Mary Coyle Chase

Mary Coyle Chase (25 February 1906 – 20 October 1981) was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter, known primarily for writing the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for film starring James Stewart. She wrote fourteen plays, two children's stories, one screenplay, and worked seven years at the Rocky Mountain News as a journalist. Born in Denver, Colorado in 1906, Chase remained in Denver her entire life. In 1924, she began her career... more

Mary Coyle Chase (25 February 1906 – 20 October 1981) was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter, known primarily for writing the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for film starring James Stewart. She wrote fourteen plays, two children's stories, one screenplay, and worked seven years at the Rocky Mountain News as a journalist. Born in Denver, Colorado in 1906, Chase remained in Denver her entire life. In 1924, she began her career as a journalist on the Rocky Mountain News, leaving in 1931 to raise a family. At the News, she started writing on the society pages, but soon became part of the news itself as "our little Mary", reporting the news from either a comic or a sob sister, emotional angle. In the 1920s, reporters typically worked in The Front Page tradition: putting in long hours, drinking hard, and stopping at nothing to beat the competition to a story. Running around Denver with photographer Harry Rhoads in a Model T Ford, she recalled, "In the course of a day,... less