Lawrence Riley

(The disambiguation page referred to above also has people named Lawrence Riley.)

Lawrence Riley (1896–1974) was a successful American playwright and screenwriter. He gained fame in 1934 as the author of the Broadway hit Personal Appearance, which was turned by Mae West into the film Go West, Young Man (1936).

Riley was a Princeton University alumnus and a World War I veteran, who served in the US Army. He started as a journalist on the East Coast. Subsequently, Riley achieved success as a playwright, which led to his becoming a sought-after Hollywood screenwriter. His wife, née Virginia Sweeney, was also a writer. Riley was a member of the Authors League and of Dramatists, Inc. Originally from Warren, Pennsylvania, Riley also lived in Bradford, and located the action of his breakthrough play, Personal Appearance, in Pennsylvania. This play earned him a fortune. During his career as a screenwriter, he owned homes in both New York City and Hollywood. Until his demise, the Rileys had been long-time residents of Riverside, a section of the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, the well-known community of the "rich and famous." Lawrence Riley died on November 29, 1974, at Stamford Hospital, in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of 78.

Riley's first and most famous play is Personal Appearance, a three-act comedy produced by the legendary Brock Pemberton of Tony Awards fame. It opened in 1934 at New York's Henry Miller Theatre and was a huge Broadway success, lasting for 501 performances. It starred Gladys George as a movie star and diva who encounters a young and handsome mechanic while on a tour making personal appearances to promote her latest film. Their ill-fated romance provides a biting satire of Hollywood. In 1935, Samuel French published Personal Appearance: a New Comedy in Three Acts in Los Angeles and New York. This play launched Riley's career as a playwright.

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