Bella Cohen Spewack

Bella Spewack was a playwright, screenwriter, and journalist. She began her career as a journalist for socialist and pacifist papers such as The New York Call. Her work drew attention from a young reporter for The World, Samuel Spewack, whom she married in 1922. Shortly afterwards, the Spewacks, both of Eastern European descent, worked for four years as news correspondents in Moscow. After returning to New York, they wrote plays and movies involving slapstick humor and stereotypical comic characters, the most notable of which was Kiss Me Kate, a take-off of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Cole Porter provided the music for this popular production. When she wasn't writing plays and movie scripts, Bella Spewack was a successful publicist for the Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts.

Education and Training:
Washington Irving High School, New York, New York, 1917

Teachers and Influences:
Bella Spewack co-wrote many plays and screenplays with her husband Samuel Spewack.

Connection to Bucks County:
Bella and Sam Spewack lived in the New Hope area during the 1930s. They were still living in Bucks County when the Bucks County Playhouse opened in 1939, but it is uncertain when they moved back to New York.

Colleagues and Affiliations:
Bella Spewack's colleagues in Bucks County included her husband, Samuel Spewack, as well as Don Hedges, Jerome Chodorov, Donald and Audrey Walker, and George Kaufman, who helped revise one of the Spewacks' more successful plays, Spring Song.

Teaching and Professional Appointments:
President, New York Girls Scholarship Fund
Camp Fire Girls, National Publicity Director, Girl Scouts. She was the first person to suggest the Girl Scout's cookie sales.

Affiliations and Memberships:
Dramatists Guild
Screenwriters Guild

Screenplays:
Written with Samuel Spewack:
When Ladies Meet, 1933
Should Ladies Behave? 1933
The Nuisance, 1933
The Cat and the Fiddle, 1934,
Rendevous, 1935
Vogues of 1938, 1937,
The Chaser, 1938
Three Loves Has Nancy, 1938
My Favorite Wife, 1940, starring Cary Grant
Weekend at the Waldorf, 1945
We're No Angels, Move Over Darling

Plays:
Written with Samuel Spewack:
Solitaire Man, 1926
Poppa, 1928
War Song, 1928
Clear All Wires, 1932
Spring Song, 1934

Major Awards:
Academy Award Nomination, Best Original Story, My Favorite Wife, 1940
Tony Award, Best Musical, Kiss Me Kate with Samuel Spewack and Cole Porter, 1949