Virginia Van Upp
| Virginia Van Upp | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 13, 1902 Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Died | March 25, 1970 (aged 68) Los Angeles, California US |
| Occupation | Film producer Screenwriter |
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Virginia Van Upp (January 13, 1902 – March 25, 1970) was an American film producer and screenwriter.
Vann Upp was born in Chicago, the daughter of Harry and Helen Van Upp. Mrs Van Upp had been an editor and title writer for Thomas H. Ince.
Van Upp performed in several silent films as a child actress. She soon worked her way up in the film industry becoming a script writer, film editor, script reader, casting director, and agent.
Her first screenplay credit was for Paramount Pictures' The Pursuit of Happiness in 1934. She was a prolific writer and rewriter of screenplays for Paramount until 1943.
Ever on the lookout for talent, Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures hired her from Paramount to do the screenplay of Cover Girl, after several other writers failed to make a satisfying screenplay. Cover Girl was designed as a massive Technicolor blockbuster for Columbia's Rita Hayworth. Cohn surrounded his star with the best talent available, such as costume designers Travis Banton and Gwen Wakeling, who had extensive experience in big budget 20th Century Fox films. Cohn was initially reluctant to have Gene Kelly from MGM as Hayworth's co-star, until he was convinced that Kelly and his assistant Stanley Donen would do the choreography for the film for no extra fee. Van Upp not only fashioned a successful screenplay from the discarded drafts, but most importantly, gained the confidence of Rita Hayworth, becoming a friend and a mediator between her and the studio - even supervising Rita's costumes and rewriting her own screenplay for Hayworth's new persona.
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