author
Winchell Smith
1871–1933
A major figure in early 20th-century American theater, this playwright helped create crowd-pleasing hits that reached Broadway and later the movies. Best remembered for works like Brewster's Millions and Lightnin', he built a career on lively, popular entertainment.
1 Audiobook
The Fortune Hunter
by Louis Joseph Vance, Winchell Smith
About the author
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1871, Winchell Smith became an American playwright, producer, and man of the theater whose work found a wide audience in the first decades of the 20th century. He is especially associated with commercially successful stage hits such as Brewster's Millions (1906) and Lightnin' (1918).
Before making his name as a playwright, he worked as an actor, and that practical stage experience seems to have shaped the brisk, audience-friendly style of his plays. A number of his works were later adapted for film, helping extend his influence beyond the theater.
Smith died in 1933, but he remains a notable example of a writer who understood popular entertainment and Broadway craft at a high level. For listeners interested in theatrical history, his career offers a glimpse of an era when stage comedies and dramas could become national sensations.