Eve Unsell

Eve Unsell
In 1916
Born	1887 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died	July 6, 1937 Hollywood, California, USA
Occupation	Screenwriter
Years active	1914–1933

Eve Unsell (1887 – July 6, 1937), was an American screenwriter. She wrote for 96 films between 1914 and 1933. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, and died in Hollywood, California. Eve Unsell (1887-July, 6th 1937) was an American scenarist who was known to also use the pseudonym, Oliver W. Geoffreys as well as, E.M. Unsell. She was born in Chicago Illinois and died on July 6, 1937. There is little documentation of her private life except that she was married in 1911 until her death, to a man named Lester Blankfield. Eve Unsell was a professional in her career as a scenarist, overcoming many challenges along the way.Eve wrote for over 96 films in her lifetime, and edited over ten. Some of her most famous screen writes turned into productions include The Ancient Mariner (1925), The Spirit Of Youth (1929), Shadows (1922), and The Plastic Age (1925). Although she was most famous for her work in scenario writing she can also be given credit as an adapter, company director, editor, play reader, screenwriter, theatre actress, and writer. She helped in the writing of many novels as long as editing many different pieces from literature to theatrical writing.

Unsell underwent training as a journalist and magazine writer for the Kansas City Post and attended Emerson College in Boston for her postgraduate year, studying literature and drama. The theatrical agent, Beatrice DeMille was so impressed with one of Unsell’s short stories that she hired young Eve as a play reader for her theatrical company in New York. DeMille became a mentor to Eve, giving her the motivation she needed to further her career. Beatrice’s two son’s Cecil and William, partnered with future theatre impresario David Belasco, later took over Beatrice’s company, becoming mentors to Eve as well. In the article, “The Rise Of The Continuity Writer,” featured in Writer’s Monthly, Eve wrote of her mentors, “Masters of screen technique as the DeMille’s have realized the necessity for not only recruiting the eminent authors for screen ranks but for training young writers to become technicians of screen detail, for the purpose of successfully translating the ‘big ideas’ of the big authors in screen terms, and so, close on the heels of the plot itself.” This is where she learned plot construction, or what she liked to call it, plot ‘detecting’. Eve gained much experience under the DeMille’s and David Blasco. Blasco, who cast her in the theatrical comedy “Excuse Me,” gave Unsell two years of on stage experience that would later help in her better understanding of acting and screen writing. It was not until 1913 that Eve’s hard work in screen writing paid off. That year Moving Picture World announced that she would sell several film scenarios to the Pathe Freres, and the Kalem Company, who decided to produce Unsell’s scenario, The Pawnbroker’s Daughter.

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