1872-1958
Writer Gradner Hunting is better known today for his writings after his involvement in the movie industry, starting from around 1925 thorught o 1958, the year of his death. Obviously, what we are concerned with here are his works within the industry. Hunting was born on this day in the state of Wisconsin. He became a story writer, mostly of shorts and these would later lead him into active scenario writing for films. The first film that his writing inspired came in 1914 with one of his short stories being adapted for Where The Mountains Meet. Hunting quickly got into scenario writing--his first "screenplay" was produced in 1916 with Paying The Price. Throughout 1916, he provided various scenorios for film, but kept writing his short stories as well. In 1917, he was even employed for a short time to adapt other's stories for the silver screen (something that he seemed not to have taken to, given his short time doing it). Later in 1917, he even began to adapt his own work for films as well. Little Miss Optimist (1917) seems to have been the first example of this. Though he would eventually work for some of the major studios of the time (such as Famous Players Lasky), he never worked on a film of any real note. The last film that he penned came in 1921 with If Women Only Knew, a 1 hour drama filmed in Ithaca, New York. By 1925, he was writing works that ranged from religious themed science fiction, to out and out religious self help books. One could say that he was the original Norman Vincent Peale. In fact, in many ways, Peale's book The Power Of Positive Thinking--which came out n 1952--is a kind of rip off of Hunting's 1934 Working With God. Hunting continued to write and be published in magazine form right up until he passed away in Burbank, CA on the 21st of November 1958--having left behind a large volume of film scenarios that no one remembered. He was 86 years old. I can find no information as his burial or interrement.
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| Dating from 1917, he adapted the story for the screen in this drama, independently produced. | |
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