Wilson Mizner
| Wilson Mizner | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 19, 1876 Benicia, California, U.S. |
| Died | April 3, 1933 (aged 56) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | writer, entrepreneur |
| Notable works |
One Way Passage 20,000 Years in Sing Sing The Little Giant |
| Years active | 1908-1933 1909-1912 (as playwright) 1931-1933 (in Hollywood) |
Wilson Mizner (May 19, 1876 – April 3, 1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are The Deep Purple, produced in 1910, and The Greyhound, produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California, and was affiliated with his brother, Addison Mizner, in a series of scams and picaresque misadventures that inspired Stephen Sondheim's musical Road Show (alternately known as Wise Guys, Gold! and Bounce).
Wilson ("Bill") Mizner was born in Benicia, California, one of eight children including brothers William, Edgar, Murray, Addison, Henry, and Lansing and sister Mary. Sir Joshua Reynolds was their great great uncle. Their father, Lansing Bond Mizner, was named Benjamin Harrison's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Central American states, and the family moved to Guatemala, the brothers spending their teenage years there—robbing churches, they later claimed.
In 1897, Addison and Wilson, with brothers William and Edgar, traveled north to the Klondike Gold Rush, which they spent bilking miners rather than looking for gold. Wilson operated badger games, managed fighters, robbed a restaurant to get chocolate for his girlfriend "Nellie the Pig" Lamore (saying "Your chocolates or your life!"), and grub-staked prospector Sid Grauman, later of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. He also met Wyatt Earp, who became a lifelong friend. In Skagway, Alaska, Wilson met Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, whom Wilson considered his mentor.
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