George Terwilliger (born George Walter Terwilliger, February 27, 1882
â€" December 12, 1970) was an American film director, screenwriter,
and journalist. He worked in both the silent and sound eras, directing
at least 76 productions between 1912 and 1936. He also wrote scores of
screenplays for films released between 1910 and 1939. In 1912 alone,
he was contracted by Lubin film studio to write one story a week for
the company.Born in Manhattan in 1882, George Terwilliger was the
middle child of three children of James G. and Catherine A. (née
Graves) Terwilliger. By 1900 his father, who worked as a clerk for the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, had moved the family to the township
of Linden in that state. Young George received a relatively modest
education, completing just two years of high school before quitting to
find a job and a career.[a] He was still living at his parents' home
in New Jersey in 1900, but he soon returned to Manhattan, where he was
hired by The New York Dramatic Mirror to work as an editor and writer.
The Mirror, a weekly, provided some traditional news reports but
focused on covering the world of theatre, reviewing stage acts, and
Broadway plays. The newspaper in the first years of the twentieth
century only allotted occasional coverage to the emerging industry of
motion pictures, a relatively small patch of entertainment that The
Mirror and many others in the New York media regarded then as a
passing oddity, a "queer freak", that did not warrant considerable
print.Around 1910, Terwilliger left The Mirror after working there for
nine years to accept a job at The Morning Telegraph, another
long-established New York weekly newspaper. The Telegraph contained
general news and financial reports, although it specialized in
theatrical coverage and horse-racing. Early on, it established too a
department at the paper devoted specifically to covering motion
pictures. Terwilliger spent only a year with The Telegraph, but during
that time he significantly expanded its film department's staff and
operations. He also wrote reviews and film-related features under the
pen name "Gordon Trent". To supplement his limited income as an
employee of newspapers published just once a week, Terwilliger wrote
and edited stories, and sold "scenarios" to Biograph Studios in the
Bronx such as The Lucky Toothache in 1910 and The Battle, directed by
D. W. Griffith and released in 1911.[b]
â€" December 12, 1970) was an American film director, screenwriter,
and journalist. He worked in both the silent and sound eras, directing
at least 76 productions between 1912 and 1936. He also wrote scores of
screenplays for films released between 1910 and 1939. In 1912 alone,
he was contracted by Lubin film studio to write one story a week for
the company.Born in Manhattan in 1882, George Terwilliger was the
middle child of three children of James G. and Catherine A. (née
Graves) Terwilliger. By 1900 his father, who worked as a clerk for the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, had moved the family to the township
of Linden in that state. Young George received a relatively modest
education, completing just two years of high school before quitting to
find a job and a career.[a] He was still living at his parents' home
in New Jersey in 1900, but he soon returned to Manhattan, where he was
hired by The New York Dramatic Mirror to work as an editor and writer.
The Mirror, a weekly, provided some traditional news reports but
focused on covering the world of theatre, reviewing stage acts, and
Broadway plays. The newspaper in the first years of the twentieth
century only allotted occasional coverage to the emerging industry of
motion pictures, a relatively small patch of entertainment that The
Mirror and many others in the New York media regarded then as a
passing oddity, a "queer freak", that did not warrant considerable
print.Around 1910, Terwilliger left The Mirror after working there for
nine years to accept a job at The Morning Telegraph, another
long-established New York weekly newspaper. The Telegraph contained
general news and financial reports, although it specialized in
theatrical coverage and horse-racing. Early on, it established too a
department at the paper devoted specifically to covering motion
pictures. Terwilliger spent only a year with The Telegraph, but during
that time he significantly expanded its film department's staff and
operations. He also wrote reviews and film-related features under the
pen name "Gordon Trent". To supplement his limited income as an
employee of newspapers published just once a week, Terwilliger wrote
and edited stories, and sold "scenarios" to Biograph Studios in the
Bronx such as The Lucky Toothache in 1910 and The Battle, directed by
D. W. Griffith and released in 1911.[b]
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