Ursula Parrott (1900–1957)

Ursula Parrott was the pen name of Katherine Ursula Towle, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Radcliffe College and then moved to New York City, settling in Greenwich Village and working as a fashion writer for newspapers. In 1922, she married Lindesay Marc Parrott, a reporter for The New York Times. Two years later, they had a son. However, she kept his existence a secret from her husband, who did not want a child. In 1924 when Lindesay Parrott found out he was a father, he divorced Ursula. After that, she married three other men, and was also rumored to have had affairs with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. Her novel Ex-Wife, published anonymously in 1929, caused an immediate sensation. It became a bestseller of the Jazz Age that explored the heady new freedom from Victorian sexual norms -- which, however, left men and women being treated unequally. It was adapted into a movie called The Divorcée by MGM in 1930, starring Norma Shearer, who won an Academy Award as Best Actress for her role. Parrott's second novel, Strangers May Kiss (1930), was again quickly adapted into successful Shearer picture. All throughout the 1930s, Parrott remained in high demand. She published pulp romances such as Love Goes Past (1931) and Next Time We Live (1935), as well as short stories for magazines like Ladies' Home Journal and Redbook. Eight of her novels were made into films. Parrott's writings earned her $100,000 a year. about $1.8 million in today's money. However, by the end of the decade, the culture was changing, and Ursula Parrott became less popular. The Motion Picture Production Code created in Hollywood forced her style of flamboyant, liberated heroines out of films. In 1942, Parrott made national headlines when she was charged with helping a soldier desert from the army in Miami Beach. The soldier in question was her lover, Mike Bryan, a jazz guitarist who had played with Benny Goodman's band. At her trial, Parrott claimed to actually be working as a government agent breaking up a narcotics ring. The jury believed this improbable story and acquitted her of all charges. She published her last story, "Let's Just Marry," in 1947. After 22 books and more than 50 stories to her name, Ursula Parrott sank into alcoholism and stopped writing. She died destitute in 1957 in the charity ward of a New York City hospital.