author
Margaret Mayo
1882–1951
A lively early 20th-century playwright and screenwriter, she helped shape popular American comedy with hits that moved easily from stage to screen. Best known for farces like Baby Mine, Twin Beds, and Polly of the Circus, she built a career that reached Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.
2 Audiobooks
Baby Mine
by Margaret Mayo
Polly of the Circus
by Margaret Mayo
About the author
Born Lillian Elizabeth Slatten in Illinois in 1882, Margaret Mayo began her career as a stage actress before turning to writing. That shift proved decisive: she became known for brisk, crowd-pleasing comedies and dramatic adaptations at a time when American theater was changing fast.
Her best-known works include Baby Mine, Twin Beds, and Polly of the Circus, and several of her plays were adapted for film. Reliable library and film-history sources also credit her with screenwriting work and note that her papers preserve a long professional life across theater and early cinema.
Mayo died in Ossining, New York, in 1951. Today she is remembered as a versatile popular writer whose work connected the worlds of Broadway and early Hollywood.