Roy Larcom McCardell (June 30, 1870 - after 1940) was an American journalist, scenarist, humorist and writer.
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Roy McCardell was born in 1870 in Hagerstown, Maryland. His father was the editor of the Hagerstown Mail. When he became the editor of the Evening Times in Cumberland, Maryland, the family moved there. Roy McCardell went to school there until he was twelve. He then started writing for his father's newspaper before becoming a regular contributor to Puck, the leading American satirical magazine.[1]
When he was 17, he went to Birmingham, Alabama as a reporter for the Age-Herald. Many of his contributions were copied in magazines like Frank Leslie's Weekly. He got noticed by Arthur Brisbane who offered him a position on the Evening Sun in New York. Apart from regular journalistic work, he also provided serialized novels to the newspaper. He then moved on to the New York World and finally became a staff member of Puck. McCardell also worked as an editor for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Morning Telegraph and the Metropolitan Magazine. He wrote a number of syndicated serialised articles, most famously the daily Jarr Family which appeared in several hundred newspapers.[1]
In 1896, when McCardell learned that the New York World had acquired a color press, he suggested that they would use it for a comic supplement. Editor Morrill Goddard approved of the idea, but all comic artists of the day were already contracted by other newspapers. McCardell then suggested to use the young artist Richard F. Outcault. Goddard supervised the new supplement, made by Outcault and McCardell, and the first Sunday paper comic supplement in color was the November 6, 1896 issue of the Sunday World, featuring The Yellow Kid. The circulation of the Sunday paper increased from about 140,000 to 800,000 in the next six months, but dropped again to 400,000 after Outcault moved to the New York Sunday American.[1]
From 1897 on, McCardell started writing movie scenarios, eventually witing over a 1,000 of them. He has been credited as the first person hired by a movie company, in this case American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1900, to produce stories.[2] The best known of these was A Fool There Was (1915), popularizing the movie vampire. Many of his scenarios, like many of his other writings as well, won prizes from competitions from Puck, Collier's Weekly, and a $10,000 prize from the American Film Company for best scenario for a film serial for The Diamond from the Sky (1915), which was shown in 8,000 theaters in the United States before being shown elsewhere, but is now considered to be a lost film.[1]
Furthermore, he wrote books adverts, a play called The Gay Life, songs, poetry, and sketches. He also appeared as himself in the extended version of the Winsor McCay animated movie Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). He spent most of his time on movie writing, with the Jarr Family serial as a steady source of income next to it.[1]
Roy McCardell lived most of his adult life in New Rochelle, New York. He had a daughter Frances, born in 1892, who was an expert automobile driver by the age of 14, when she won a Cadillac.[3] She eloped when she was 18 and married a wealthy 30-year old.[4] He also had a daughter Dorothy.
Among the more than 1,000 scenarios McCardell wrote are the following movies and serials: