Parker, Dorothy

(1893-1967)

   Dorothy Rothschild was born in West End, New Jersey, and as Dorothy Parker became a celebrated writer. As a critic, Parker wrote during the 1910s for Vogue and Vanity Fair before joining the staff of the New Yorker as book reviewer "Constant Reader" and, later, as a drama critic. Parker's sarcastic, witty condemnations of plays and actors are legendary, as when she described The House Beautiful (1931) as "the play lousy," or when she wrote that Katharine Hepburn,* starring in The Lake (1934), ran the gamut of emotions "from A to B." Parker wrote sketches for the musical revue The 49ers (1922), contributed the lyrics for No, Sirree! (1922) and Shoot the Works (1931), and collaborated on two successful plays, Close Harmony; or, The Lady Next Door (1924; with Elmer Rice) and Ladies of the Corridor* (1953; with Arnaud D'Usseau). With D'Usseau she also wrote the unproduced play The Ice Age (1955). She collaborated with Ross Evans on the The Coast of Illyria (1949). One of Parker's books, After Such Pleasures, was adapted to the stage by Edward F. Gardner in 1934. With her second husband, writer Alan Campbell, Parker wrote motion picture scripts (including A Star Is Born [1937]) and the play The Happiest Man (1939), which was never produced. Parker also contributed lyrics to the musical Candide (1956), wrote 20 screenplays and several collections of poetry, and is also remembered as founder and resident "wit" of the famed Algonquin Round Table, along with George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, Harold Ross, and James Thurber.*