A web site devoted to Ben Hecht Biography & Works

The Ancient Reluctant Conscript

An extra in epic war films of the silent film era tells his war stories and packs for work in Italy Selling the Celluloid Serpent

Another Arabian Night

The male secretary to matinee idol Wallace Reid replies to his mash male in kind, losing his job and creating troubles for Mr. Reid. Selling the Celluloid Serpent.

Curtains

When a courtly theater usher dies, so it seems does an era of grace in the American theater The Ben Hecht Story & News

Da Da

Dadaist Johannes Baader visits Chicago and reacts to the Ku Klux Klan movement in this strange hotel interview in which he speaks standing on his head. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

Enchanted Exiles

The Wrigley Building inspires awe in expressionist artist George Grosz, whose agent, Herman Sachs meets Hecht at the new landmark to tell the story to Hecht.
Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

The Faithful Lorelei

A artist who in youth may have had talent, abandons painting out of need to make a living. His midlife return to painting finds that his talent is now lost, a classic carpe diem story for Hecht. The Ben Hecht Story & News

Hecht’s epigrammatic list of the classics he would recommend for fine binding in 1922. Published on our site!

Headlines.

Hecht disparages Sherwood Anderson’s move to the suburbs and fear of the city as well as another bone of contention between them. The Ben Hecht Story & News.

Hoch das Dadismus

An ode to Dada, artist George Grosz and his brand of Berlin Dadaism, which Hecht sampled with him while a reproter in Berlin in 1919. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

Holiday Thoughts

A trip to the toy department of a large store evokes memories of childhood. Here on our web site.

I Got the Blues

The soulful blues stanzas from a cabaret singer serve as a background for the complaints of a European guest. Here on this site.

Impressions at an Amusement Park

Just that. Reflects Hecht's abiding interest in circus characters and the psychology of the public that goes to such entertainments. The Ben Hecht Story & News.

In Behalf of Art

Just as the architecture of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Renaissance Europeans was driven by each civilizations core value, so too the modernism of the Chicago loop is driven by the mass energy of its era. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

The Indestructible Masterpiece

An artist who has run out of credit at the favorite saloon gives a painting to the proprietor and insures it for $2,000. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

Janitor Joe and the Higher Criticism. November 8, 1921

A janitor who appreciates the art work seen in the Tree Studios lambastes the modernists shown at a Michigan Avenue gallery. Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago.

The Knockout

Norman Selby, alias Kid McCoy has abandoned his professional boxing career to play fight scenes in movies. Selling the Celluloid Serpent

Letter to Ta Samo

Jerome Blum, an artist of Tahiti returns to Chicago, which he describes as less civilized than the South Sea Islands in this letter he writes to chief Ta Samo.

The Primitive Lover

A manicurist wishes her barber boyfriend were more ferocious, like Harrison Ford in the film the Primitive Lover.

Mack Sennett’s Soul.

Mack Sennett, the renowned producer, complains the Hecht that there is no place for him to hide from an inquisitive public and press.

Mishkin's Riddles

Hecht attempts a conversation with the contentious West Side

journalist about Einstein's theory of relativity.

Moon Quan.

The Chinese cultural consultant to DW Griffith’s Broken Blossoms appears completely Americanized. Quan [Kwan] is returning to China to marry a bride chosen by his family, but Hecht and others expect his return.

The Movie Double

The life of a stunt woman for silent film stars is described. She is never the one who is kissed.

My Last Park Bench

Hecht bids a bittersweet good bye to Chicago from the bench in Grant Park where he often contemplated the skyline and the people in the park.

The New Market

The stock value of Hollywood movie character types is detailed with the latest increases and decreases specified.

The New Skyscraper. Hecht watches the Temple Building under construction and ponders how people imbue such buidings with meaning.

Nicholas Roerich

The renowned artist is in Chicago before his Himalayan expeditions and tells Hecht how to bring art to the masses.

Notes by a Bogus Classicist

Hecht and his friend and illustrator Wallace Smith argue about the superiority of ancient sculptures over attempts to recreate them in the neo-classical trend.

Peer Gynt's Panhandle

The newspaper man interviews Clarence O’Toole, who claims to be an architect and has a plan for putting all of the buildings in Chicago into four skyscrapers.

A Perfect Exposure.

A married woman who longs to be in movies takes a job demonstrating in a store window, much to the chagrin of her husband.

Peshka and the Great Urge

A housewife who wants to be in movies finds herself in a scam by a bogus production company that steals her furniture as she emotes for the camera.

Petrovivacity

Silent film diva and intellectual Olga Petrova discusses modernist philosophy with artist Herman Rosse

The Picador

The bull-fighter who played in Blood and Sand is dismayed that the lead role was played by a famous actor who was not Spanish.

A Plot for a Story

An incident in the life of Hecht’s editor friend is suggested as an idea for a slice of life film scenario.

Reality vs Sham

Charlie Chaplain and a friend of Hecht both enter a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Sahara

Hecht and a friend attend an exhibition of American art at the Art Institute of Chicago. they are dismayed, all the more because the modernists were largely excluded.

A Study in Still Life

Dawn at the South Water Street Market inspires vivid descriptions of “cubist” produce and what ethnic groups sell what at the market.

The Sullen Faucette

A couple with a successful cabaret act in which the man devotedly observes his partner splits when the woman is offered her own solo act. Hecht and a friend compare the psychology of the duo act and the solo one

Tears, Tears, Tears.

One of several stories involving a discussion between Hecht and Balaban & Katz press agent Lloyd Lewis, about how directors get the silent film actresses to cry.

Wild Roofs

Herman Rosse, Hecht's lifelong friend and director of design at the Art Institute of Chicago tells of his inspiration by rooftops in a factory area of Chicago

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