Stallings, Laurence

(1894-1968)

   Born in Macon, Georgia, Laurence Tucker Stallings was educated at Wake Forest University and Georgetown University before joining the United States Marines at the outbreak of World War I. He lost a leg in combat and later wrote of his experiences in an autobiographical novel, Plume (1924), which was adapted by motion picture director King Vidor into the classic film The Big Parade (1925). Stallings made his mark in theatre collaborating with Maxwell Anderson on What Price Glory (1924), a play considered the first serious treatment of war in modern American theatre, as well as a potent demonstration of the deepening seriousness of Broadway drama. Stallings collaborated with Anderson again on two unsuccessful plays, First Flight (1925) and The Buccaneer (1925), but he ultimately turned to journalism and screenwriting, working on over 30 films.