Sidney Kingsley

Sidney Kingsley (22 October 1906 – 20 March 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934. Life and career Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied at Cornell University, where he began his career writing plays for the college dramatic club. He joined the Group Theater for the production of his first major work. In 1933 the company performed his play Men in White. Set in a hospital, the play dealt with the issue of illegal abortion, 1930s medical and surgical practices, and the struggle of one promising physician who must choose to dedicate his life to medicine or devote himself to his fiancée. The play was a box-office smash. Kingsley followed this success with the play Dead End in 1935, a story about slum housing and its connection to crime. The play was fairly successful, eventually spawning the film Dead End Kids. In 2022, Dead End was adapted as a musical and released as a concept album (aka audiobook musical). "Dead End the Musical" was written by Neil Fishman (Music), Harvey Edelman (Lyrics), and Peter C. Palame (Book). Kingsley's two successful plays were followed by his 1936 anti-war play Ten Million Ghosts and his 1939 The World We Make, which were flops and had short runs. Despite reaching the rank of lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II, soon after 1951 HUAC put Kingsley's name on the Hollywood Blacklist. Being on the Blacklist is the main reason he never had a Hollywood film adaption after 1951.