George Bruce was the adopted name of a popular pulp-fiction writer of the late 1920s through the early '40s who specialized in World War I aviation stories. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood and penned screenplays for a number of popular films for Paramount, MGM, Columbia, and Edward Small Productions. In the 1950s and '60s, he wrote for a variety of television shows.
Background
George Bruce (1898–1974) was born Daniel Fry Eyerly II, named after his grandfather. His parents were John Osborne Eyerly (1875–1955) and Annie Andrews Eyerly (1878–1982). Daniel Jr., his father, and grandfather were born in Danville, Pennsylvania, in the middle of the state. The elder sibling, Bruce had three brothers (b. 1904, 1909, 1914) and a sister (1906).
Daniel Fry Eyerly I (1850–1934), Bruce's grandfather, was employed for 43 years as a boilermaker at the Montour Iron and Steel Company, then the Reading Iron Works.“Former Resident Dies in Phila.”, The Danville News, August 18, 1934.
Bruce's father, John Osborne Eyerly, followed a different path. He may have been influenced by his uncle John William Eyerly (1861–1917), a lifelong Danville resident and printer in the local newspaper business.“John W. Eyerly Died Yesterday”, The Danville News, November 15, 1917. J.O. Eyerly's first known professional job was at a local Danville newspaper, The Gem; the four-pager, which eschewed headlines, was described as a “small, but none the less newsy little sheet”The Columbian (Bloomsburg, PA), January 2, 1902. When founder Richard W. Eggert retired in 1902, his employee J.O. bought and ran the paper.“The Gem and Its Founder”, The Brooklyn Eagle, January 12, 1902.
By 1904, The Gem had folded and J.O. was living in Scranton, working for the Harrisburg Patriot.The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA), December 24, 1904. By 1906, he had taken a job with the Butterick Publishing Company, Manhattan. In early 1906, he was transferred to their Philadelphia offices to handle Eastern advertising.The Danville Intelligencer, March 23, 1906. The family would permanently reside in Philly.
George Bruce claimed to have started writing at age nine, which would have been soon after the move to Philly.“Noted Writer Now Busy While in City for a 'Vacation' ”, The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), December 6, 1946.
In 1911, J.O. worked for the Philadelphia Item.The Danville News, August 21, 1911. In 1912, he was in the advertising department of the Philadelphia Bulletin.“Personals”, The Danville News, August 1, 1912. In 1918, he was superintendent of Allen, Lane & Scott, a Philadelphia mercantile printer.“Wayward Lads in Custody”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 11, 1918.
Daniel F. Eyerly II quit public school in 1911, with only seven years of education under his belt.George A. Bruce, Prisoner No. C 584, Received December 27, 1920, Eastern State Penitentiary, Convict Reception Records, 1909–1929, Pennsylvania, U.S., Prison, Reformatory, and Workhouse Records, 1829–1971 (Department of Justice, Bureau of Correction). In 1915, he seemed to follow in his father’s footsteps when he became business manager of the Boy Scout News, the official publication for the Philadelphia Boy Scouts, which had a circulation over 4,000.“Business Manager of Boy Scout Publication”, The Danville News, February 19, 1915. He was 16 years old.
World War I
On April 25, 1916, now 17, Daniel F. Eyerly enlisted in the U.S. Army.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File. The database correctly records George Bruce's birth date, death date, and Social Security Number; however, it lists his name as “George Alden”, an unused subset of his later penname George Alden Bruce; in any event, best information indicates that he was still using his birth name in 1916. Also, the database lists his service branch as unknown. Of most use, the database provides his enlistment and discharge dates, which comport with other sources.Letter of October 17, 1923, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Board of Pardons, to Governor Gifford Pinchot, in “Reason for Pardons granted by the Governor from January 1, 1923 to January 1, 1925,” Appendix to the Legislative Journal: Session of 1925 (Pennsylvania General Assembly), 4130–4131. This source confirms his service branch as the Army. It was a year before America entered the Great War. In the Army, he contracted tuberculosis “in the line of duty” and was sent to the “tuberculosis hospital” at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, for “many months”.Letter of October 17, 1923, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Board of Pardons, to Governor Gifford Pinchot, in “Reason for Pardons granted by the Governor from January 1, 1923 to January 1, 1925,” Appendix to the Legislative Journal: Session of 1925 (Pennsylvania General Assembly), 4130–4131. On September 11, 1917,U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File. he was “honorably discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability”.
In July 1918, Eyerly told members of the Danville Club (former Danville residents living in Philadelphia), that he was then or had been a sergeant major in the 6th Cavalry.“Danville Club's Annual Picnic”, The Danville News, July 22, 1918.
Soon thereafter, Eyerly was recorded as an associate editor for the Chilton Company, a Philadelphia firm that published automobile trade magazines.Draft Registration Card, Daniel Fry Eyerly, September 12, 1918.
Early writing
Eyerly left home when he was 21, that is, September 15, 1919, or later. His first known published work appeared in this period, a short story, “Jerry the Crouch”, in the March 1920 Blue Book Magazine. The FMI lists George Bruce’s magazine fiction under "Index by Name=Bruce, George (1898–1974)". A smartly-written tale of Chicago crooks, it featured characters named Cockney Joe, Fingers Slattery, Dutch Louey, Pompadour Hennessey—and Jerry the Crouch. The author was “George Bruce”. It's Eyerly's first known use of this name, suggesting that it was intended as a penname.
In early 1920, Eyerly moved to Akron, Ohio, and worked for B.F. Goodrich, the rubber tire manufacturer.Akron City Directory, 1920; “Music”, Akron Evening Times, April 20, 1920. He used the name George Alden Bruce or George A. Bruce.
In April and May, 1920, four poems by George Alden Bruce were published in the Akron Times. The first, “A Tribute to Women” (April 4), honored the role of mothers during wartime in anguishing over the fates of their sons. The last, “To a Picture in a Frame” (May 16), is an outright love poem, hinting at a motive for the move to Akron; for example:
The next evidence of his presence in the city is “Reward”, the “sweetest song of the decade”, copyrighted on July 12, 1920, with words by George Alden Bruce and music by Nathalie Peguignot, Akron, Ohio.“Reward”; sweetest song of the decade, words by George Alden Bruce, theme by Nathalie Peguignot, Akron, Ohio, July 12, 1920, Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Part 3: Musical Compositions: Last Half of 1920 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Copyright Office, 1920), 1404. He soon thereafter returned to Philadelphia “owing to illness”.“Taxi Thugs Safe in Jail”, Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), November 8, 1920. This article printed Bruce’s confession.
Going forward, he used the name George Alden Bruce, both as real name and penname, as late as 1928.Charles W. Lynch, Under the Hammer (column), New York American, January 1, 1928. This blurb contains the last found reference to George Alden Bruce.
Crime and incarceration
In Philadelphia, Bruce worked for the paper company Attell & Jones, where he met William Arnold Reick (1899–1969), Henry Winfield Bourne (1900–1978), and Leona Lillian O’Toole (1901–1937). Bruce and O’Toole “soon fell in love”. (Bruce was separated from a wife, presumably, his first wife Gertrude Sheehan (1898–1984).Documentary evidence of the marriage hasn’t surfaced, raising the question of whether they were, in fact, legally married.) After the employment fell through, the group lived in a boarding house where Bruce and O’Toole “played the part of man and wife”. On Saturday, October 16, 1920, all were kicked out, so Bruce registered them in two rooms in the Hotel Stenton, Philadelphia, claiming to be a theatrical group. On Sunday, they were joined by O’Toole’s friend Elizabeth “Betty” Malloy (1900–). Bruce, the “master mind” of the group, cooked up a plan whereby, with no money, they could go to Miami and from there visit Cuba.
On Monday, Reick and Malloy took the train to Coatesville, 39 miles west of Philly, where Reick was to try and get money from a friend.The case was covered daily in Western Pennsylvania newspapers, especially in Philadelphia and in the Coatesville Record. The coverage spanned two main periods: the initial incidents and then, two weeks later, when the assailants were captured. Meanwhile, Bruce phoned the American Taxicab Company for a limousine. Driver Harry A. Ward showed up at the Hotel Stenton in a 7-passenger Cadillac touring car. Bruce told Ward that he, Bourne, and O’Toole had to reach Coatesville in a hurry because O’Toole’s mother was dying in the hospital there. They sneaked out of the Stenton without paying."Taxicab Driver Held Up and Thrown from Machine", Coatesville Record, October 19, 1920.
Ward drove the trio along the Lincoln Highway to Coatesville’s Hotel Grand, where Reick and Malloy were waiting in the lobby. The five then told Ward that they were mistaken about the hospital, that it was actually in Philadelphia. On the drive back, near Frazer, Bruce, in the passenger seat, pointed a pistol at Ward and ordered him to pull over. Then, someone in the back clubbed him with a blackjack. He was thrown unconscious onto the side of the road. When he recovered sufficiently, he crawled to the nearest house. The resident called Philly police, who took Ward to Chester County Hospital. He was released the next day. But Bruce’s group had come perilously close to murder.
Near Philadelphia, the hood of the limo flew off; they didn’t stop to retrieve it. They turned southward, kept off the main highways, and “traveled mountainous roads in Virginia seldom traversed by motor vehicles.”“Motor Holdup Party Landed in County Jail”, Coatesville Record, November 8, 1920. They reached Berryville, Virginia on Wednesday morning, stopping at the Service Garage for repairs. Bruce claimed that the group was on their way to Roanoke where Bruce was to “give an entertainment”. He claimed that one of the women was famed film actress Dorothy Gish. He reported that they’d been assaulted by a “big automobile” outside Harpers Ferry, West Virginia that blinded them with headlights, held them up at gunpoint, stole “$3,800 in diamonds and money”, and damaged the limo.“Robbers Hold Up Auto; Get $3,800”, Clarke Courier (Berryville, VA), October 21, 1920.
At 1 a.m. Saturday morning, October 23, the group checked into the March Hotel, Lexington, North Carolina, claiming they had been robbed between Natural Bridge, Virginia and Roanoke. Bruce and O’Toole gave their names as Mr. and Mrs. Dan Eyerly. The limo was still missing its hood. Using varying names, and claiming to be “manufacturers of phonograph records”, they tried and failed to raise money around town. On Saturday afternoon, while pretending to repair the limo, they all piled in and sped away without paying the hotel.“Strangers Fleece Hotel Here”, The Dispatch (Lexington, NC), October 26, 1920.