A leading American journalist and playwright, Ben Hecht (1894-1964) became Hollywood's most prolific and sought-after scriptwriter of his time.

Ben Hecht was born on February 28, 1894, in New York City, although he grew up and attended school in Racine, Wisconsin, where his mother owned a store. On graduation from high school, he worked as an acrobat and then owned and managed a theater.

In 1910 he went to Chicago, where he got a job as a reporter for the Chicago Journal. At the time there were seven news-gathering organizations in the city, so the competition was cutthroat. Hecht proved himself one of the best at getting exclusives, although his methods were at least unorthodox. On one occasion he was sent by his city editor to get a photograph of a girl who had joined in a suicide pact with a married clergyman; of course, reporters from other newspapers had been...