Eleanor Gates
American playwright (1874–1951)

Eleanor Gates
Born26 September 1874
Shakopee, Minnesota, U.S.
Died7 March 1951(1951-03-07) (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of California and Stanford University
OccupationPlaywright
Spouse(s)Richard Walton Tully[1]
1901–14 (divorce)
Frederick Ferdinand Moore
1914-16 (not legal)

Eleanor Gates (26 September 1874 – 7 March 1951) was an American playwright, novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.[2] Her best known work was The Poor Little Rich Girl, which was produced by her husband in 1913[3] and adapted into films for Mary Pickford in 1917 and for Shirley Temple in 1936.[4] Gates's literary works often drew upon her experiences growing up on the American frontier, and she was noted for her vivid characterizations and exploration of themes such as class disparity and personal discovery.[5]

Early life and education

Gates was born in Shakopee, Minnesota, to William Cummings Gates and Margaret (Archer) Gates. During her infancy, her family relocated to a cattle ranch in the Jim River Valley of South Dakota.[6] These early frontier experiences would later serve as inspiration for her literary works. She later described her early life in her novel The Biography of a Prairie Girl.[7][5] Her mother died while Gates was in her teens and the family moved to Shasta, California where Gates attended public school.[8]

Gates pursued higher education at Stanford University (1894–1895) and the University of California, Berkeley (1899–1901). While studying, she also worked as a journalist for several San Francisco newspapers, including the Examiner, Call, and Chronicle, as well as the Oakland Enquirer.[9][10]

Career

Eleanor Gates ca 1916

Gates had worked initially as a writer for a newspaper in San Francisco, as well as writing novels. On 1906 she spoke out in Cosmopolitan about the problem of unwanted sexual advances made to women and girls when travelling. In the following issue she continued the theme highlighting the problem in how it effected working women in particular.[11][12] In 1907, one of her novels was illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

Her best known work was the play The Poor Little Rich Girl, which was produced by her husband in 1913.

In 1914 The New York Times published a story about her idea that there should be places where working women and their children could stay.[13]

In 1914, Gates founded the Eleanor Gates Photo-Play Company.[14] According to Moving Picture World, "She is one of the first authors, as well as one of the first women, to head her own motion picture producing company."[15] Only one film is known to have been produced by Gates's company: Doc, released in 1914 and based on her short story from The Saturday Evening Post.[16][17]

In 1917, The Poor Little Rich Girl was made by Mary Pickford's production company and distributed by Artcraft Pictures Corp. for Famous Players. Shirley Temple starred in the 1936 remake of the same name. The film story, created to cash in on the talents of the eight-year-old Temple and the rights to the "changing places" story, was obtained for $20,000 to Gates and an additional $20,000 to Mary Pickford's company which had made the 1917 film. The new film had made two million dollars by the end of 1939.[4]

Personal life

Gates married fellow playwright Richard Walton Tully in 1901 while they were both students at the University of California, in Berkeley.[18] Tully divorced her in 1914 citing desertion, which Gates admitted.[1]

On 18 October 1914, Gates married another divorcé, the novelist and short story writer Frederick Ferdinand Moore, in Paterson, New Jersey.[19] At the time of the wedding, Gates and Moore had interlocutory decrees of divorce and they had been advised that they were legally entitled to be married. However, in 1916 Gates annulled the marriage to Moore after learning that there was some question to the legality of their union.[20][21] At the time they both said they intended to remarry when it could be arranged. They never remarried but lived together and collaborated on works until the early 1930s.[22]

Death

Gates was struck down near her home by an automobile and died on 7 March 1951 in Los Angeles County General Hospital.[2][23][24] She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale on 28 July 1951 after delays caused by a fruitless search in New York for a will.[25]

Selected works

An illustration by Arthur Rackham for her 1907 novel, Good-Night
  • The Biography of a Prairie Girl (1902)[26]
  • The Plow-Woman (1906)[27] adapted for 1917 film
  • Good-night: (Buenas Noches) (1907) - illustrated by Arthur Rackham
  • Cupid the Cowpuncher (1907)[28] (1920 film with same name based on her story)
  • The Justice of Gideon (1910)[29] - a collection of stories including Doc (made into a 1914 film) and Search for the Spring (made into a 1934 film called Once to Every Bachelor)[30]
  • The Poor Little Rich Girl (1912)[31][32]
  • We Are Seven (1915)[32]
  • Swat the Fly (1915)[33]
  • Apron-Strings (1917)[34]
  • Piggie (1919)
  • Phoebe (1919)
  • The Rich Little Poor Boy (1922)[35][32]
  • Fish-Bait (1928)[36]
  • Pa Hardy (1936)[37]

References

  1. ^ a b "R. W. Tully Seeks Divorce. Playwright Sues Eleanor Gates on Ground of Desertion". The New York Times. March 24, 1914. Retrieved October 16, 2010. Richard Walton Tully, playwright, instituted suit in the Superior Court here to-day for a divorce from Eleanor Gates Tully, the author. The charge is desertion.
  2. ^ a b "Eleanor Gates, 75, Playwright, Dies". Los Angeles Times. March 8, 1951. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2010. Eleanor Gates, 7, writer of "The Poor Little Rich Girl" and seven other plays produced on Broadway, died yesterday in General Hospital.
  3. ^ Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Tully, Richard Walton" The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved October 16, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com:
  4. ^ a b "Poor Little Rich Girl". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Alexander, Ruth Ann (September 23, 1983). "South Dakota Women Writers and the Emergence of the Pioneer Heroine" (PDF). South Dakota History. 13 (3): 178–205.
  6. ^ "How Cattle Herding Helped an Author to Success". The Kansas City Star. March 12, 1922. p. 42. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  7. ^ "Realized Dream of Love Aids Them to Work". San Francisco Bulletin. January 25, 1908. p. 7. Retrieved June 29, 2025.
  8. ^ "Ex-Shasta Teacher Wrote Several Published Books". The Shasta Courier. March 24, 1949. p. 1. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  9. ^ "Eleanor Gates becomes editor at Oakland Enquirer". The Searchlight. July 9, 1898. p. 2. Retrieved September 7, 2025.
  10. ^ "Eleanor Gates is Oakland Correspondent for SF Examiner". Record Searchlight. May 19, 1898. p. 3. Retrieved September 7, 2025.
  11. ^ Abel, Richard (January 1, 1996). Silent Film. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-485-30076-5.
  12. ^ Franz, Kathleen (June 7, 2011). Tinkering: Consumers Reinvent the Early Automobile. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0193-2.
  13. ^ "PLANS A BIG HOTEL FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN ONLY; Eleanor Gates, the Playwright, Believes That Important Sociological Problems Would Be Solved if Working Women and Their Youngsters Had a Holstelry of Their Own". The New York Times. January 4, 1914. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  14. ^ Mahar, Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood (2008). Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood p.66. JHU Press. ISBN 9780801890840.
  15. ^ New York, Chalmers Publishing Company (June 1914). Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1914). Media History Digital Library. New York, Chalmers Publishing Company.
  16. ^ "Motion Picture News (Apr - Jul 1914) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  17. ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  18. ^ "Illness Divulges A Secret Marriage". The Berkeley Gazette. May 27, 1901. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2025.
  19. ^ "Eleanor Gates and Frederick Ferdinand Moore wed". Oakland Tribune. October 18, 1914. p. 17. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  20. ^ "Eleanor Gates Doubly Wed". The New York Times. July 1, 1916. Retrieved October 16, 2010. Eleanor Gates Moore, author of "The Poor Little Rich Girl" and other books, under the name of Ellen Gates, started suit here today for the annulment of her marriage to Frederick F. Moore. The couple were married in Paterson, N.J. in October 1914. ...
  21. ^ "Eleanor Gates in Law's Tangle - Divorce Decrees Worry Author - Seeks Annulment of Match with Moore". Oakland Tribune. July 7, 1916. p. 13. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  22. ^ "Eleanor Gates Asks Parting from Editor". The Bulletin. July 6, 1916. p. 2. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  23. ^ "Eleanor Gates, 75, Playwright, Dies". Los Angeles Times. March 8, 1951. p. 18. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  24. ^ "Playwright Eleanor Gates killed by car". Daily News. March 8, 1951. p. 4. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
  25. ^ "Eleanor Gates Burial Tomorrow". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. July 27, 1951. p. 2. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  26. ^ "The Biography of a Prairie Girl". librivox.org. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  27. ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Plow-woman, by Eleanor Gates". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  28. ^ "Eleanor Gates writes Cupid the Cowpuncher". The New York Times. July 6, 1907. p. 16. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
  29. ^ "Mrs Dick Tully Is A Playwright". The Evening Mail. September 23, 1910. p. 7. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
  30. ^ "Gates Story Is Basis Of Bijou Talkie". Battle Creek Moon-Journal. October 27, 1934. p. 9. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  31. ^ "Eleanor Gates Tell Literary Experiences". Hartford Courant. June 25, 1922. p. 38. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  32. ^ a b c Walker, Cynthia L. (1979). "Eleanor Gates". In Mainiero, Lina (ed.). American women writers: a critical reference guide from colonial times to the present. New York : Ungar. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0-8044-3151-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  33. ^ "Doom of the Fly is Voiced by Entire Animal Kingdom in Eleanor Gates' Dramatization". The Houston Chronicle. May 23, 1915. p. 15. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  34. ^ "Six Notable Books Written By California Women". Oakland Tribune. April 7, 1918. p. 18. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  35. ^ "The Poor Child Rich, Rich Child Poor; A Paradox as Proved by Eleanor Gates". The Evening World. February 4, 1922. p. 11. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  36. ^ "Eleanor Gates's Fish Bait to be performed". The Herald Statesman. June 13, 1928. p. 5. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  37. ^ "Eleanor Gates Writes of Father's Devotion to Child". Deseret News. February 29, 1936. p. 32. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
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