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Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mystery queen whose comedies outnumbered her thrillers
The Twenty-Timers Club
Five American women who Hollywood couldn't stop adapting
Between 1914 and 1961, these five writers saw their prose and verse fiction adapted to film at least twenty times each. Together, they account for 135 films in the database — more than 10% of all Hollywood adaptations from American women writers during this period.
Each author carved out a distinct niche in Hollywood: Rinehart's mysteries and comedies, Hurst's tearjerking melodramas, Ferber's sweeping American epics, Miller's sophisticated comedies, and Stratton-Porter's nature-infused romances. Understanding their specializations reveals how the studio system relied on proven formulas from trusted storytellers.
135 films
•
47 years
•
5 genre queens
Meet the Twenty-Timers
Statistical Significance
The Twenty-Timers Club represents an extraordinary concentration of Hollywood's adaptation activity. While 493 American women writers had their works adapted for film between 1910 and 1963, the vast majority—305 authors (61.9%)—saw only one of their works reach the screen.
This makes the Twenty-Timers' dominance all the more remarkable: just 5 authors (1% of all adapted writers) generated 135 films (12% of all adaptations) from American women's literature. Put another way, you were more likely to have no film adaptations than to join this exclusive club.
The Twenty-Timer Timeline
What Made a Twenty-Timer?
Bestseller Status
These writers dominated bestseller lists before Hollywood came calling. Their pre-existing audiences guaranteed box office appeal.
Genre Mastery
Each specialized in genres Hollywood loved: mysteries (Rinehart), melodramas (Hurst), epics (Ferber), nature romances (Stratton-Porter), and society comedies (Miller).
Serial Success
Most published in magazines first, building audiences chapter by chapter before the book — and film — appeared.
Business Savvy
These women understood contracts and rights. Gene Stratton-Porter and Edna Ferber even founded their own production companies to ensure creative control over their adaptations.
Early Adoptees
All five got their adaptation start between 1914 and 1918, when the burgeoning feature film industry was hungry for stories.
The Studio System Connection
Warner Bros. ultimately made the most Twenty-Timer adaptations of any single studio entity. But the real story lies in specialized relationships: Essanay churned out 7 Mary Roberts Rinehart short films in rapid succession, establishing her as their signature author. Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan Productions—William Randolph Hearst's film arm—produced 5 Fannie Hurst features in just 3 years (1920-1923), and Gene Stratton-Porter's own studio managed 5 features in 5 years despite her death in 1924. When tracking studio evolution, Paramount's 10 Twenty-Timer films build on the foundation laid by its predecessor Famous Players-Lasky's 10 films—showing how these literary relationships survived corporate transitions.
Peak Adaptation Years
Silent Era Dominance
72 of the 135 films were silent, with Mary Roberts Rinehart alone contributing 31 silent films— an astonishing 43% of all Twenty-Timer silent productions. The transition to talkies didn't slow the Twenty-Timers down—it opened new opportunities for remakes and allowed their dialogue-rich stories to shine.
The 1910s Launch
The 1910s saw an incredible 40 Twenty-Timer films, with Rinehart leading the charge at 17. This decade established the template for literary adaptation that would dominate Hollywood for the next half-century.
The Twenty-Timer Network
The Twenty-Timers didn't work in isolation—they shared creative collaborators who helped bridge their individual worlds. Analysis of cast and crew reveals a interconnected network of Hollywood professionals who regularly worked on literary adaptations.
Explore Their Stories
Mary Roberts Rinehart
41 films • 32 works • 45 yearsSignature Work: The Circular Staircase
Hollywood's appetite for Rinehart was voracious but surprising: while she's remembered as the mystery queen who popularized "The Butler Did It," studios actually adapted more of her comedies than her thrillers. Essanay alone made 7 of her films, establishing her as their house author.
Key Achievements
- Dominated the 1910s with 17 films, more than any other Twenty-Timer in that decade
- Leads all Twenty-Timers with 31 silent films out of 41 total adaptations
- First Twenty-Timer to reach screens (1914's At the Foot of the Hill)
- Her villain "The Bat" may have inspired Batman—Bob Kane cited the 1930 film as influence
Fannie Hurst
27 films • 18 works • 43 yearsSignature Work: Imitation of Life
What was a "Fannie Hurst marriage"? This groundbreaking author lived separately from her husband for years, pioneering a model of independence that shocked 1920s society.
Key Achievements
- Defined the "women's picture" melodrama genre in Hollywood
- Wrote the story that launched Frances Marion's directing career
- Partnered with William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions for 5 adaptations (1920–1923)
- Universal remade Back Street 3 times across 30 years (1932–1961)
Edna Ferber
25 films • 17 works • 42 yearsSignature Work: Giant
Ferber co-founded Giant Productions with director George Stevens, ensuring her close participation in the filming of 1956's Giant. She befriended James Dean during her visits to the set.
Key Achievements
- Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 for So Big
- The only Twenty-Timer with an adaptation that won the Academy Award for Best Picture (1931's Cimarron)
- Reportedly the first author to grant film rights for her books on short-term contracts, ensuring frequent renegotiation
- Known for her epic stories of American women fighting to succeed against the odds
Alice Duer Miller
21 films • 13 works • 34 yearsSignature Work: The White Cliffs
Miller's poetry reportedly influenced how the U.S. felt about war as they entered WWII. Beyond her American success, Paramount made 8 foreign-language versions of her films at their short-lived Joinville, France studio lot — a phenomenon unique among the Twenty-Timers.
Key Achievements
- Suffragist poet and member of the Algonquin Round Table
- Leads all Twenty-Timers with the most remakes of any single story with The Charm School (5 adaptations)
- Maintained a 20-year relationship with Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount, resulting in 13 film adaptations
- Also wrote screenplays, including the adaptation of Faith Baldwin's Wife vs. Secretary
Gene Stratton-Porter
21 films • 8 works • 43 yearsSignature Work: A Girl of the Limberlost
Dissatisfied with Lasky's 1917 Freckles, Stratton-Porter founded her own studio in 1923. She died just one year later — what else might she have accomplished with more time?
Key Achievements
- Innovative naturalist and photographer who infused nature into her romance stories
- Operated Gene Stratton Porter Productions as a family business, involving her son-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter in movie-making
- Some of her later adaptations at RKO, Monogram, and Republic survive but await restoration, unlike many of her peers' prestige productions
- Wrote the scenario for her studio's 1924 adaptation of A Girl of the Limberlost
About This Data
How We Count
- Scope: Only American film productions adapted from the prose and occasionally poems by American women writers (1910-1963)
- Excluded: British productions, foreign-language versions (though noted when significant), adaptations from plays, and films based on works by non-American authors
- Twenty-Timer threshold: Authors with 20 or more American film adaptations from their prose fiction or verse
- Silent era defined: Films released before 1930 are counted as silent films
Studio Attribution
- Primary credit: We use the producing studio rather than distributor when both are listed
- Studio evolution: Famous Players-Lasky and Paramount are tracked separately despite the company evolution, as the merger represents a significant industry shift
- Subsidiary relationships: Films from First National (later Warner Bros) are credited to the subsidiary when that was the primary production entity
Data Decisions
- Remake counting: Each new film version counts as a separate adaptation, even if from the same source work
- Attribution conflicts: When sources disagree, we prioritize AFI Catalog data, followed by contemporary trade publications
- Edge cases: Alice Duer Miller's foreign-language versions at Paramount are noted but not included in her count of 22 American productions
Data Limitations & Gaps
- Attribution challenges: 3 Twenty-Timer films lack director credits; 3 films lack complete cast information
- Documentation gaps: 18 films (13.3%) are missing writer credits, often due to uncredited adaptations or incomplete studio records
- Preservation status: 38 of 135 films (28%) are confirmed lost, reflecting the broader challenges of silent era film preservation and research