Once the most famous ex-wife in America, Ursula Parrott (1899-1957) was a prolific and best-selling author, Hollywood screenwriter, and headline-grabber. Parrott was Boston-born and -educated (at Boston Girls’ School and Radcliffe), but spent her adult life in New York City, where she set many of her stories, starting with her debut best-seller, Ex-Wife (1929), recently republished by McNally Editions. Parrott wrote dozens of tales about working women in Manhattan who ascend to the peak of their fields, often while trying to balance child-rearing and romance.  Her tales that took place all over the city, especially in Greenwich Village during the wild and wonderful 1930s.

Ten films were made based on Parrott’s writing, mostly in the 1930s, and she worked as a screen and story writer out of Astoria as well as during several stints in Hollywood.  Her words gave Norma Shearer her only Academy Award with the New York City adultery-and-divorce drama, The Divorcee (1930), and launched Jimmy Stewart’s career as a lead actor in yet another New York tale, Next Time We Love (1936). Gordon’s presentation will focus on the details of Jazz Age New York in Parrott’s stories as she also discusses the years Parrott spent in Manhattan, and will be richly illustrated with images and some short clips from the movies that were made of her stories.

Marsha Gordon is Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, a past Fellow at the National Humanities Center, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar. She is the author of numerous books and articles, and co-director of several award-winning short documentaries. Her latest book is Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott (2023).