Ladies In The Parlor (22 page)

Authors: Jim Tully

BOOK: Ladies In The Parlor

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When he was twelve years old Jim was released from the orphanage and he returned to St. Marys and lived briefly with his older brothers and sisters. Jim's father arranged for his son to work on a nearby farm in exchange for room and board. This arrangement tuned out to be a nightmare for Jim and in 1901, at age fourteen, he ran away and spent the next six years riding the rails living the life of a hobo, or as he called it a "road kid." Tiring of this life, Tully returned to Ohio and become a small time, featherweight boxer, a chain maker, worked for a circus and as a traveling tree surgeon.

In 1911, a poem of his was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer which lead to other poems being in various northern Ohio newspapers. In 1912 he moved to Los Angeles, California and spent the next ten years working as a tree surgeon, getting married, and having two children. During this period he began working on what would turn out to be his autobiographical novel "Emmett Lawler" which was published in 1922. After the publication of the book Tully was able to get work as a script reader in Hollywood, and working as a publicist, writer and script reader for Charlie Chaplin. While working for Chaplin, Tully wrote what would become his most famous book, "Beggars of Life". The book was published in 1924 and became a bestseller and established his career as a professional writer. Tully stopped working for Chaplin in 1925 after a disagreement with the star's business manager and devoted his time to finishing his third novel "Jarnegan", a play called "Black Boy" and writing short stories and freelance articles about Hollywood for magazines such as Vanity Fair, Liberty, and American Mercury.

Throughout the remainder of the 1920s and early 1930s Tully wrote one powerful, bestselling novel after another but by the mid-1930s Tully's sales began to decline and in 1943 he published his last book. Tully had a heart attack in 1942 and in 1943 arthritis in his hands became so painful that he could no longer type. If that wasn’t enough, Tully's vision began to fail making it so that he could barely see to read. The during the remaining years of Tully's life his health continued to decline and on June 22, 1947 a died from heart failure in Los Angeles.

For more information about the life of Jim Tully you are encouraged to read "Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler" by Paul Bauer and Mark Dawidziak.

Books and Plays by JIM TULLY

EMMETT LAWLER (1922)

BEGGARS OF LIFE (1924)

JARNEGAN (1926)

BLACK BOY W/ FRANK DAZEY (1926)

CIRCUS PARADE (1927)

TWENTY BELOW W/ ROBERT NICHOLS (1927)

SHANTY IRISH (1928)

SHADOWS OF MEN (1930)

BEGGARS ABROAD (1930)

BLOOD ON THE MOON (1931)

LAUGHTER IN HELL (1932)