1. George Ade was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, librettist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters' dialog.
George Ade wrote scripts and had some of his fables and plays adapted into motion pictures.
George Ade was a member of Purdue University's board of trustees from 1909 to 1916, a longtime member of the Purdue Alumni Association, a supporter of Sigma Chi, and a former president of the Mark Twain Association of America.
George Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, on February 9,1866, to farmer and bank cashier John and Adaline Wardell Ade.
George Ade was the second youngest of the family's seven children.
George Ade's father served as the Newton County, Indiana, recorder, and was a banker in Kentland; his mother was a homemaker.
George Ade enjoyed reading from an early age, but he disliked manual labor and was not interested in becoming a farmer.
George Ade studied science at Purdue, but his grades began to falter after his first year when he became more active in the college's social life.
George Ade developed an interest in the theater and became a regular at the Grand Opera House in Lafayette, Indiana.
George Ade graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue in 1887.
George Ade briefly thought about becoming a lawyer, but abandoned the idea to pursue a career in journalism.
Collections of George Ade's columns were subsequently published as books, such as Artie, Pink Marsh, and Doc' Horne, which helped to increase the popularity of his column.
George Ade first introduced his fables in slang in the Chicago Record in 1897.
George Ade left the Chicago Record in 1899 to work on nationallysyndicated newspaper column of his fables in slang.
Fables in Slang, the first in a series of book of George Ade's fables, was popular with the public and for nearly twenty years more collections of his fables were compiled into additional books, ending with Hand-Made Fables.
George Ade's fables appeared in periodicals, the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company produced them as motion-picture shorts, and Art Helfant turned them into comic strips.
Ade's next show on Broadway was The Sultan of Sulu; an operetta with music by Alfred G Wathall for which Ade was the librettist.
George Ade's other works for Broadway include Peggy from Paris, a musical comedy; The County Chairman, a piece about small-town politics; The Sho-Gun, a musical set in Korea; and The College Widow, a comedy about college life and American collegiate football.
The best known and among the most successful of George Ade's Broadway plays are The County Chairman and The College Widow, which were adapted into motion pictures.
George Ade wrote scripts for moving pictures, such as Our Leading Citizen, Back Home and Broke, and Woman-Proof for actor Thomas Meighan.
George Ade wrote two films for Will Rogers, US Minister Bedlow and The County Chairman, a 1935-screen version of the play, but George Ade did not get along with Hollywood filmmakers.
George Ade wrote about his extensive travels, but he is best known for his humorous columns, essays, books, and plays.
George Ade was a big and pensive Literary Man, wearing a Prince Albert coat, a neat Derby Hat and godlike Whiskers.
George Ade invested his earnings in Newton County, Indiana, farmland, eventually owning about 2,400 acres.
George Ade named the property Hazelden, after his English grandparents' home, and moved from Chicago into the newly built residence in 1904.
George Ade added an adjacent golf course and country club in 1910.
George Ade spent the summer months at his Hazelden estate in Newton County, Indiana, and vacationed during the winter months at a rented home in Miami, Florida.
George Ade was an avid traveler who made trips around the world, as well as multiple trips to Europe, the West Indies, China, and Japan.
George Ade served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1908.
George Ade was a longtime supporter of Purdue University and Sigma Chi, his college fraternity.
George Ade served as national president of Sigma Chi in his later years and as a member of Purdue's board of trustees from 1909 to 1916.
George Ade donated funds for construction of Purdue's Memorial Gymnasium and its Memorial Union Building.
George Ade led a fund-raising campaign to endow the Sigma Chi mother house at Miami University, where the fraternity was originally established.
George Ade authored the Sigma Chi Creed in 1929, which is one of the central documents of the fraternity's philosophies.
George Ade's remains are interred at Fairlawn Cemetery in Kentland, in Iroquois Township, Newton County, Indiana.
George Ade bequeathed his library, manuscripts, and papers as well as most of his art objects to Purdue University.