Edna G. Riley

Edna G. Riley (also known as Edna Goldsmith Riley) was an American screenwriter, author, activist, and assistant film director who worked in Hollywood primarily during the 1910s.[1]

Edna G. Riley
Born	Edna M. Goldsmith April 29, 1880 Lower Lake, California, USA
Died	May 3, 1962 New York, New York, USA
Occupation	Screenwriter, playwright, author, assistant film director
Spouse(s)	Edward Patrick Riley

Biography

Edna was born in Lower Lake, California, April 29, 1880, to William Goldsmith and Martha Asbill.[2] As a young woman, she worked as a schoolteacher in her hometown. She later married playwright Edward Patrick Riley; the pair had no children together.

She wrote a string of scenarios for the fledgling motion pictures in the 1910s, and she continued writing into the 1930s. In 1935, she protested against censorship in motion pictures by picketing in front of a cardinal's home in Manhattan.[3] Her script All Flags Flying had been purchased by Paramount, but the cardinal had objected to the film's content and gotten censors to bar it from production.[3]

Selected filmography

As writer:

• All Flags Flying (1935) (unproduced script)[3]
• Before Morning (1933)
• The Crystal Gazer (1917)
• The Law of Compensation (1917)[4]
• The Libertine (1916)
• The Prima Donna's Husband (1916)[1]
• On the Brink of Shame (1916)[5]

As assistant director:

• The Blindness of Love (1916)

References

1. The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1916.
2. "Dies After 70 Years of Living in Same Home". Woodland Daily Democrat. 6 Dec 1923. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
3. "Woman Pickets Cardinal's Home". Times Union. 3 Apr 1935. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
4. Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Pamphlets, leaflets, contributions to newspapers or periodicals, etc.; lectures, sermons, addresses for oral delivery; dramatic compositions; maps; motion pictures. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1917.
5. The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1916.