"Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait." -- Gene Fowler
Gene Fowler (born Eugene Devlan) (March 8, 1890 — July 2, 1960) was an American journalist, author and dramatist.
He was born in Denver, Colorado. When his mother remarried, young Gene took his stepfather's name to become Gene Fowler. Fowler's career had a false start in taxidermy, which he later claimed permanently gave him a distaste for red meat. After a year at the University of Colorado, he took a job with The Denver Post. His assignments included an interview with frontiersman and Wild West Show promoter Buffalo Bill Cody. He established his trademark impertinence by questioning Cody about his many love affairs.
Subsequently, Fowler worked for the New York Daily Mirror, and then became newspaper syndication manager for King Features. His later work included over a dozen screenplays, mostly written in the 1930s, and a number of books including biographies and memoirs.
During his years in Hollywood, Fowler became close to such celebrities as John Barrymore and W.C. Fields. Fields, whose animus toward children is legendary, claimed that Gene Fowler's sons were the only children he could stand.
In 1916, Fowler married Agnes Hubbard who bore three children, the eldest of whom was Gene Fowler Jr. (1917—1998), a prominent Hollywood film editor (whose work included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Hang 'Em High) and a sometime director (1959's I Was a Teenage Werewolf as well as numerous television programs).
"Everyone needs a warm personal enemy or two to keep him free from rust in the movable parts of his mind.""For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.""He has a profound respect for old age. Especially when it's bottled.""I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.""I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.""If they haven't heard it before it's original.""It is easier to believe than to doubt.""Love and memory last and will so endure till the game is called because of darkness.""Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.""Never thank anybody for anything, except a drink of water in the desert - and then make it brief.""Perhaps no mightier conflict of mind occurs ever again in a lifetime than that first decision to unseat one's own tooth.""Psychoanalysts seem to be long on information and short on application.""Sometimes I think my writing sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.""The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.""They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.""What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.""Whatever one believes to be true either is true or becomes true in one's mind.""Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
Trumpet in the Dust. NY: Horace Liveright, 1930. [semi-autobiographical novel about a newspaperman]
Shoe the Wild Mare. NY: Horace Liveright, 1931. [novel]
A Solo in Tom-Toms. NY: Covici-Friede, 1931. [memoir of his early life in Colorado]
The Great Mouthpiece: The Life of William J. Fallon. NY: Covici-Friede, 1931.
The Demi-Wang, by “Peter Long” (pseud.). Privately printed for subscribers, 1931. [erotica]
Timber Line: A Story of Bonfils and Tammen. NY: Covici-Friede, 1933.
The Great Magoo (co-authored with Ben Hecht). NY: Covici-Friede, 1933. [a play in 3 acts]
Father Goose: The Story of Mack Sennett. NY: Covici-Friede, 1934.
The Mighty Barnum: A Screenplay (co-authored with Bess Meredyth). NY: Covici-Friede, 1934. [filmed by 20th Century Pictures, 1934]
Salute to Yesterday. NY: Random House, 1937. [about Denver in the late 19th and early 20th centuries]
Illusion in Java. NY: Random House, 1939. [novel]
The Jervis Bay Goes Down. NY: Random House, 1941. [narrative poem]
Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life and Times of John Barrymore. NY: The Viking Press, 1944.
Beau James: The Life and Times of Jimmy Walker. NY: The Viking Press, 1949.
Schnozzola: The Story of Jimmy Durante. NY: The Viking Press, 1951.
Minutes of the Last Meeting. NY; Random House, 1954. [a portrait of some of his associates in Hollywood, notably critic and poet Sadakichi Hartmann; also featuring W.C. Fields, John Barrymore and artist John Decker]
Skyline: A Reporter’s Reminiscence of the 1920s. NY: The Viking Press, 1961.
Fowler wrote or co-wrote screenplays for the following movies (partial list).
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
State's Attorney (1932)
The Way to Love (1933)
The Mighty Barnum (1934) (based on his stage play)
Twentieth Century (1934)
The Call of the Wild (1935)
Professional Soldier (1934)
Career Woman (1936) (story)
Half Angel (1936)
A Message to Garcia (1936)
White Fang (1936)
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) (story)
Love Under Fire (1937)
Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937)
The Earl of Chicago (1940) (story)
Billy the Kid (1941)
Big Jack (1949)
Other of his works that became the basis for films include his stage play The Great Magoo, which was filmed as Shoot the Works (1934), and the book, Beau James: The Life & Times of Jimmy Walker, which was the basis for Beau James (1957).
Fowler was the subject of many colorful anecdotes. One told by his son, Will, concerns a scene outside of John Barrymore's hospital room in May 1942.
A stranger entered the waiting room where [John] Decker and Fowler were sitting with reporters. "I am a healer," cried the stranger. "Just give me three minutes with Mr. Barrymore and I will cure him!" There was a moment of silence until Fowler arose, snatched the seemingly demented fellow by the scruff of his collar and threw him down the stairs, calling after him, "Physician, heal thyself!"
Fowler was present at Barrymore's death, and he claimed (perhaps not seriously) that Barrymore's last words, spoken to Fowler, were: "Is it true that you're the illegitimate son of Buffalo Bill?"