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{{short description|American dramatist}}

factoids

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.19952010df=y}}| death_place = Oakland, New Jersey, U.S.Cornell University (Bachelor of Arts>BA)| occupation = Playwright| yearsactive = 1933–1977| spouse = Madge Evans (1939–1981)| awards = 1934 Pulitzer Prize Best Drama}}Sidney Kingsley (22 October 1906 – 20 March 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934.

Life and career

Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied at Cornell University, where he began his career writing plays for the college dramatic club. He joined the Group Theater for the production of his first major work. In 1933 the company performed his play Men in White. Set in a hospital, the play dealt with the issue of illegal abortion, 1930s medical and surgical practices, and the struggle of one promising physician who must choose to dedicate his life to medicine or devote himself to his fiancée. The play was a box-office smash.(File:Men-in-White-Flyer.jpg|thumb|Handbill for the original Broadway production of Men in White)(File:Darkness at Noon Handbill - NARA - 5729935-cropped.jpg|thumb|Handbill for Darkness at Noon, 1953)Kingsley followed this success with the play Dead End in 1935, a story about slum housing and its connection to crime. The play was fairly successful, eventually spawning the film Dead End Kids. In 2022, Dead End was adapted as a musical and released as a concept album (aka audiobook musical). “Dead End the Musical” was written by Neil Fishman (Music), Harvey Edelman (Lyrics), and Peter C. Palame (Book). Kingsley’s two successful plays were followed by his 1936 anti-war play Ten Million Ghosts and his 1939 The World We Make, which were flops and had short runs.Despite reaching the rank of lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II, soon after 1951 HUAC put Kingsley’s name on the Hollywood Blacklist.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/1995/03/21/obituaries/sindney-kingsley-playwrite-is-dead-at-88-creator-of-dead-end-and-men-in-white.html, Sindney Kingsley, Playwrite, Is Dead at 88; Creator of ‘Dead End’ and ‘Men in White’, Peter B., Flint, The New York Times, 21 March 1995, WEB,www.terramedia.co.uk/reference/documents/red_menace_in_hollywood.htm, The ‘red menace’ in Hollywood, Terra Media, Being on the Blacklist is the main reason he never had a Hollywood film adaption after 1951.In 1943, Kingsley returned to his previous success with the historical drama The Patriots. This play, which told the story of Thomas Jefferson and his activities in the young American republic, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Kingsley continued writing for the theater late into his career, adapting Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon for the stage in 1951, and writing Lunatics and Lovers in 1954 and Night Life in 1962.In addition to his work for the stage, Kingsley wrote a number of scripts for Hollywood productions, mostly based on his own work. He later also wrote the scripts and templates for numerous television series and television films.His marriage to actress Madge Evans in 1939Derby Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1939 lasted until her death in 1981. The couple lived together in their 18th century Oakland, New Jersey home for 42 years.Meeting him in 1957, Michael Korda described Kingsley as “a short, powerfully built man with broad shoulders, a big head, and rough-hewn features that made him look like a bust by Sir Jacob Epstein.BOOK, Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, Korda, Michael, Random House, 1999, 9780679456599, 14–24, That was true enough, I thought, though not very nice of Sidney to say. “What’s the lesson?” I asked. “Ah, the lesson. Never forget that people who pay a writer always have much, much more money and power than he does, whether it’s a publishing house, a movie studio, or a television network. With that in mind,“--his voice changed to a fair imitation of W.C. Fields--“’Never give a sucker an even break.’ You can go now.”,archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord/page/14, Kingsley hired Korda as an assistant to do research for a screenplay he was writing for CBS on the Hungarian Revolution which was eventually canceled.In 1964, Kingsley was elected president of the Dramatists Guild of AmericaThe Stage, 30 December 1965 and in 1983, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.WEB,www.nytimes.com/1983/05/10/theater/theater-hall-of-fame-gets-10-new-members.html, Theater Hall of Fame Gets 10 New Members, New York Times, May 10, 1983, Kingsley died of a stroke on March 20, 1995, in his home in Oakland, New Jersey.Flint, Peter B. “Sidney Kingsley, Playwright, Is Dead at 88; Creator of Dead End and Men in White”, The New York Times, March 21, 1995. Accessed May 25, 2016. “Sidney Kingsley, who brought the gritty drama of mean city streets into the theater in plays including Dead End and Detective Story and who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1933 for his first Broadway play, Men in White, died yesterday at his home in Oakland, N.J.”

Works

• 1933: Men in White
• 1935: Dead EndBelfast News-Letter, 10 March 1936Torbay Express and South Devon Echo, 3 January 1939
• 1936: Ten Million Ghosts
• 1939: The World We Make
• 1943: The Patriots
• 1949: Detective Story
• 1951: Darkness at Noon (stage & TV adaptation)The Stage, 17 January 1963
• 1954: Lunatics and Lovers
• 1962: Night Life

Editions of Works

• Sidney Kingsley: Five Prizewinning Plays. Ohio State University Press, Columbus OH 1995. {{ISBN|0814206654}} (Digitized full access on the publisher’s page)

Filmography{| class“wikitable”

! Year! Title!width=65| Writer!width=65| Crew! Production Company! Credit | 1934Men in White (1934 film)>Men in White| {{yes}}| {{no}}| Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer| from the play by| 1937Dead End (1937 film)>Dead End| {{yes}}| {{no}}| Samuel Goldwyn Productions| based upon the play by| 1948Homecoming (1948 film)>Homecoming| {{yes}}| {{no}}| Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer| story| 1951Detective Story (1951 film)>Detective Story| {{yes}}| {{no}}| Paramount Pictures| based on the play by| 1955| Producers’ Showcase| {{yes}}| {{no}}| NBC| 1 episode: “Darkness at Noon” - play| 1957| World in White| {{yes}}| {{no}}| CBS| CBS Pilot | 1957^| Hungarian Revolution film| {{yes}}| {{no}}| CBS| researched and possibly written script but never produced| 1960| DuPont Show of the Month| {{yes}}| {{no}}| CBS| 1 episode: Men in White - novel| 1963| ITV Play of the Week| {{yes}}| {{no}}ITV (TV network)>ITV (England)| 1 episode: Darkness at Noon - play| 1963| Detective Story - Polizeirevier 21| {{yes}}| {{no}}Süddeutscher Rundfunk>SDR (West Germany)| play | 1963| Sonnenfinsternis| {{yes}}| {{no}}Hessischer Rundfunk>HR (West Germany)| adaptation of Darkness at Noon| 1963| The Patriots| {{yes}}| {{no}}| NBC| NBC TV Movie - play| 1964(:es:Primera fila (programa de televisión)>Primera fila)| {{yes}}| {{no}}Televisión Española>TVE (Spain)| 1 episode: El cero y el infinito - play| 1968| Polizeirevier 21| {{yes}}| {{no}}| ZDF (West Germany)| Second West German adaptation - play “Detective Story”| 1972(:fr:Au théâtre ce soir>Au théâtre ce soir)| {{yes}}| {{no}}| ORTF (France)| 1 episode: Histoire d’un détective - play| 1973| Serpico| {{no}}| {{yes}}| Paramount Pictures| Provided his Manhattan apartment as a filming location (uncredited)| 1974(:es:Alta comedia (programa de televisión)>Alta Comedia)| {{yes}}| {{no}}El Nueve>Canal 9 (Argentina)| 1 episode: Uniforme blanco| 1976| Great Performances| {{yes}}| {{no}}KQED (TV)>PBS| 1 episode: The Patriots - play/teleplay| 1971, 1978| Estudio 1| {{yes}}| {{no}}Televisión Española>TVE (Spain)| 2 episodes: Historia de detectives (1978), Historias de detectives (1971)| 1978| Teatro estudio| {{yes}}| {{no}}Televisión Española>TVE (Spain)| 1 episode: Historia de detectives^film never produced

Awards

• 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama for Men in White.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|455549}}
• Page at Spartacus Educational
• Sidney Kingsley Papers - Ohio State University Libraries

{{PulitzerPrize DramaAuthors 1926-1950}}{{Authority control}}