Dorothy Kingsley

Dorothy Kingsley (October 14, 1909 – September 26, 1997) was an American screenwriter, who worked extensively in film, radio, and television. Born in New York City, Kingsley was the daughter of newspaperman and press agent Walter J. Kingsley, and silent film actress Alma Hanlon. Following their divorce, Hanlon remarried to director Louis Myll. They lived at Bayside, Queens for two years, and later moved with Dorothy to the affluent suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.Kingsley also had an unsuccessful first marriage. As a young divorced mother of three, while recuperating from a severe case of the measles, she listened to all the radio programs and began to think that she could write better material than she was hearing. She went to Los Angeles to visit a friend and made the rounds of numerous agents with material she had written for various radio stars such as Jack Benny. Her youthful appearance worked against her, but she finally found an agent who would take a chance on her. Kingsley went home and packed up her children, but on her return to Los Angeles she found that the agent had gone out of business.