Martha Melean Stanley, née Martha Norwood Burgess (November 20, 1867 – January 15, 1950), also known as Martha Norwood Stanley, was an American playwright from Massachusetts.Martha Norwood Burgess was apparently born on November 20, 1867, which is the date in the Massachusetts Birth Records 1840-1915 (via Ancestry), in the California Death Index, 1940-1997, (via Ancestry), on her gravestone, and in IMDB. Some sources give later dates; the listing for her novel in HathiTrust gives her birth date as 1872, but the HathiTrust listing for Nightie Night gives her birth date as 1879. Her 1922 application for a US passport also gives the 1872 birth year. However, she appears as a small child in her parents' household in the 1870 census, via Ancestry. She wrote fiction and stage dramas, and collaborated with playwright Adelaide Matthews to create several successful comedies in the 1920s. Some of her works have been adapted to film.

Early life Martha "Mattie" Burgess was born in Harwich, Massachusetts, the daughter of Stephen Burgess and Lydia Sears Foster Burgess. Both of her parents were also born in Harwich. Her father was a sea captain. She married Canadian-born printer John R. Stanley in 1894.John R. Stanley and Mattie N. Burgess married at Boston on October 17, 1894, according to the Massachusetts Marriage Records, 1840-1915, via Ancestry.

Career She wrote short fiction for magazines, and a novel, before she wrote her first play with her "girlhood friend", Adelaide Matthews.

She moved to Los Angeles. Her husband died in 1937.

Reviews Stanley and Matthews's first show, Nightie Night, was a hit in New York, so much that there were questions about whether two new playwrights were the actual authors, or whether their names were a pseudonym for an established playwright such as Jane Cowl or Jane Murfin. However, "the reason for its superior workmanship was the fact that they had studied their art from the ground up and spent a great many years in perfecting their technique," explained a newspaper reviewer in 1920. In 1921 The New York Times profiled Stanley and Matthews under the headline "Two Sudden Playwrights."

The Los Angeles Herald called Nightie Night "a merry, giggle-ful little play" that handles romantic farce with "tact" instead of vulgarity. The New York Times called their 1921 show The Teaser an "ingenious comedy".

Death and burial She died in 1950 at the age of 82. Both of the Stanleys' graves are in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.

Works

Non-fiction

"'Took the Cake': 'Sweet Charity' Made Sweeter" (1894, Boston Post)

Fiction The Souls of Men (1913, novel, illustrated by Joseph Cummings Chase) "In the Discard" (1915, short story) Argosy Volume 79 Issue 4 "Times Have Changed" (1915, short story), Young's

Plays Nighty Night (September 9, 1919 – January 17, 1920) Scrambled Wives (August 5, 1920 – September 1920) The Teaser (1921) The House of Chance (1921) The House in the Woods (1921), along with Adelaide Matthews Long Live the Queen (1921), along with Adelaide Matthews My Son (September 17, 1924 – May 1925) New Houses (1925) Puppy Love (January 27, 1926 – May 1926) The Wasp's Nest (October 25, 1927 – November 1927) Carnival of Lies (1927) Let and Sub-Let (May 19, 1930 – June 1930) The First Mrs. Chiverick

Filmography Scrambled Wives (1921) based on the play The First Mrs. Chiverick by Adelaide Matthews and Martha M. Stanley

My Son (1925) The Teaser (1925)

References

External links Martha M. Stanley, The Souls of Men (G. W. Dillingham Company 1913); via HathiTrust. Martha M. Stanley and Adelaide Matthews, Nightie Night: A Farce in a Prologue and Three Acts (S. French 1929). via HathiTrust.