- Brother-in-law of Madge Lessing.
- Father: William Henry McLellan; Mother: Florida McLanathan.
- C.M.S. McLellan's melodrama 'Leah Kleschna' was portrayed by Carlotta Nillson in the 1913 silent film version produced by the Famous Players Film Company.
- His musical 'The Belle of New York' was made into two Hollywood films, the first in 1919 with Marion Davies, Etienne Girardot and L. Rogers Lytton, and the second in 1952 with Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Marjorie Main and Keenan Wynn.
- McLellan is probably best remembered for the musical The Belle of New York and the drama Leah Kleschna.
- McLellan's first major success, The Belle of New York, opened at the Casino Theatre on September 28, 1897, to mixed reviews and closed after a two-month run. The following year the show was brought to London, where it opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 12, 1898, and went on to have an extremely successful run of 697 consecutive performances, closing on December 30, 1899.
- His mother Florida McLellan, the daughter of a ship's captain, was described in her 1898 obituary as having "unusual business talent and tact.".
- McLellan began as a journalist, eventually rising to become editor of the publication Town Topics.
- His 'Leah Kleschna', a melodrama about the daughter of a Paris jewel thief, was first produced at the Manhattan Theatre in December 1904, and the following year at London's New Theatre. Minnie Maddern Fiske played the title role in New York, and Lena Ashwell played it in Londo.
- After finding success in the late 1890s, he left journalism to write full-time for the stage.
- He was a London-based American playwright and composer who often wrote under the pseudonym Hugh Morton.
- A few years after his death his son married the French actress Yvonne Arnaud and in 1927 his wife Marie McLellan published a revised version of his musical The Belle of New York.
- Over the remainder of his life, McLellan produced a steady stream of mostly light and often popular musical comedies, frequently in collaboration with the composer Gustave Kerker and later Ivan Caryll.
- His father was a successful wholesaler who later formed the shipbuilding firm, E and S. Company.
- At an early age, McLellan's family moved to Boston, where he attended Hopkinson School (founded by the father of artist Charles Hopkinson) and Chauncy Hall Preparatory School.
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