Laurence Tucker Stallings (November 25, 1894 – February 28, 1968) was an American playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, literary critic, journalist, novelist, and photographer. Best known for his collaboration with Maxwell Anderson on the 1924 play What Price Glory, Stallings also produced a groundbreaking autobiographical novel, Plumes, about his service in World War I, and published an award-winning book of photographs, The First World War: A Photographic History.
Stallings was born Laurence Tucker Stallings in Macon, Georgia, to Larkin Tucker Stallings, a bank clerk, and Aurora Brooks Stallings, a homemaker and avid reader who inspired her son's love of literature. He entered Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1912 and became the editor of the campus literary magazine, the Old Gold and Black.
He met Helen Poteat while at Wake Forest. She was the daughter of Dr. William Louis Poteat, the university president, and the sister of Stallings's classics professor. They were sweethearts throughout their school years. He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1916, and got a job writing advertising copy for a local recruiting office. He was so convinced by his own prose, he joined the United States Marine Reserve in 1917. He left Philadelphia for overseas duty in France aboard the USS Henderson on 24 April 1918.[1] In France, he served as a platoon commander with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines during the fighting at Château-Thierry.[1] He was wounded in the leg in the Battle of Belleau Wood after charging an enemy machine-gun nest on 25 June.[1] After begging the doctors not to amputate, he went home to spend two painful years recuperating at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital. He later damaged it with a fall on the ice, and it was amputated in 1922. Many years later, he had to have his remaining leg amputated, as well.[2] After finishing his convalescence, Stallings and Poteat married on March 8, 1919; they had two daughters, Sylvia (born 1926) and Diana (born 1931), before divorcing in 1936. In 1928–1929, they restored Poteat House near Yanceyville, North Carolina.[3] Through Helen his aunt by marriage was the painter Ida Isabella Poteat.[4]
Stallings received a Master of Science degree from Georgetown University, after which he worked as a reporter, critic, and entertainment editor at the New York World. He was impressed by Maxwell Anderson's first play, White Desert, and the two joined forces to collaborate on What Price Glory, which opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City in 1924. The critically acclaimed play ran for 435 performances and spawned two film adaptations.
The two went on to co-write the plays The First Flight and The Buccaneer, both in 1925. Stallings continued his theatre career with the book and lyrics for the musicalDeep River (1926), adapted Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms for the stage in 1930, co-wrote the book for the musicals Rainbow (1928) with Oscar Hammerstein, and Virginia (1937) with Owen Davis, and penned the play The Streets Are Guarded in 1944.
Stallings's last book, The Doughboys: The Story of the AEF, 1917–1918, was published in 1963. The nonfiction account of World War I partly explores the racism and discrimination faced by the black troops during the war.
Stallings was recalled up to service with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II as a lieutenant colonel, but did not serve overseas.
"Celluloid Psychology," New Republic, 33 (7 February 1923): 282–284
"The Whole Art of a Wooden Leg," Smart Set, 70 (March 1923): 107–111
"The Big Parade," New Republic, 40 (17 September 1924): 66–69
"How a 'Great' Play Is Written," Current Opinion, 77 (November 1924): 617–618
"Esprit de Corps," Scribner's, 84 (August 1928): 212–215
"Turn Out the Guard," Saturday Evening Post, 201 (13 October 1928): 16–17, 96, 99–100
"Gentleman in Blue," Saturday Evening Post, 204 (20 February 1932): 8–9, 95
"Return to the Woods," Collier's, 89 (5 March 1932): 30–31, 52
"Lt. Richard Plume Comes Home from the War," Scholastic, 25 (10 November 1934): 4–6
"Bush Brigades and Blackamoors," American Mercury, 37 (April 1936): 411–419
Stallings, Laurence (1953). "The real Ingrid Bergman story". In Birmingham, Frederic A. (ed.). The girls from Esquire. London: Arthur Barker. pp. 170–175.
"The War to End War," American Heritage, 10 (October 1959): 4–17, 84–85
"Bloody Belleau Wood," American Heritage, 14 (June 1963): 65–77
^David W. Parham and Joe Mobley (June 1979). "Poteat House"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places – Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
