Rollie Lynn Riggs (August 31, 1899 – June 30, 1954)[1] was an American author, poet, playwright and screenwriter. His 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs was adapted into the landmark musical Oklahoma!.[2]
Early life
The Cherokee Night by Lynn Riggs, presented at the Provincetown Playhouse by the Community Theatre Division of the Federal Theatre Project, July 1936
Riggs was born on a farm near Claremore, Oklahoma, (then Indian Territory).[2] His mother was 1/8[3]Cherokee, and when he was two years old, his mother secured his Cherokee allotment for him. He was able to draw on his allotment to help support his writing.[4]
He was educated at the Eastern University Preparatory School in Claremore, Oklahoma, starting in 1912. Riggs graduated from high school in 1917, and travelled to Chicago and New York City. He worked for the Adams Express Company in Chicago, wrote for the Wall Street Journal, sold books at Macy's and swept out Wall Street offices. Returning to Oklahoma in 1919, he wrote for the Oil and Gas Journal. Travelling to Los Angeles, Riggs worked as an extra in the theatre, and a copyeditor at the Los Angeles Times, which published his first poem. Riggs entered the University of Oklahoma in 1920, and taught English there from 1922–1923.[5] However, Riggs became ill with tuberculosis during his senior year and did not graduate.[4] Riggs then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to improve his health and soon joined a group of artists.[2] However, in 1926 he moved back to New York, hoping to work in the Broadway theatres.
Literary career
Riggs wrote 21 full-length plays, several short stories, poems, and a television script.[4]
He then lived in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and New York, and was a screenwriter for Paramount and Universal Studios. Riggs was homosexual[2] and was often a non-romantic escort for Hollywood actresses including Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.[6]
After serving in the military 1942–1944 he worked on an historical drama for Western Reserve University, published the short story "Eben, The Hound, and the Hare" (1952), and worked on the novel The Affair at Easter, set in Oklahoma.
He moved to Shelter Island, New York after he started receiving a steady income when Green Grow the Lilacs was adapted into Oklahoma! in 1943.
Riggs died on June 30, 1954 of stomach cancer in New York City.[2][9] He was buried in Claremore, Oklahoma, where at his funeral the governor had a state flag laid over his coffin. This marked the first instance of this state honor in Oklahoma.[10] Claremore, Oklahoma is home to the Lynn Riggs Memorial.[11]
His first play was Cuckoo in 1920, a farce about college fraternities that was performed at the University of Oklahoma in the spring of 1921.[5] The Theatre Guild produced his Green Grow the Lilacs on Broadway in 1931, where it ran for 64 performances. The musical Oklahoma!, based on Riggs' play, opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943 and ran until May 29, 1948 for 2,212 performances.
^ abcdLynn RiggsArchived 2009-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, Mary Hays Marable and Elaine Boylan, pages 93–96 of A Handbook of Oklahoma Writers, University of Oklahoma Press, 1939, ASIN B0006AONUW .
^Information from: Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book And Manuscript Library, Yale Collection Of American Literature, Lynn Riggs Papers, November, 1993 Last Updated: February 2000
