Jay Presson Allen

Jay Presson Allen (March 3, 1922 – May 1, 2006) was an American screenwriter, playwright, stage director, television producer, and novelist. Known for her withering wit and sometimes-off-color wisecracks, she was one of the few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession. "You write to please yourself," she said, "The only office where there's no superior is the office of the scribe." Early life Allen was born Jacqueline Presson in San Angelo, Texas, the only child of Willie Mae (née Miller), a buyer, and Albert Jack Presson, a department store merchant. She was "never particularly fond of her given name", and decided to use her first initial when writing. She would spend every Saturday and Sunday in the movie house, from one o'clock until somebody dragged her out at seven. From that time on movies became very important to her, and Allen knew she would not be staying in West Texas. Allen attended Miss Hockaday's School for Young Ladies in Dallas for a couple of years, but came away, in her words, "having had no education to speak of." She skipped college and at 18 left home to become an actress. In New York, her career lasted "for about twenty-five minutes", Allen says, when she realized that she only liked rehearsals and the first week of performance, and would rather be "out there" where the decisions were being made. In the early 1940s, Allen married "the first grown man who asked me," Robert M. Davis, a promising young singer, and they lived in Claremont, California, during World War II. She continued acting while in California; she has a small credited role (under the name Jay Presson) in the 1945 film An Angel Comes to Brooklyn and can be glimpsed briefly as "Miss Zelda" in the 1946 film Gay Blades. Writing career Allen became a writer by default, having always read constantly. Being able to write pretty well, she decided to "write her way out" of the marriage and set out to become financially independent of her husband. She always claimed her first husband's big fault was marrying someone too young.