18 Facts About Lynn Riggs

Rollie Lynn Riggs was an American author, poet, playwright and screenwriter.

Lynn Riggs was able to draw on his allotment to help support his writing.

Lynn Riggs was educated at the Eastern University Preparatory School in Claremore, Oklahoma, starting in 1912.

Lynn Riggs graduated from high school in 1917, and travelled to Chicago and New York City.

Lynn Riggs worked for the Adams Express Company in Chicago, wrote for the Wall Street Journal, sold books at Macy's and swept out Wall Street offices.

However, Lynn Riggs became ill with tuberculosis during his senior year and did not graduate.

Lynn Riggs then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to improve his health and soon joined a group of artists.

Lynn Riggs wrote 21 full-length plays, several short stories, poems, and a television script.

Lynn Riggs's first major production was a one-act play, Knives from Syria, which was produced by the Santa Fe Players in 1925.

Lynn Riggs began teaching at the Lewis Institute in Chicago, while continuing to write.

Lynn Riggs began writing his most famous play Green Grow the Lilacs in the Cafe Les Deux Magots on the Left Bank in Paris.

Lynn Riggs completed this play five months later in Cagnes-sur-Mer, in Southern France.

Lynn Riggs then lived in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and New York, and was a screenwriter for Paramount and Universal Studios.

Lynn Riggs was homosexual and was often a non-romantic escort for Hollywood actresses including Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Lynn Riggs was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1943, and in 1965 he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Lynn Riggs died on June 30,1954 of stomach cancer in New York City.

Lynn Riggs was buried in Claremore, Oklahoma, where at his funeral the governor had a state flag laid over his coffin.

Lynn Riggs is further memorialized by the Lynn Riggs Black Box Theater, located in Oklahoma and named in his honor.