39 Facts About Walter Hackett

Walter Laurence Hackett was an American playwright and theater manager.

Walter Hackett ran away from that institution to become a sailor, and subsequently worked in a variety of professions including horse trainer and school teacher.

Walter Hackett was primarily active as a journalist and a writer of short stories until he had three successful plays in succession, written with other writers: The Invader ; The Regeneration ; and The White Sister.

From this point on, most of his plays were staged in London's West End, and he earned the nickname Walter "Long Run" Hackett for his many plays that had lengthy runs in London.

Walter Laurence Hackett was born in Oakland, California, on November10,1876.

Walter Hackett was the son of Captain Edward Hackett, who lived in Oakland at a home at 1303 Jackson Street.

Walter Hackett later attended boarding school in Canada, the nation of his father's birth.

Walter Hackett ran away from that institution to obtain work as a sailor.

Walter Hackett was head of the planning committee for the horse races held at the 1895 Mayday fete of the Fabiola Hospital Association which took place at Oakland Trotting Park as a fund raiser for the hospital.

Walter Hackett served as one of the judges for the horse races, and was praised for his work on the front page of The Oakland Times on May13,1895.

Walter Hackett had his first professional experiences in theatre working as a "corner-man" in a minstrel show operated by J H Haverly.

Walter Hackett began his writing career as a writer of short stories.

Walter Hackett worked as a journalist and by 1901 was in Chicago working as the city editor for the Chicago American.

Walter Hackett was present at the First inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14,1901, in Buffalo, New York, and his reporting on that event appeared as a special dispatch in newspapers nationally.

Walter Hackett contributed work as a journalist to The Washington Star and New-York Tribune.

Walter Hackett co-wrote this work with playwright Francis Livingston, and the production starred Camille D'Arville and Lillian Burkhart.

Walter Hackett collaborated with Livingston again on a second play, the one-act farce The Way to Win a Husband, which they wrote specifically for Burkhart.

Walter Hackett spent the next several years focused on writing short stories, and his next play, My Mamie Rose, did not reach the stage until 1908.

Walter Hackett co-wrote his next play, The Invader, with Robert Hobart Davis.

Walter Hackett co-wrote The White Sister with Francis Marion Crawford, a work which Crawford had previously written as first an unperformed play and then as a serialized novel in Munsey's Magazine.

The idea for this collaborative project was birthed in 1907 when Walter Hackett visited Crawford at his home in Sorrento, Italy.

Walter Hackett next collaborated with Ren Shields in writing the book for the musical The Simple Life which had a score by composer P D DeCoster.

Walter altered the play and retitled it Homeward Bound for its premiere in December 1910 with Hackett credited as inspiring the theme of the play.

Walter Hackett disputed this credit, claiming he should be billed as a co-author of the work.

Walter disputed Hackett's claim; stating that while Hackett had written the intitial play, that after Walter purchased the rights to the work that he had almost completely remade the entire work.

Walter Hackett stated that "less than 200 words" of Hackett's original text remained in the play.

In 1912, Hackett sued Walter for failing to credit him as a co-author of the work.

In December 1912, Justice Edward Everett McCall of the New York Supreme Court granted an injunction preventing Fine Feathers from being performed unless Walter Hackett was credited as a co-author while the court considered the case.

Ultimately the court determined that Walter Hackett had sufficiently transformed the work, and could claim to be the sole author of the piece.

Walter Hackett then created the play Honest Jim Blunt for the character actor Tim Murphy, but the play had only a short life on the New York stage in 1912.

Walter Hackett rebounded however with the hit 1914play It Pays to Advertise which he co-authored with Roi Cooper Megrue.

The American press noted at the time that Walter Hackett had achieved greater success with London audiences and critics than he had in America.

Walter Hackett wrote the play on commission from Seymour Hicks.

Walter Hackett had two plays premiere at His Majesty's Theatre in the 1920s, The Wicked Earl, and Sorry You've Been Troubled.

Walter Hackett was manager of the Duke of York's Theatre in 1930, and then he and his wife were in control of the Whitehall Theatre from 1930 to 1934.

Several of Walter Hackett's plays were premiered at Whitehall during this period, including Take a Chance, Good Losers, The Gay Adventure, Road House, and Afterwards.

Walter Hackett left the Apollo in 1938 when he took over the lease of the Vaudeville Theatre.

In 1940, Walter Hackett returned to the United States and settled with his wife in New York City.

Walter Hackett died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being ill for a short period of time on January20,1944.