H. C. Witwer

Harry Charles Witwer (March 11, 1890 – August 9, 1929), more commonly known as H. C. Witwer, was an American short-story author. Some 60 comedy film shorts were based on his works, most from the mid-1920s to 1930, the year after Witwer's death.

Biography Witwer was born on March 11, 1890, in Athens, Pennsylvania, and briefly attended Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia. He worked in odd jobs—errand boy for a butcher, prize fighter manager, and a soda jerk on Broadway—for a time before starting to write for newspapers, counting the St. Cloud (Florida) Tribune and New York City newspapers Brooklyn Eagle, the New York American, the New York Mail, and The Sun as employers.

In 1912, he married Zada "Sadie" Schagrin of Yonkers, New York. In 1917—during World War I—he was sent to France by Collier's magazine as a war correspondent. He also wrote for McClure's in this time period. Witwer is credited with producing ten shorts beginning in 1925, but he was most active as a writer, receiving writing credits for 30 more short films after 1925.

Witwer relocated to California in 1926 to regain his health, which he apparently did, remaining in good health until he fell ill in May 1929. By the time Witwer died from liver failure in Los Angeles, on August 9, 1929, the lawsuit had not been settled. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and Witwer's widow received nothing.

Legacy Most notable during his lifetime for his baseball and boxing stories, Witwer wrote some 400 stories and articles for magazines and some 125 film treatments throughout his career.

Books From Baseball to Boches (1918) Alex the Great (1919) Arthur William Brown (1919) A Smile a Minute (1919) Best College Humor (1920), introduction Kid Scanlan (1920) The Leather Pushers (1921) The Rubyiat of a Freshman (1921) There's No Base Like Home (1923) Fighting Back (1924) Love and Learn: The Story of a Telephone Girl Who Loved Not Too Well But Wisely (1924) Bill Grimm's Progress (1926) Roughly Speaking (1926) The Classics in Slang (1927) Yes Man's Land (1929)