Jules Eckert Goodman
Jules Eckert Goodman (November 2, 1876 – July 10, 1962) was an American playwright and author. He was best known for his plays "The Man Who Came Back" (1916), "The Silent Voice" (1914), "Chains" (1923), and a series of plays featuring Potash and Permutter written with Montague Glass. Life and career. Jules Eckert Goodman was born November 2, 1876 in Gervais, Oregon, one of six children born to S. Newman and Jenette Rothschild Goodman. His family was Jewish, and his mother was a native of San Francisco, California. Prior to settling in Gervais and starting a family, Jeanette  had resided in Portland's Multnomah Hotel. Goodman received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1899 and master's degree from Columbia University in 1901. He was managing editor for four years of "Current Literature" and also wrote for "Outing" and the "Dramatic Mirror". He had his first success on Broadway with 1910's "Mother". The successful "The Silent Voice" (1914) (derived from a short story by Gouverneur Morris) was adapted to film four times; first in 1915, then again in 1922 under the title "The Man Who Played God" (the title of the original Morris story). A talking -movie version also called "The Man Who Played God" appeared in 1932, starring George Arliss (who was also in the 1922 silent film) and Bette Davis, a role she credited as her big "break" in Hollywood. Lastly, and least appealingly, it appeared as a campy 1955 star vehicle for Liberace called "Sincerely Yours". Among other film adaptions of Goodman's work, "The Man Who Came Back" appeared in 1931. Goodman's reported last play "Many Mansions" (1937) was written with his son Eckert Goodman. Goodman died of pneumonia in Peekskill, New York, where he had resided for forty years, on  July 10, 1962. His wife died in 1959, and he was survived by one son (Jules Eckert Goodman Jr.), and two daughters, Helen Goodman and Anna Freedgood.