Maurice S. Campbell

Maurice S. Campbell (October 7, 1869 or 1870 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 16, 1942) was an American journalist, Broadway producer, Army officer, silent film director, and enforcer of Prohibition in a long and varied career. Early life Campbell was born the fifth child of Samuel Campbell (1829–1920), a candymaker, and his wife Mary. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Leadville, Colorado where Samuel made money in the mining boom there. After the death of Campbell's mother, his father remarried, to Caroline Brooke (1840–1905) of Lower Pottsgrove Township, Pennsylvania, and the family lived, first in Philadelphia and by 1883 on the Brooke farm. His father eventually had a 30-room mansion built on the property. Campbell graduated from New York University in 1889 with a degree in veterinary medicine. Instead of establishing a practice, Campbell went into journalism, working for the New York Herald, covering the Spanish–American War, and later becoming the assistant city desk editor. Show business In 1896 Campbell married actress Henrietta Crosman and moved into the world of show business. He became a press agent and then a writer, producer, and director. Between 1902 and 1913 he produced many Broadway plays, most of them featuring his wife, including the only Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken in 1905 and Where There's a Will (1910), which Campbell himself adopted from a French comedy by Paul Gavault and Robert Charvay; it ran 64 performances and was briefly revived in 1939.