George Seaton: Of Marxes and Miracles

As I pen this, it’s the 500th anniversary of Verrazzano’s historic discovery of New York harbor, But I’ve already blogged about that. So now we treat of the screenwriter/director George Seaton (George Stenius, 1911-1979).

We Marx Brothers fanatics have a way of tarnishing the memories of those directors, producers, and screenwriters who we associate with lesser Marx Brothers films. Seaton and his early writing partner Robert Piroshwere largely responsible for A Day at the Races (1937) and did some uncredited work on the much better A Night at the Opera (1935), so I unfairly always think of them in that context. To be fair, and this is true of most other such people, it was merely an unideal match.

Seaton had some huge successes; they’re what we should think of first. First and foremost, he wrote and directed Miracle on 34th Street (1947) — that should always be first, shouldn’t it? That’s a pretty major classic. Even so, his biggest financial blockbuster was Airport (1970), a deadly dull movie in and of itself, but a huge money maker and one that launched a whole series of sequels. Thus, like Irwin Allen, Seaton was a former Marx Brothers collaborator who also made a mark in disaster movies. Unfortunately it must be said that a REAL Marx Brothers collaborator ought to have directed Airplane! rather than Airport.

Like another Marx Brothers collaborator Leo McCarey, Seaton was a devout Catholic and expressed his devotion in some of his films. His screenplay for The Song of Bernadette (1943) was nominated for an Oscar. Though he didn’t win that one, he did take home two Academy Awards, one for Miracle on 34th Street and one for his screenplay adaptation of Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl(1955).

Seaton, a Swede from South Bend started out in the business as an actor with traveling stock companies, and on radio. In 1933 he became the first actor to play The Lone Ranger (and claimed to have invented “Hiyo, Silver!” ) but dropped the job after a couple of months in order to take up screenwriting. In addition to the Marx Brothers pictures, he was one of the contributing writers on Stage Door (1937) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). For Jack Benny, he adapted Charley’s Aunt (1941) and cowrote The Meanest Man in the World (1943). He wrote the 1943 Betty Grable vehicle Coney Island, and wrote and directed Diamond Horseshoe (1945) for Billy Rose.

Seaton also produced some distinguished films. The smash hit The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) is notable for being directed by Mark Robson, who ended up following Seaton in the disaster movie genre with Earthquake (1974). He also produced the Anthony Mann western The Tin Star (1957) with Henry Fonda. There were several dozen other writing, producing and directing credits besides these. Seaton also served as President of the Writers Guild, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Seaton’s last picture, following 40 years in Hollywood, was the western Showdown (1973) with Dean Martin,Rock Hudson, and Susan Clark — a fitting, if lacklustre capstone to a career that had begun with The Lone Ranger. In that same year of ’73, his wife, Phyllis Loughton Seaton was elected the first female Mayor of Beverly Hills. I imagine that distracted the family for a time! In 1977, the year of his pal Groucho’s death, Seaton learned that he had cancer. It killed him two years later.

For more on this topic, please check out my new book The Marx Brothers Miscellany: A Subjective Appreciation of the World’s Greatest Comedy Team (2024).