DEATH DRAMA

Evening Star, Issue 19665, 19 September 1927, Page 14

DEATH DRAMA

fM WRITER DIES SUDDENLY “I’M DYING” CRY IN THEATRE. During the final act of a drama the 48th Street Theatre, New York, was thrown into a turmoil one night last month by a cry from the audience, “I’m dying, mother! I’m dying!” Actors halted uncertain, while attendants rushed forward and carried from tho theatre a woman who had apparently fainted. * Physicians found that she had died instantly from heart disease. She was Miss June Mathis, who, at the age of thirty-five, was known as the high-est-salaried woman executive iu the cinema world. The daughter of a theatrical family, she abandoned the stage for scenario writing, and in a short time became one of tho bestknow screen writers. Sbo adapted such books as ‘Tho Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ and ‘Ben Hur ’ for the films; served as a director, and was credited with discovering Rudolph Valentino. Impressed with his work as an “ extra ” she selected him for ‘The Four Horsemen,’ his first great success. He always attributed his subsequent fortune to her choice.