Bradford Ropes (January 1, 1905 – November 21, 1966) was an American novelist and screenwriter whose work includes the novel 42nd Street that was adapted into the 1933 film of the same name, which then became a Tony Award-winning stage musical.[1] The same year, his next novel, Stage Mother, was also adapted to film,[2] Ropes’s novels were inspired by his own experiences as a performer, and focused on the lives of gay men in show business.[3] He also wrote many Western stories, screenplays for Roy Rogers and Rex Allen, and contributed to films starring Abbott and Costello as well as Laurel and Hardy.

Ropes wrote in 1932 that America was still waiting for the "Uncle Tom's Cabin of the chorus girl."[4]

Born in Boston, Ropes died in the Wollaston section of Quincy, Massachusetts at the age of 61.

Works

Novels

  • 42nd Street (1932)
  • Stage Mother (1933)
  • Go Into Your Dance (1934)
  • Mr. Tilley Takes a Walk (1951)

Films (screenplays unless noted)

Further reading

  • Maya Cantu: Greasepaint Puritan : Boston to 42nd street in the queer backstage novels of Bradford Ropes, Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2024, ISBN 978-0-472-07657-4

References

  1. ^ James, Rian & Seymour, James (May 18, 1980). 42nd Street. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 12. – via Internet Archive. bradford ropes.
  2. ^ Barrios, Richard (1995). A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. Oxford University Press. p. 396. ISBN 9780195088113. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  3. ^ Cantu, Maya Greasepaint Puritan: Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes, University of Michigan Press, 2024, passim
  4. ^ Graham, T. Austin (January 21, 2013). The Great American Songbooks: Musical Texts, Modernism, and the Value of Popular Culture. OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-986211-5. – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Bradford Ropes" AFI Catalog