Alberta Women Who ‘Make News

Include Noted_.Nove|ist, Scenarist,

This article is the ninth in
a Saturday series concerning
Alberta women. who have
made news in the west.

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T may be t  ','Mrs'.«,F:anc1s
F. Reeve _ _ .  quietly"
now, as she’ 5:1: is not true

that shealwa “ has. It is not true
that she has “no story to tell.”

As. the author of 24 successful
novels and hundreds of popular
scenarios, Mrs. Reeve has had a
‘life as varied and interesting as
any of the stories she has written
under her pen name, Onoto Wa-
tanna.

Her first story, “A Poor Devil",
was published in a Montreal news-
paper when she was only 13 years
of age, and at 17 she whisked off
to Jamaica to comprise the other
half of the staff of a tiny West
Indian newspaper.

Returning to America, she did
all sorts of jobs, beginning as a
stenogragher in the soap depart-
ment of a packing plant, confesses
that she cooked her suppers over
a gas jet, and was frequently down
to her last ten cents. She managed,
however, to put herself through
Columbia University, and gradu-
ally, although her manuscripts
came back with “unflattering re-
gularity," established herself as an
author.

Many of her stories are about

' Japan, including the world-famous

"A Japanese Nightingale”, which
had a sale of over 200,000, was
translated into many other
languages, and was produced as a
play in America, England and
France. ‘

Surprisingly enough. Mrs.
Reeve has never been to Japan.
She was born in Montreal, one of
14 children, and her knowledge of
the oriental country came to her
through her father, the late Ed-
ward Eaton, son of the Squire of
Macclesfield, and at one time one
of the wealthiest men in Japan.

Slie has always thought the
Orient a fascinating setting for
stories, she explains, and since her

., sister wrote successfully about

China, she chose Japan. “Actu-
ally,” she says “I’m ashamed of
having written about the Japanese.
I hate them so.” She is herself

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Mrs. Francis Reeve

partly Chinese »/on her mother's
side, and very proud of the fact.

Mrs. Reeve was already well-
known as a novelist when she
sought and won fame in another
field —-— movies. Going to New
York, she was given a contract as
scenario writer for Universal Pic-
tures, and within three months
became editor-in-chief of the de-
partment, handling stories in sev-
eral different studios in New York
and Hollywood. She was editor-
in-chief for’ Universal for five
years, and later spent a year and
a half as a scenarist for Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer. In these capaci-
ties, she wrote hundreds of screen
plays. titles, adaptations, and
“treatments.” One of her assign-
ments for Universal was the
adaptation of Edna Ferber's
"Show Boat.”

She loves Hollywood. but doesn't, ,
think it has glamor. “No indeed,"
she smiled, quoting one of her own
little jingles:

“Twinkle, twinkle, movie star

Who in heck do you think you
are?

Just a year ago, sweet Mabel,

You were waiting on a table."

Mrs. Reeve insists that she has
retired---—“I have nothing to say
to the world which someone else
cannot say very much better."
Among those “someone elses" she
would probably place her son, Paul
Eaton Reeve, New York poet and
critic, of whom she is very proud.
Mrs. Reeve spends her time very
pleasantly in a beautiful home fill-
ed with objects of art, and sur-
rounded by a pleasant garden in
which she is nearly always to be
found. Their home is “open house"
to any airmen who wish to go
there, Mrs. Reeve says, and she
and her husband always take some
of the lads with them on the trips
which they make to Banff almost
every week-end.

Very fond of riding, Mrs. Reeve
particularly enjoys these outings

which give her an opportunity to
"end hours on the mountain

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