[1] As a young girl, she dreamed of becoming an actress, and she persuaded a family friend who was related to D. W. Griffith to get her an introduction when she moved to California at age 16.

[1] Griffith brought her onto his stock company, and she appeared in a few small roles on the stage and in silent films before deciding that acting wasn't for her.

They married in 1931 and collaborated on a number of short stories, stage plays (including Loco, which ran on Broadway in 1946–47),[3] and screenplays.

[1] Loco was later used, together with Zoe Akins' The Greeks Had a Word for It, as a source for the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire, starring Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall.

The two lived in Santa Barbara, California before moving to the Motion Picture Retirement Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, in 1993.