Maurine Dallas Watkins

Maurine Dallas Watkins was an American playwright and screenwriter. In early 1924, Watkins began working as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Although she only worked there for eight months, she published around 50 stories covering trials in the courthouse. She wrote about the trials of Belva Gaertner, a twice-divorced cabaret singer, and Beulah Sheriff Annan. Both women were found innocent of murder, but Watkins believed they were guilty. The cases inspired her to write the 1926 play Chicago, which went on to be adapted into the 1975 Broadway musical of the same name, and then made into a successful movie in 2002. Watkins wrote another 20 plays during her career, but none were as successful as Chicago. In the 1930s, she turned to screenwriting and wrote or co-wrote at least ten films, including Up the River (1930), screwball comedy No Man of Her Own (1932), and Libeled Lady (1937).