Name Anne Caldwell Books Slug Language Children Pat O'Day, Molly O'Day | Spouse James O'Dea (m. ?–1914) Role Playwright | |
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Died October 22, 1936, Beverly Hills, California, United States Movies Flying Down to Rio, Marry Me Similar People Jerome Kern, Ivan Caryll, Vincent Youmans, Thornton Freeland, James Cruze | ||
Anne Caldwell (née Anne Payson Caldwell; 30 August 1868 – 22 October 1936), also known as Anne Caldwell O'Dea, was a prolific playwright and lyricist. She wrote both pop songs and Broadway shows, sometimes working with composer Jerome Kern.
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Biography
Anne Caldwell was born Anne Marsh Caldwell in Boston, Massachusetts.
She began her career at the Juvenile Opera Co. as one of only four female songwriters active in the early 1900s. She was a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers where her output between 1907 through 1928 focused mainly on Broadway scores. In 1929, lured by producer William LeBaron, she went to Hollywood where she became a script doctor and write lyrics for RKO Pictures. It was announced that she was engaged by Max Hart to write songs with Harry Tierny. By October she was signed to write the lyrics for the film Dixiana.
From 1900 to the mid 1920s, she mostly collaborated with composer Jerome Kern. Her first collaboration with Kern was the musical, She’s a Good Fellow, followed by The Night Boat (1920), and Sally (1920). The Night Boat was one of Caldwell and Kern’s more successful shows but is generally not considered revivable today. The plots and comedy of their shows don’t satisfy contemporary audiences. Her final credited work was a radio adaptation of the 1933 film (on which she had also worked) Flying Down to Rio.
Until the careers of Caldwell, along with Rida Johnson Young and Dorothy Donnelly, writing American musical comedy was a male profession. They helped established the idea that a female writer could create works for the stage that were equally as satirical, witty, timely, and simply as comical as the work of any man.
Caldwell married William L. Vinal (1855–1897) on August 2, 1885, in Manhattan, New York. They had daughter, Marianna Sarah Vinal, aka Molly (1886–1950). William Vinal was killed on March 4, 1897, in a gas explosion in Boston on the Tremont Street Subway at the Boylston station.
She remarried lyricist James J. O'Dea (1870–1914) on August 15, 1904, in Brooklyn.
She died in Beverly Hills, California after a short illness. Her son Anthony Patrick O'Day (1900–1961) and daughter Molly O'Day (née Marianna Sarah Vinal; 1886–1950) were with her.
Legacy
Upon her passing, Variety called her "one of the most prolific librettists known to show business. A quiet, unassuming woman she developed a technique that rarely failed and was both book writer and lyricist." She was inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Shows
Caldwell wrote lyrics and/or dialogue for dozens of Broadway shows: