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The Jim Bishop Collection Mark Hellinger Chronology |
FRIEDSAM MEMORIAL LIBRARY Journalism |
Chronology of the Life
of Mark Hellinger
1903
Mark Hellinger is born on March 21, 1903 in New York City of Orthodox
Jewish parents, Paul and Millie Hellinger. His father was a prosperous real
estate lawyer.
1913
Hellinger’s brother, Monroe, is born. (Later he was nicknamed Buddy.)
1919
Hellinger is expelled from Townsend Harris High School after organizing
a student strike, demanding a vacation period.
1920
Hellinger ends his short stay at Clark School (which was connected to
Columbia University). This was the end of his formal education.
He is the leading man in a one-night play called The Hidden Voice at a neighborhood theater.
He becomes a member of the Temple Players, writing, producing and
starring in plays.
1921
Hellinger has all his teeth pulled and new ones put in instead.
He begins going to speakeasies in Greenwich Village to meet Broadway people. He begins working for a Greenwich Village night club, the Red Head, as a part-time waiter and cashier until 1922.
1922
Hellinger
begins a full-time job at a New York Department store, Lane Bryant, writing
direct-mail advertisements. He is fired for starting his own business while at
work.
He begins at Zit’s Weekly, a
theatrical publication.
1923
He becomes a reporter for the New
York Daily News, working at the
city desk.
1925
He leaves the city desk at the News
and begins a Sunday column at that newspaper. This first appears July 12.
1926
He is one of the judges at a beauty contest; Gladys Glad (her real name)
is the winner. She is a Ziegfeld showgirl.
1928
The News gives him a daily
column, the first one appearing January 16. This column makes him a celebrity.
1929
He marries Gladys Glad, July 11. They go to California on their
honeymoon, taking a cruise that goes through the Panama Canal.
In November, the publisher of the News
sends him a note, telling him to provide only itemized news. Hellinger looks
for another job.
1930
He moves to the New York Daily Mirror.
He writes some of the sketches used in Ziegfeld’s last Follies of this
year.
1931
A collection of his short stories, Moon
Over Broadway (William Faro, Inc), is published.
Hellinger is present at a boat explosion. Hellinger and his wife are
unharmed, but a woman dies in the hospital.
Hellinger begins broadcasting Columbia University football games with
Perry Charles.
1932
Hellinger writes some of the sketches used in Ziegfeld’s production, Hot-Cha.
He and his wife, Gladys, divorce.
In November, he begins a trip around the world, continuing into the next
year. He writes columns about his trip as he goes.
1933
He and Gladys remarry on July 11, the same day of the year they were
first married in 1929.
1934
Hellinger temporarily has his own network radio show, called “Penthouse
Party.”
A collection of his short stories, The
Ten Million (Farrar & Rinehart), is published.
1935
Hellinger begins doing an entire Sunday page, which is syndicated
nationally.
He briefly tries producing plays in New York.
Hellinger’s mother, Millie, dies.
1936
Hellinger’s father, Paul, dies.
1937
He goes to Hollywood as a writer-producer for Warner Productions. After
a time, he is sent to a B-Movie unit, working there until the next year.
1938
He is promoted to associate producer at Warner Productions in August.
1939
He is a producer of The Adventures of Jane Arden, Cowboy Quarterback, Hell’s Kitchen, Kid
Nightingale, The Roaring Twenties and Women
in the Wind. Hellinger wrote the script himself for The Roaring Twenties.
1940
He is a producer of the movies British
Intelligence, Brother Orchid, It All Came True, They Drive By Night and The Torrid Zone.
1941
He is the associate producer for High Sierra, which makes Humphrey Bogart
a star. He also is a producer of the movies Affectionately
Yours, Manpower and Rise and Shine.
1942.
He is a producer of the movie Moontide.
1943
He is a producer of the movie Thank
Your Lucky Stars.
1944
He is a producer of the movies Between
Two Worlds and Doughgirls.
After repeatedly attempting to join the Army during the war and being refused for ill-health, he arranges to go as a war correspondent in the Pacific theater for Hearst for four months. He returns to Hollywood to Warner Productions, who had given him leave.
1945
He moves to Universal Pictures, where he has been given his own
production unit.
He is a producer of the movie The
Horn Blows at Midnight.
1946
He produces the movie The Killers.
He becomes friends with Hemingway, who wrote the short story the movie is based
on, also called “The Killers.”
1947
He is a producer of the following movies, Brute Force, The Naked City, Swell Guy and The Two Mrs. Carrolls.
He
establishes his own studio, Mark Hellinger Productions. Its offices to open
December 22. But then he dies December 21, 1947 of a coronary thrombosis in
Cedar of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. His funeral is on Christmas Eve. He
is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, twenty five
miles north of New York City.
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Page created by Dennis Frank 6 Nov. 2003 (archives@sbu.edu)
Last updated: 05 May 2010