Wanda Tuchock

Wanda Tuchock was an advertising copywriter, screenwriter, director, and producer during the 20th century. She was credited for writing for over thirty films, and was one of the first women in the 1930s to be credited as a director on a Hollywood film.^[1][2] She retired in 1973 and died in 1985.^[3]

Personal life

Wanda Tuchock was born on March 20, 1898 in Pueblo, Colorado. Tuchock attended the University of California at Los Angeles. She married George DeNormand, who was born on September 22, 1903 in New York and died on December 23, 1976 in California. He was an actor and director.^[4] Tuchock retired at the age of 75 in 1973. She died on February 10, 1985 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital of an undisclosed illness at the age of 86.^[5]

Career

Wanda Tuchock began her career as an advertising copy editor. In 1927, at the age of 30, she entered the silent film industry. Tuchock only had one Silent Film credit which allowed her to become “one of the few women who began her career in the silent era and was able to maintain her career in Hollywood during the early sound years” (Koerner 2013).^[6] Wanda Tuchock worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, also known as MGM. She was one of the few female screenwriters who worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the early 1930s.^[7] Between the 1930s and the 1950s, she drew in thirty-one writing credits, two directing credits, and one producer credit.^[8] In the 1950s, she produced, wrote, and directed a short called Road Runners.^[9]

Milestones

Tuchock had many milestones for a woman in the film industry during the early to mid 20th century. She wrote the adaptation film "Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise). Tuchock co-directed and wrote the film Finishing School (film) with George Nichols Jr.^[10] She penned the screenplay for “Hallelujah” which was the first black-cast film produced in Hollywood.^[11] She wrote the musical “Youth Will Be Served”. Tuchock penned the screenplay for the film “The Foxes of Harrow”. She also scripted the original adaptation of the film Little Orphan Annie. The film was based on the original comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray.^[12]

Achievements

Wanda Tuchock achieved more in the 20th century than most women in the film industry did during that period. Apart from Dorothy Arzner, Tuchock was the only woman to receive directing credit on a Hollywood studio film in the 1930s. This was on the film Finishing School (film) with co-director George Nichols Jr.^[13] Another achievement that was rare for a woman in the film industry during the early 20th century was to be a female screenwriter who worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[14] Tuchock was named a charter member of the Screen Writers Guild.^[15] Tuchock was named as a lifetime member of the Board of Trustees of the Motion Picture and Television Fund.^[16]

Filmography

Writer

• Show People- 1928
• Hallelujiah- 1929
• Not So Dumb- 1930
• Billy The Kid- 1930
• Sporting Blood- 1931
• Susan Lenox: Her Rise and Fall- 1931
• The Champ- 1931 Additional Dialogue
• Letty Lynton- 1932 Adaptation of the Marie Belloc Lowndes novel
• New Morals for Old- 1932 Additional Dialogue
• Birds of Paradise- 1932 screenplay
• Little Orphan Annie- 1932
• No Other Woman- 1933
• Bed of Roses- 1933 by
• Little Women- 1933 contributing writer
• Finishing School- 1934
• Ready For Love- 1934
• Grand Old Girl- 1935 contributor to screenplay
• O'Shaughnessy's Boy- 1935 screenplay
• Hawaii Calls- 1938 screenplay
• The Llano Kid- 1939 screenplay
• Youth Will Be Served- 1940
• For Beauty's Sake- 1941
• This is the Life- 1944
• Ladies of Washington- 1944
• Sunday Dinner for a Soldier- 1944
• Nob Hill- 1945
• Within These Walls- 1945
• The Homestretch- 1947
• The Foxes of Harrow- 1947
• Road Runners- 1952 short
• The Living Swamp- 1955 short documentary
• Man Without a Gun- 1959 TV series, 1 episode Daughter of the Dragon

^[17]

Director

• Finishing School- 1934
• Ready For Love- 1934
• Road Runners- 1952

^[18]

Producer

• Road Runners- 1952

^[19]

References