Richman, Arthur

(1886-1944)

   Born Arthur Reichman in New York City, the fiction writer-turned-playwright got his first Broadway production in 1920 with Not So Long Ago, a period comedy with a stellar cast (Eva Le Gallienne, Sidney Blackmer,* and Thomas Mitchell) that ran for 137 performances. Undoubtedly his finest play was the Pulitzer PRizE-nominated Ambush (1921), in which a decent man experiences the repercussions of his wife and daughter's more materialistic values. Richman's other plays include A Serpent's Tooth (1922), The Awful Truth (1922), The Far Cry (1924), All Dressed Up (1925), A Proud Woman (1926), and Heavy Traffic (1928). He was president of the Society of American Dramatists and Composers (1925-1927), president of the Authors' League of America (1928-1930), and served on the board of the American Theatre Wing* War Services.