Edmond Seward

Edmond Seward
BornSeptember 26, 1906
Xenia, Ohio, United States
DiedFebruary 12, 1954(1954-02-12) (aged 47)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Alma materNorthwestern University
OccupationScreenwriter

Edmond Seward (26 September 1906 – 12 February 1954) was a Hollywood screenwriter who had originally attended Northwestern University and worked as a journalist, before doing some writing for Disney.[1]

During the mid-1930s he was brought out to Australia by director Ken G. Hall, to write movies and train Australian screenwriters for Cinesound Productions.[2][3]

"We hired him at one hundred pounds a week as a writer and he laughed at it, but he said he would like a trip to the South Seas, and he came for one hundred pounds a week and brought his wife", said Hall. "He didn't know all that much as it turned out."[4]

Seward ended up writing two films for Cinesound, Thoroughbred (1936) and Orphan of the Wilderness (1936), as well as adapting Thoroughbred into a novel.[5] He soon returned to Hollywood, with Hall claiming the writer "had not been a bell-ringing success".[6] Hall thought Seward may have been responsible for plagiarising the end of Thoroughbred from the Frank Capra film, Broadway Bill (1934).[7]

Seward later worked for Screen Gems and wrote a number of scripts for The Bowery Boys.

  1. ^ Michael Barrier, 'A Day in the Life: Disney, 1931' at Michaelbarrier.com – includes a photo of Seward
  2. ^ "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 15 June 1935. p. 19. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  3. ^ "FILM PRODUCTION". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 20 June 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  4. ^ Philip Taylor, 'Ken G. Hall', Cinema Papers January 1974 p 84
  5. ^ "BOOK REVIEWS". The Examiner. Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 18 April 1936. p. 3 Edition: DAILY, Section: SPECIAL SATURDAY SECTION. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  6. ^ Ken G. Hall, Directed by Ken G. Hall, Lansdowne Press, 1977 p 116
  7. ^ Ken G. Hall, Directed by Ken G. Hall, Lansdowne Press, 1977 p 108