John Emerson began his career on Broadway in 1904, working as an actor and stage manager until 1915. By 1914, he was writing and directing for the movies. He wrote and directed three films starring Douglas Fairbanks (His Picture in the Papers, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, and The Americano) that were released in 1916 for Triangle-Fine Arts, and four others (In Again Out Again, Wild and Woolly, Down to Earth, and Reaching for the Moon) also starring Fairbanks and released in 1917 by Douglas Fairbanks Pictures.
Emerson directed his last film, Polly of the Follies, in 1922, and continued writing and producing until the early 1930s. He was active on Broadway, where he worked with his wife Anita Loos, during the 1920s and early 1930s, producing, staging, and writing several plays, including The Whole Town’s Talking (1923-1924) and Gentlemen Prefer Blonds (1926-1927). He served as President of the Actors Equity Association from 1920 until 1928, during a time when the labor union was pressing for agreements on working standards for actors and managers. From 1932-1935, he was a writer and producer at MGM.
His career ended in 1937 when mental illness forced his retirement to a sanitarium where he lived the remainder of his life.
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