From (
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"Ben Hecht, 1894–1964, Writer
I haunted streets, studios, whore houses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons,slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots,banquet balls, and book shows.
—Ben Hecht, on his career as a newspaper man in Chicago.
Ben Hecht came to Chicago at age 16 and worked for the now defunct Chicago Journal as a “picture stealer.” He was assigned to acquire, by any means possible, photographs of murderers and their victims. In 1914, Hecht became a crime reporter for the Chicago Daily News.
By then, Hecht had also become a flamboyant figure in Chicago’s literary renaissance, which included such writers as Carl Sandburg and Sherwood Anderson. Dismissed by the Daily News on an obscenity charge after the publication of his 1922 novel Fantazius Mallare, he founded his own short-lived paper, The Chicago Literary Times, which he published while living here at 5210 South Kenwood Avenue.
After 1924, Hecht split his time between New York and Hollywood, producing his own stage plays and films and contributing to over 70 screenplays, including Scarface (1932) and Notorious (1946). One of his plays, The Front Page (1928), written in collaboration with Charles MacArthur, created the still persistent stereotype of a Chicago newspaper room infused with romance, drama, and humor."
I was motivated to visit because I had just finished Hecht's "A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago." I was happily surprised to see that featured on the marker as well! The home is brightly painted, which I kind of doubt would have been the case when he lived here.