Anne Caldwell

Anne Caldwell (née Anne Payson Caldwell; 30 August 1868 – 22 October 1936), also known as Anne Caldwell O'Dea, was a prolific playwright and lyricist. She wrote both pop songs and Broadway shows, sometimes working with composer Jerome Kern.

Anne Caldwell was born Anne Marsh Caldwell in Boston, Massachusetts.

She began her career at the Juvenile Opera Co. as one of only four female songwriters active in the early 1900s. She was a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers where her output between 1907 through 1928 focused mainly on Broadway scores. In 1929, lured by producer William LeBaron, she went to Hollywood where she became a script doctor and write lyrics for RKO Pictures. It was announced that she was engaged by Max Hart to write songs with Harry Tierny. By October she was signed to write the lyrics for the film Dixiana.

From 1900 to the mid 1920s, she mostly collaborated with composer Jerome Kern. Her first collaboration with Kern was the musical, She’s a Good Fellow, followed by The Night Boat. The Night Boat was one of Caldwell and Kern’s more successful shows but is generally not considered revivable today. The plots and comedy of their shows don’t satisfy contemporary audiences. Her final credited work was a radio adaptation of the 1933 film (on which she had also worked) Flying Down to Rio.

Until the careers of Caldwell, along with Rida Johnson Young and Dorothy Donnelly, writing American musical comedy was a male profession. They helped established the idea that a female writer could create works for the stage that were equally as satirical, witty, timely, and simply as comical as the work of any man.

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