Frederica Sagor Maas

Frederica Alexandrina Sagor Maas (; July 6, 1900 – January 5, 2012) was an American screenwriter, playwright, supercentenarian, memoirist and author, the youngest daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia. As an essayist, Maas was best known for a detailed, tell-all memoir of her time spent in early Hollywood. A supercentenarian, she was one of the oldest surviving entertainers from the silent film era.

Background Maas's parents, Arnold and Agnessa (née Litvinova) Zagorsky, Jewish immigrants from Moscow, Russian Empire, and anglicized their surname to Sagor. Her mother supported the family as a very successful midwife. One of four daughters, Sagor was born on July 6, 1900, in a cold-water, railroad flat on 101st Street near Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

She studied journalism at Columbia University and held a summer job as a copy- or errand-girl at The New York Globe newspaper. She dropped out before graduation in 1918 and took a job as an assistant story editor at Universal Pictures' New York office at $100 a week. By 1923, Maas was story editor for Universal and head of the department. A year later in 1924, Maas had become dissatisfied with her position and she left Universal to move to Hollywood. Thus Maas' introduction to studio politics did not go well and her MGM contract was not renewed. During 1925–1926 she wrote treatments and screenplays for Tiffany Productions, including the well-received flapper comedies That Model from Paris and The First Night. i.e. before Sagor signed up for Paramount, her claim is conflicting.

An unusually long European vacation in the summer of 1928 made finding steady studio work difficult upon her return. Ernest remained with Paramount Short Subjects division in New York. When a story by the Maas couple titled Beefsteak Joe was misappropriated and filmed as The Way of All Flesh he left the studio. The couple returned to unsteady work in California in October 1929.

From Kevin Brownlow:

There are also her detractors:

In her own defense:

Filmography The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) (story) Piernas de Seda (1935) (story 'Silk Legs') The Farmer's Daughter (1928) Red Hair (1928) (uncredited) Hula (1927) (uncredited) Silk Legs (1927) The Way of All Flesh (1927) Rolled Stockings (1927) The First Night (1927) Flesh and the Devil (1926) That Model from Paris (1926) The Waning Sex (1926) Dance Madness (1926) The Plastic Age (1925) His Secretary (1925) The Goose Woman (1925)