Lucille Fletcher facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lucille Fletcher
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Fletcher in 1963
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Violet Lucille Fletcher
March 28, 1912 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | August 31, 2000 (aged 88) Langhorne, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Vassar College |
| Occupation | Writer |
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| Children | 2 |
Violet Lucille Fletcher (March 28, 1912 – August 31, 2000) was an amazing American writer. She wrote exciting stories for movies, radio, and television. She is most famous for her radio plays like The Hitch-Hiker and Sorry, Wrong Number. These plays were so popular that they were even made into famous movies and TV shows!
Contents
About Lucille Fletcher
Early Life and Education
Lucille Fletcher was born on March 28, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Matthew Emerson Fletcher and Violet (Anderson) Fletcher.
She was a very bright student. At age 17, she won a big speech contest about the United States Constitution. She was the only girl to reach the finals in New York. Her prize included a trip to South America, a gold medal, and $1,000!
Lucille went on to attend Vassar College. She graduated with honors in 1933, earning a bachelor of arts degree.
Career as a Writer
From 1934 to 1939, Lucille worked at CBS, a major broadcasting company. She was a music librarian and helped with publicity. There, she met Bernard Herrmann, a famous composer who conducted the CBS orchestra. They later married.
Her first big success came when one of her magazine stories, "My Client Curley," was turned into a radio play. It was later made into a 1944 movie called Once Upon a Time, starring Cary Grant.
In 1941, Lucille's famous radio play The Hitch-Hiker was first broadcast. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music for it. This play was later adapted into a well-known episode of The Twilight Zone TV series.
Her most famous work, Sorry, Wrong Number, first aired on May 25, 1943, as part of the radio series Suspense. It was broadcast many times because it was so popular. Lucille got the idea for the play while buying groceries for her sick child. She later said it was an "act of revenge" against a rude woman in line!
Sorry, Wrong Number was so successful that it was made into a 1948 film starring Barbara Stanwyck. A later radio version of the play even won an Edgar Award in 1960 for Best Radio Drama. The famous director Orson Welles called it "the greatest single radio script ever written."
Lucille also wrote the story for an opera based on the novel Wuthering Heights. Her husband, Bernard Herrmann, composed the music for it.
In 1992, Lucille Fletcher was interviewed for a documentary called Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann. This film was even nominated for an Academy Award.
Personal Life
Lucille Fletcher and Bernard Herrmann had two daughters, Wendy and Dorothy. They divorced in 1948.
In 1949, Lucille married Douglass Wallop, who was also a writer. They stayed married until his death in 1985.
Lucille Fletcher passed away on August 31, 2000, at the age of 88.
Works
Radio Plays
- My Client Curly. WHP-CBS, March 7, 1940
- The Man with the One Track Mind. Columbia Workshop, June 30, 1940.
- Carmilla. Columbia Workshop, July 28, 1940.
- Alf, The All-American Fly. Columbia Workshop, September 1, 1940.
- The Hitch-Hiker. The Orson Welles Show, November 17, 1941.
- Someone Else. Columbia Workshop, July 20, 1942.
- Remodeled Brownstone. Columbia Workshop, October 19, 1942.
- Gremlins. Ceiling Unlimited, December 21, 1942.
- The Diary of Saphronia Winters. Suspense, April 27, 1943.
- Sorry, Wrong Number. Suspense, May 25, 1943.
- Fugue in C Minor. Suspense, June 1, 1944.
- The Search for Henri Le Fevre. Suspense, July 6, 1944.
- Night Man. Suspense, October 26, 1944.
- The Furnished Floor. Suspense, September 13, 1945.
- Dark Journey. Suspense, April 25, 1946.
- The Thing in the Window. Suspense, December 19, 1946.
- Bela Boczniak's Bad Dreams. The Clock, April 25, 1948.
Novels
- Sorry, Wrong Number: A Novelization, with Allan Ullman. New York: Random House, 1948.
- Night Man, with Allan Ullman. New York: Random House, 1951.
- The Daughters of Jasper Clay. New York: Holt, 1958.
- Blindfold. New York: Random House, 1960.
- And Presumed Dead. New York: Random House, 1963.
- The Strange Blue Yawl. New York: Random House, 1964.
- The Girl in Cabin B54. New York: Random House, 1968.
- Night Watch. New York: Random House, 1972.
- Eighty Dollars to Stamford. New York: Random House, 1975.
- Mirror Image. New York: W. Morrow and Co, 1988.
Plays
- Sorry, Wrong Number, and The Hitch-Hiker; Plays in One Act. [New York]: Dramatists Play Service, 1952.
- Night Watch; A Play of Suspense in Two Acts. [New York]: Dramatists Play Service, 1972.
Librettos
- Wuthering Heights; Opera in 4 Acts and a Prologue, with Bernard Herrmann. London: Novello, 1965.
Awards
Lucille Fletcher's famous radio play Sorry, Wrong Number received the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. This award honors great mystery writing.
