerated resume. Within five years, Fenton’s partner would write the classic novel, Ask the Dust, but at the time he was just another fledgling screenwriter and novelist. In 1935, Fenton began working with another friend with writing ambitions. Lynn Root, an acting protégé of Antoinette Perry
Antoinette Perry
Antoinette Perry was an actress, director and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing. The Tony Awards are her namesake....
, had four Broadway roles under his belt, and the two chose to collaborate on a play of their own.
“Stork Mad” premiered at Broadway’s Ambassador Theater on September 30, 1936. The show, which starred the comically taciturn Percy Kilbride
Percy Kilbride
Percy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...
, met with tepid reviews and closed after five performances. The two wrote one other play, “It’s a Cinch,” which remained un-produced. But the ever-resilient pair reworked “Stork Mad” and shopped it to Twentieth Century-Fox, who bought it as a vehicle for child-star Jane Withers.
Following their initial success on juvenile scripts for Withers and others, the two expanded into screwball comedy (Woman Chases Man, Keep Smiling), intrigue (International Settlement and While New York Sleeps) and happy hokum (Down on the Farm). They also provided two scripts for both the Saint (The Saint in London and The Saint Takes Over) and Falcon (The Gay Falcon and A Date with the Falcon) series pictures. Both series starred George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
.
From 1937 to 1946, Fenton and Root partnered on twenty-one film projects for Twentieth Century-Fox, Goldwyn, RKO and MGM.
In 1938, Fenton branched out into magazine writing, penning a total of nine short stories for Collier's in just over a two-year period (see "Short Stories" in "Selected Bibliography" below). He also wrote what many consider to be a classic (and satirically biting) look at the way "original stories" and screenplays were produced in Hollywood in an article for The American Mercury. During these years, Fenton could be found in one of three primary places: behind his typewriter, out on the town with his writer friends (often in the back room of Musso & Frank's restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard), or on a golf course.
Novelist
On July 29, 1942, Fenton’s debut novel, “A Place in the Sun,” was published by Random HouseRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
to positive reaction on both coasts. This from The New York Times:
“Fenton’s [book] is notable for its sensitive portrayal of a young man who lived with the inferiority of a physical handicap. [He] does a masterly job of balancing the forces which molded the character of Rob Andrews…[and] he succeeds in giving the story the glow of human fulfillment.”
Out west, the Los Angeles Times critic had this to say:
“Rob Andrews is a cripple, but he is also an everyman struggling to find his role in living. But the symbol never obscures the story. This does not follow a pat pattern. It is a strange and powerful tale, with deep tragedy, groping for meaning, and many scenes of lyrical beauty. There’s humor in it too…Mr. Fenton’s narrative is as absorbing as it is meaningful.”
Over the next few years, others continued to champion the novel. San Francisco book critic Joseph Henry Jackson included a chapter from the novel in Continent’s End, his 1944 anthology of California writing. In 1946, Carey McWilliams
Carey McWilliams (journalist)
Carey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...
, one of the most prolific, talented and influential of all western writers of non-fiction, placed Fenton’s novel in high company in his remarkable (and still in print) Southern California Country: An Island on the Land:
"No region in the United States has been more extensively and intensively reported, of recent years, than Southern California...And yet, offhand, I can think of only four novels that suggest what Southern California is really like: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael WestNathanael WestNathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
, Ask the Dust by John Fante, A Place in the Sun by Frank Fenton, and The Boosters by Mark Lee Luther. "
Fenton’s second novel, titled What Way My Journey Lies, arrived in late April, 1946 to similar acclaim. It's the story of a war-weary WWII veteran returning home to a life filled with changing worldviews and difficult choices. Again, The Los Angeles Times:
“Fenton has a deft facility in that most difficult of all the novel’s techniques—the overlaying, underlying and intertwining of the many moods that go to make up life…The dialogue is marvelous, more right than Parker or Hemingway and more human.”
More recently, historian Kevin Starr
Kevin Starr
Kevin Starr is an American historian, best known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "Americans and the California Dream."-Life:Kevin Starr was born in San Francisco, California....
used Fenton’s “tightly written, highly philosophical second novel” as a good example of the challenges faced by returning WWII veterans in Embattled Dreams, the sixth volume in his Americans and the California Dream series.
But despite the positive reaction to his work, Fenton didn’t write another novel, returning instead to the frustrating but lucrative world of screenwriting. The remainder of his print work may be summed up as follows: one short story in each of two early ‘50s science fiction anthologies, two magazine articles and an introduction to a quiz book.
From Film to Television
By 1950, Fenton was divorced from June Martel, had two children (a boy, Mark, and a daughter, Joyce) with his second wife, actress Mary Jane Hodge (whom he'd married on February 10, 1945 in Las Vegas, Nevada) and was living in a two-story rural English home in the Cheviot HillsCheviot Hills
The Cheviot Hills is a range of rolling hills straddling the England–Scotland border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.There is a broad split between the northern and the southern Cheviots...
section of Los Angeles, just down the street from his home golf links, The California Country Club.
On the studio front, he'd graduated to "A" pictures by the mid 1940s, and was now writing bigger scripts with longer development periods for the likes of James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
& Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
(Malaya), Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
(His Kind of Woman), Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
(The Wild North), Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
(Ride, Vaquero!), William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
(Escape From Fort Bravo), Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
& Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun was an American television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
(River of No Return), Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
& Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
(Garden of Evil), Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
& Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
(Untamed), James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
& Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
(These Wilder Years) and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
(The Wings of Eagles). His final produced screenplay was for the 1959 release, The Jayhawkers, starring Jeff Chandler
Jeff Chandler (actor)
Jeff Chandler was an American film actor and singer in the 1950s.-Early life:Chandler was born Ira Grossel to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Anna and Phillip Grossel. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, the alma mater of many stage and film personalities...
and Fess Parker
Fess Parker
Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. was an American film and television actor best known for his portrayals of Davy Crockett in the Walt Disney 1955-56 TV mini-series and as TV's Daniel Boone from 1964-70...
.
By the end of the decade, however, things had become less steady. Mary Jane Fenton filed for divorce in 1957, and the near-constant shake-ups and re-organizations in the studio world had led to several announced writing projects being put on the back burner or simply being cancelled. Fortunately for Fenton, the early 1960s brought him steady work in the voracious television market, where he successfully adapted some of his unproduced screenplays for the small screen programs Kraft Mystery Theater and Kraft Suspense Theater. Another project originally developed by MGM for the big screen, The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones, was instead released in 1966 through their television arm.
After completing several assignments for episodic series dramas (including six for The Virginian), Fenton's final script — the well-regarded Something for a Lonely Man
Something for a Lonely Man
Something for a Lonely Man is a made-for-television western movie. It was first broadcast in 1968; NBC aired it a second time on December 9, 1969.-Plot:...
— came in collaboration with an old friend: John Fante. The two had last worked together in 1940 (along with Lynn Root on MGM's The Golden Fleecing), but it was clear that much time had passed, and neither was in good health. Fante would eventually lose both his legs and his eyesight to diabetes, and Fenton's fondness for nightlife and the 19th hole (bourbon, rum and gin rocks) had taken a toll as well. Neither man would receive another screen credit in their lifetimes.
On Monday, August 23, 1971, Frank Edgington Fenton died, a week after suffering a stroke.
Miscellaneous
In the 1943 film The Sky's the Limit (co-written by Fenton & Root), Robert RyanRobert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...
's character is named Reg Fenton.
In John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill, the final installment of The Saga of Arturo Bandini, the author partially based a character on Fenton, a screenwriter named "Frank Edgington".
He is often confused—in print and online—with film and stage actor Frank Fenton
Frank Fenton
Frank Fenton was an American stage, film and television actor.-Biography:Born Francis Fenton Moran, the Georgetown University-graduate started his career on stage in New York, eventually starring in the Broadway versions of Susan and God with Gertrude Lawrence and as George Kittredge in The...
Moran (April 9, 1906 - July 24, 1957). Even his own obituary had an incorrect age based on the actor's birthdate of 1906.
Novels
- A Place in the Sun (New York: Random House, 1942).
- What Way My Journey Lies (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946).
Anthologized Work
- Continent’s End: A Collection of California Writing edited by Joseph Henry Jackson (New York: Whittlesey House, 1944) Contains: “Breathe In—Breathe Out” (Chapter 11 of A Place in the Sun)
- New Stories of Time and Space edited by Raymond J. Healy (New York: Holt, 1951) Contains: “Tolliver’s Travels” An original short story by Fenton and fellow screenwriter Joseph Petracca.
- 9 Stories of Time and Space edited by Raymond J. Healy (New York: Holt, 1954) Contains: “The Chicken and the Egg-head,” an original short story
Other
- I Knew It All the Time by Raymond J. Healy and John V. Cooper, (New York: Holt, 1953) A hardcover quiz book (74 quizzes/1600 Questions). Fenton wrote the book’s introduction.
Short stories
- “Jitterbug” Collier’s 102:14-15, December 3, 1938
- “Boy Meets Gorilla” Collier’s 102:16-18, December 31, 1938
- “Interrupted Honeymoon” Collier’s 104:20-21, September 23, 1939
- “Respectable Woman” Collier’s 104:12-13, October 21, 1939
- “Pie-Eyed Piper of Hollywood” Collier’s 105:21-22, April 13, 1940
- “Beautiful People” Collier’s 105:14, April 20, 1940
- “Flying Dutchman” Collier’s 106:9-10, October 20, 1940
- “High Cost of Love” Collier’s 106:14-15, November 2, 1940
- “Actor in the Family” Collier’s 107:16, January 18, 1941
Magazine Articles
- “Hollywood Literary Life” American Mercury 45:280-86 (November 1938)
- “Hollywood’s Message” Nation 179:424 (November 13, 1954)
- “Why is it All So Lousy?” Esquire 59:46, 48, 50 (February 1963)
Further reading
- Continent's End, Edited by Joseph Henry Jackson (New York: Whittlesey House, 1944)
- Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante by Dr. Stephen Cooper, Revised Edition, (Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2000, 2005)
- Southern California Country by Carey McWilliams (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946)
- The Dream Endures by Kevin Starr, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)
- Embattled Dreams by Kevin Starr, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
- Dreams of Bunker Hill by John Fante (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1982)