Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy (not to be confused with another screenwriter—Mary Eunice McCarthy) was an American screenwriter active in the 1930s and 1940s.

Born and raised in San Francisco, California, to Irish parents (just like the similarly named screenwriter), McCarthy pursued a career as a schoolteacher in San Mateo, California, before giving it all up to run a nonprofit sandwich stand. She then became a political activist, stumping the state for the Democratic Party and going toe-to-toe with the Ku Klux Klan. Eventually she headed to Hollywood to pursue a career as a scenarist in the mid-1930s; her first big credit was on Theodora Goes Wild, a 1936 comedy starring Irene Dunne.