Emily Brown Heininger
- Writer
Born in Huntsville, Texas, Emily Brown was the daughter of an
Episcipol Minister and a Homemaker. She was one of ten children. Her
first job was as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. In 1908 she
married Howard Heininger, a Western Union telegraph operator, in El
Paso, Texas. In 1912 Emily, now Emily Brown Heininger, moved with her
husband to Chicago, Illinois. In 1913 she was hired by Essanay Studios
as a scenario writer. She and Director E. Mason Hopper became fast
friends and she quickly became adept at writing slap-stick comedy.
Known as "Heinie" to her friends she became close to actor Ben Turpin
and fellow writer George Ade. In 1914 William Lord Wright of the New
York Dramatic Mirror wrote of her "Emily Brown Heininger, comedy
scenario writer for Essanay, is the one rival of E. W. Sargent on
slap-stick comedy." Sargent was a prolific scenario writer of the time.
After a time Emily left Essanay and wrote freelance. She had films of
her scenarios made at Essanay, Selig Polyscope and Vitagraph. She was
also a prolific newspaper and magazine writer. She was published in The
Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, Movie Pictorial Magazine,
Motion Picture Story Magazine, and Photoplay. Emily died in Houston,
Texas in 1958.