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Samson Raphaelson (b. New York City; 1894–1983) was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and short-story author in the first half of the 20th century. Over a single weekend he transformed his short story “Day of Atonement” into his first play, ''The Jazz Singer''. Following its successful run on Broadway, Warner Brothers studios made it into the first successful talking picture in 1927, starring Al Jolson. Although Raphaelson’s immense admiration of Jolson as a stage performer had inspired his short story “Day of Atonement,” he did not write the screenplay of ''The Jazz Singer'', preferring to concentrate on writing for the stage. In the 1930s, however, he became active in Hollywood as well as on Broadway. His screenplays for Ernst Lubitsch, perhaps that era’s most admired director of sophisticated comedies, included “Trouble in Paradise,” ''The Shop Around the Corner'', and ''Heaven Can Wait''. They prompted this accolade from Pauline Kael, the eminent film critic of ''The New Yorker'': Raphaelson took the giddiest inspirations and then polished his dialogue until it had the gleam of appliquéd butterfly wings on a Ziegfield girl’s toque, but the skeletal strength of his screenplays was what made it possible for the ideas and the words to take flight.〔Samson Raphaelson, ''Three Screenplays by Samson Raphaelson'' (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983) 15.〕 One of Raphaelson’s best known screenplays is ''Suspicion'' (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In 1977, Raphaelson received the Laurel Award for lifetime achievement in screenwriting from the Writers Guild of America. ==Career on Broadway== After graduating from the University of Illinois Raphaelson lived for varying periods in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, working as a journalist and an advertising writer, while trying to establish himself as writer of short stories. He had become a successful advertising executive in New York when his secretary encouraged him to convert his short story “The Day of Atonement” into a play. Showing him the manuscript of a play, she pointed out how few words were on each page, adding that he had dictated more than that in two hours the previous afternoon. She volunteered to take dictation over the weekend. The result, by Sunday evening, was a complete draft of ''The Jazz Singer''. Raphaelson’s second play, ''Young Love'', was banned in Boston when authorities found it too racy. It starred Dorothy Gish, one of the leading actresses of the day. Three of his subsequent six plays produced on Broadway were chosen for publication in the annual ''Ten Best Plays of the Season'', compiled by Burns Mantle, the widely read critic of the ''New York Daily News'', at the time the largest circulation daily in the U.S. They were ''Accent On Youth'' (1934), ''Skylark'' (1939) and ''Jason'' (1941). ''Accent On Youth'' was a critical and popular success both on Broadway and in London’s West End, where the young Greer Garson played the leading role. ''Skylark'', another substantial hit, starred Gertrude Lawrence. ''Jason'' was less successful commercially but won high praise from the New York critics. One called it “the best play of the season” and added that it contained “some of the finest writing to grace a stage in several years.” Another, commenting on one main character inspired by the colorful writer William Saroyan, wrote: “Many authors have tried to put into their plays characters that possess the picturesque qualities attributed to Saroyan, but Mr. Raphaelson is the first to do the thing successfully.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Samson Raphaelson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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