Valentine Davies

Valentine Loewi Davies was an American film and television writer, producer, and director. His film credits included Miracle on 34th Street, Chicken Every Sunday, It Happens Every Spring, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and The Benny Goodman Story. He won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Story for Miracle on 34th Street and was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Glenn Miller Story.

Early life

Davies was born in New York City in 1905; his father worked in real estate. Davies attended the University of Michigan starting in 1923, and wrote reviews for The Michigan Daily, the school newspaper. While at UM, he met Elizabeth Straus, and married her soon after he graduated in 1926. They became the parents of son John and daughter Judith. He later obtained a graduate degree at Yale Drama School.

In 1925, while a college student, Davies wrote the book and lyrics for a musical entitled Tambourine. He later wrote three Broadway plays: Three Times the Hour, Keeper of the Keys, and Blow Ye Winds.
Davis moved to California and began writing film screenplays. He served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, and around Christmas 1943 he wrote the story for what would become the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Story.
From 1949 to 1950, he served as President of the Screen Writers Guild and was on the Board of Governors from 1955 to 1961. The Valentine Davies Award was established by the Writers Guild of America, West, which is given to Guild members whose work brought honor and dignity to all writers.

Davies died at his home in Malibu, California on July 23, 1961, when he was fifty-five years old. The cause of death was a heart attack "brought on by a deep bellied-laugh".

Davis wrote the screenplays for: