Mary P. Hamlin

Mary P. Hamlin (born Mary Ida Parmele; September 30, 1871 – June 26, 1964 ) was an American playwright specializing in religious dramas, but best known for the 1917 Broadway play, Hamilton (co-authored with its star, George Arliss), and for its 1931 screen adaptation, Alexander Hamilton.

Early life and career A native of West Bloomfield, New York, Hamlin was one of four children born to Hiram Taft Parmele and Mary Gates. There, she attended the Granger Place School for Girls, class of 1892. Following her graduation from Vassar College in 1896,

On July 29, 1916, Hamlin copyrighted a three-act play of 193 pages, entitled The Secretary of the Treasury. However, there does not appear to be a single, subsequent in-print mention of any such Hamlin play, much less any performance or publication thereof. Taking into account both that and the fact that "Secretary of the Treasury" is the office held by the title character of the 1917, four-act play, Hamilton it seems more than likely that Hamilton was simply the 1916 work's final draft; retitled, newly partitioned, and—to a now unquantifiable extent—otherwise revised.

As for Arliss's contribution to the final version, despite the tenor of contemporaneous news stories (many of which failed to even mention Hamlin's name, simply crediting Arliss ), at least one paper, the Detroit Free Press, attributed the play's authorship in terms—specifically, "by Mrs. Mary P. Hamlin, with suggestions from Mr. Arliss himself" —roughly comparable to those used by Hamlin in her 1953 memoirs, as quoted by the New York Post in 2016. "Mr. Arliss did little writing of my play. He knew nothing of American politics, did not even know, at first, that Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States." To his credit, as Hamlin later notes, Arliss always insisted that she be the primary credited author, and indignantly demanded as much when the play's initial batch of printed programs had that order reversed. Although Hamlin never specifies the nature of his contributions, she clearly appreciated them. As I worked on the play with George Arliss, I began to realize what a lifetime of experience amounted to. He was putting his knowledge into my play, even if I did the writing. His suggestions were invaluable but he never wanted me to agree to anything I did not understand. When I told him I was willing to accept his experience whether or not I understood it, he said firmly, 'No. This is your play and nothing must go into it that you do not understand.' However, despite lingering coverage as late as December, Greenstreet's requested leave of absence from Warner Brothers failed to materialize, as did, evidently, did any Plan B on Preminger's part.

Personal life and death From September 16, 1902 until her death on November 11, 1947, Hamlin was married to George Wright Hamlin, a Canandaigua-based attorney who would later succeed his father as president of the Canandaigua National Bank and Trust Company.

On June 26, 1964 (following roughly three years of being confined to her bed due to a hip fracture suffered in 1901

Works "The Beauty of the House Is Order". Good Housekeeping. December 1910. Vol. 51, Iss. 6. pp. 692–696. The Secretary of the Treasury, 1916 Hamilton, 1917 The Style's the Thing; A Vaudeville Sketch for Four People, 1919 The Efficiency Mother-in-Law; A Play in One Act for One Man and Four Women, 1919 The Rock ( Simon the Rock and Peter the Rock), 1921 He Came Seeing, 1928 The Trouble with Christmas Presents, 1930 Burnt Offering, 1933 The Separatist, 1934 Certain Greeks, 1935 The Pattern in the Mountain: A Play with a Prologue and Three Acts, 1937 The Wee Bit Seed, 1949