Irvin S. Cobb

Biography

Paducah, Kentucky, greeted the sunrise of 23 June 1876 by welcoming Irvin S. Cobb into the world, a boy who would grow up to trade the Ohio River’s muddy whispers for the bright glare of Hollywood lights. A conjurer of sentences and scenes, Cobb spun tales that leapt from the page to the screen—Steamboat Round the Bend, a 1935 riverboat romp; Everybody’s Old Man, the 1936 yarn that had audiences sniffling into popcorn; and the 1918 silent shiver-fest The Face in the Dark. Off-camera, he shared life’s plot twists with Laura Spencer Baker, his steadfast co-author in marriage. The final curtain fell on 11 March 1944, when Cobb exited onto Manhattan’s streets, leaving New York City to echo with the last of his laughter-lined stories.