page_title: Lucille McVey
section_title: Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew
hierarchical_section_title: Lucille McVey / Biography / Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew
caption_attribution_description: English: Still from the American film Bunkered (1919) with Mrs. Sidney Drew, on page 33 of the October 1919 Film Fun.
context_page_description: Lucille McVey also known as Mrs Sidney Drew, was an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actress. In the early 1900s, she was part with her husband Sidney Drew of the famous comedy duo Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew.
context_section_description: Like many women of the period, such as Lillian Gish or Margery Wilson, McVey pursued opportunities to write and direct. She started producing comedies with her husband under the name Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew. They occupied their own unit at the Vitagraph Studios. Soon they specialized in what came to be known as "polite" or "refined" domestic comedies also called high-brow comedies - or situation comedies according to the current terminology. They found their humor in the small misunderstandings affecting the bourgeois people.
  Their first big success, Playing Dead (1915), was a five-reel "human interest drama" based on Richard Harding Davis's book. Sidney Drew directed it and Lucille McVey was credited as screenwriter. Following this success, they became a famous duo applauded by audience and the industry.
  At the time, comedy shorts were paid per productions, not yearly. The 1918 crisis affecting the Vitagraph Studios forced the Drews to fly to Metro Pictures, who became their distributor. They continued producing short domestic comedies for $90,000 a year, releasing one one-reel comedy a week. During that time they perfected their Henry and Dolly characters, who will remain the central players of their productions from this point on.
  At the expiration of their Metro's contract, they decided to temporally retire from the screen and returned to the stage with Keep Her Smiling, a lightweight comedy in which they both starred. In August 1918, they signed a contract with Amadee J. Van Beuren to produce a series of two-reel comedies released by Paramount while touring for Keep her Smiling.
  In 1919, the Drews became independent producers, owner of V.B.K. Corporation, distributed by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (Paramount Pictures Corporation). They slowed down the production to one or two comedies a month.
  During the spring 1918, Sidney Drew's son from his first marriage, S. Rankin Drew, died while serving with the Lafayette Flying Corps, leading to the deterioration of Drew's health. Sidney Drew died on April 9, 1919.
caption: Still from Bunkered (1919)
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