George Seaton: the comedy writing

Born 17 April 1911, South Bend · died 28 July 1979, Beverly Hills

The tie: George Seaton was born George Edward Stenius in South Bend on April 17, 1911, and the family moved to Detroit while he was a child. The tie is a birth tie, printed at that strength; the formation is Detroit's — stock-company work under Jesse Bonstelle and radio at WXYZ, where he was among the voices of the Lone Ranger. His shelf whole, including the Academy Awards for The Song of Bernadette and The Country Girl, is carried in the authors record; this entry carries the comedy writing, which is a shelf of its own.

The comedy shelf: Seaton signed as an MGM contract writer in 1933 and contributed to the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera (1935); his first major screen credit was the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races (1937), written with Robert Pirosh and George Oppenheimer — a collaboration Groucho Marx sought. At Fox he wrote the comedies Charley's Aunt (1941), The Magnificent Dope, and The Meanest Man in the World for Jack Benny, and the musical comedies Moon Over Miami (1941) and Coney Island (1943). As writer-director he made the musical comedy The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947); Miracle on 34th Street (1947), the Christmas comedy-drama that won him the Academy Award for its screenplay; and the domestic comedies Apartment for Peggy (1948), Chicken Every Sunday (1949), For Heaven's Sake (1950), and Rhubarb (1951). He died in Beverly Hills on July 28, 1979. His absence from the people record of this history is an assembly matter, carried in this section's note; the comedy writing stands here regardless.

Sources

1. The Seaton record in this history — the birth, the Detroit move, the Bonstelle and WXYZ years, the two Academy Awards, the full bibliography.
2. The standard Seaton filmography — the MGM contract of 1933, the Marx Brothers credits of 1935 and 1937 with Pirosh and Oppenheimer, the Fox comedies, the writer-director comedies of 1947–1951.