Chase, Gertrude Putnam, 1889-1954
Biography
Twentieth century American film critic and silent film screenwriter. Gertrude Putnam McManus was born on December 28, 1889, in New York to Gertrude Putnam and William McManus. She was married to Horace Stanley Chase (1883-1955) from 1913-1919 and had two children, Marion and Horace Gair Chase II, named after his paternal grandfather. She was a film critic and reviewer for the New York Tribune in the early 1920s and worked on silent films, most significantly as a contributing writer to the 1924 The Enchanted Forest. She wrote intertitles for other films. Chase married artist Everett Shinn in 1924 and moved to Westport, Connecticut. She acted in plays locally, but declined to perform on Broadway, as Shinn disapproved. In 1932 Gertrude sued Everett for divorce on grounds of cruelty, and she resumed using Chase as her family name. She retained their home in Westport and a number of Shinn's paintings. She died on August 7, 1954.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Gertrude Chase family collection of Everett Shinn
Collection documents the personal and artistic life of American twentieth-century painter Everett Shinn through his love letters to his third wife, Gertrude Chase, and the Chase family's management of their Shinn paintings following the divorce in 1932. Materials include correspondence, exhibit programs, and newspaper clippings. Shinn's letters to Chase also include illustrations and poems he composed for her.
Collection is open for research.