Edward Bartlett Cormack (March 19, 1898 - September 16, 1942) was an
American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and producer best known for
his 1927 Broadway play The Racket, and for working with Howard Hughes
and Cecil B. DeMille on several films.Cormack was the son of
Scottish-born Edward K. Cormack and Alice E. Cormack. By 1900 his
family had moved from Hammond, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois where his
father worked in sales. He graduated from University High School, and
was accepted at the University of Chicago. While a sophomore, Cormack
wrote the play Anybody's Girl, considered to be one of the best ever
submitted for the Blackfriars (the student dramatic organization).
Cormack became a member of Maurice Browne's Little Theatre Company in
Chicago, but his duties as a general handyman were so demanding he was
dismissed from the University as a result of poor class attendance.To
gain experience as a writer, he got a job at the Chicago Evening
Journal and stayed there a year, covering "hangings, race riots,
street car strikes and other diversions characteristic of Mayor
Thompson's turbulent town". He left the Chicago Evening Journal for
the Chicago American, working there five years before applying for
reinstatement at the University of Chicago. He wrote two more college
plays and became engaged, graduating two years later with honors and
as a Phi Beta Kappa. He returned to The American, where he wrote
features and dramatic criticism.In 1923, he married Adelaide Maurine
Bledsoe (1901â€"1999), the daughter of Samuel T. Bledsoe, who was a
president and board chairman of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad. They would have a son, Thomas Bledsoe Cormack, and a
daughter, Adelaide Kilbee Cormack. Soon after the wedding, he accepted
a position as a press agent for a theater production and the couple
moved to New York City.
American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and producer best known for
his 1927 Broadway play The Racket, and for working with Howard Hughes
and Cecil B. DeMille on several films.Cormack was the son of
Scottish-born Edward K. Cormack and Alice E. Cormack. By 1900 his
family had moved from Hammond, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois where his
father worked in sales. He graduated from University High School, and
was accepted at the University of Chicago. While a sophomore, Cormack
wrote the play Anybody's Girl, considered to be one of the best ever
submitted for the Blackfriars (the student dramatic organization).
Cormack became a member of Maurice Browne's Little Theatre Company in
Chicago, but his duties as a general handyman were so demanding he was
dismissed from the University as a result of poor class attendance.To
gain experience as a writer, he got a job at the Chicago Evening
Journal and stayed there a year, covering "hangings, race riots,
street car strikes and other diversions characteristic of Mayor
Thompson's turbulent town". He left the Chicago Evening Journal for
the Chicago American, working there five years before applying for
reinstatement at the University of Chicago. He wrote two more college
plays and became engaged, graduating two years later with honors and
as a Phi Beta Kappa. He returned to The American, where he wrote
features and dramatic criticism.In 1923, he married Adelaide Maurine
Bledsoe (1901â€"1999), the daughter of Samuel T. Bledsoe, who was a
president and board chairman of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad. They would have a son, Thomas Bledsoe Cormack, and a
daughter, Adelaide Kilbee Cormack. Soon after the wedding, he accepted
a position as a press agent for a theater production and the couple
moved to New York City.
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