George Manker Watters

George Manker Watters (April 27, 1890 (1=Primary documents vary as to when George Watters was born and vary on his middle name.) According to U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 and the California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997, George Manker Watters was born in Rochester, New York on April 27, 1892. However, Watters's World War I and World War II draft registration cards list his name as George Daniel Watters and his date of birth in Rochester as two years earlier on April 27, 1890. The latter draft card from 1942 gives occupation details which identically match Watters position with Fox Theatres as detailed in his 1943 obituary. It also matches biographical details about George Manker Watters published in Two Rivers Reporter on April 2, 1929 which states he was 18 years old in 1908 when he was managing a theatre company in his early career followed by a period managing the Princess Theatre in Des Moines, Iowa. Newspaper reports from Iowa matching this early account of his career use the name George D. Watters. and newspapers from his home town of Des Moines, Iowa covered his work as the playwright of Burlesque using his birth name of George D. Watters. George Daniel Watters II was born in Rochester, New York on April 27, 1890. His father was a musician and a native of Rochester, New York who held the post of organist at the St. Patrick's Cathedral in that city. His father moved to Des Moines after being appointed organist at St. Ambrose Cathedral. His father died in Denver, Colorado in late March 1890; a month before the birth of his son. In 1908, at the age of 18, he began his professional career as manager of a touring theatre company led by the actor Lon Chaney that was performing the play The Royal Chel.

After a brief period living in New York City, Watters became manager of the repertory theatre troupe, the Princess Stock Company, in Des Moines, Iowa which was then headlined by the actor Conrad Nagel. and the marriage was dissolved on January 7, 1914. After the divorce, he briefly left Des Moines and his position at the Princess Theatre to become manager of the Jack Singer Stock Company for performances at the Columbia Theatre in Chicago and the Gaiety Theatre in Detroit; but by August 1914 he was once again back in his position managing the Princess Theatre.

By February 1917 Watters had enlisted as a lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve and had completed his training in Saint Louis while still maintaining his post at the Princess Theatre. He married the actress Tamzon Manker in Omaha, Nebraska on June 5, 1917. Tamzon was an actor in the stock company at the Princess. Their first child was born not long after and was named George Daniel Watters III.

In 1919 Watters and his family moved to California where the Des Moines-based New Art Film Company had leased the old film studio of the defunct Balboa Amusement Producing Company in Long Beach. The company's first film was the 1919 picture The Solitary Sin starring Jack Mulhall, Helene Chadwick, and Gordon Griffith. It was directed by Frederic Richard Sullivan and used a screenplay by Watters who also produced the movie.

The New Art Film Company was short lived and after two years leading the company Watters relocated to Dallas, Texas where he worked as manager of the Capitol Theater until it was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day 1921. In 1922 he became general manager of the Arkansas Enterprise Company which encompassed a chain of theaters in Arkansas. In 1923 he was appointed general manager of the Palace Theatre in Houston, Texas, and in 1924 he became general manager of both the Jefferson Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama and the Grand Opera House in Cincinnati, Ohio. By 1926 he had relocated to New York City where he was manager of Broadway's Astor Theatre. It was a hit play of the 1927-1928 Broadway season, and is credited with launching the career of actress Barbara Stanwyck. Watters moved to Hollywood, California when working on the first film adaption of this play for which he was one of the screenwriters.

After 1928, Watters lived in Los Angeles for the remainder of his life. He had a career as a screenwriter and film industry executive. This screenplay was later the basis for the 1932 French language film adaptation, Maquillage.

Watters was a screenwriter for the 1930 Universal Pictures film Captain of the Guard. That same year he wrote the screenplays to Good Intentions and Man Trouble for Fox Film. He ended his career working as an executive under Charles Skouras at Fox Theatres. At the time of his death in 1943 during World War II, he was a leader in the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry where he was coordinator overseeing the group's activities in Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona. He was also the director of the Los Angeles Theater Defense Bureau.

Watters died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at his home at 414 S Muirfield Rd on March 14, 1943. His play Burlesque continued to inspire adaptations after his death, including the 1948 film When My Baby Smiles at Me starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey.

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