Background
Orr was born in Brooklyn, New New York
Orr was born in Brooklyn, New New York
She studied at Syracuse University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan.
She and her family relocated to Canton, Ohio when she was a girl. "The Wisdom of Eve" was loosely based upon a woman who had been the secretary of Viennese actress Elisabeth Bergner. Orr wrote a radio adaptation which aired on National Broadcasting Company in 1949 which led to the movie being made.
An alternative hypothesis for the Martina Lawrence-Elizabeth Bergner origin was the rivalry between Tallulah Bankhead and Lizabeth Scott (her understudy) during the production of Thorton Wilder"s The Skin of Our Teeth.
Broadway legend had it that Bankhead was being victimized by Scott, who was supposedly the real-life Eve Harrington. During the eight months
In 1970, a hit Broadway musical, Applause, was based on All About Eve and gave a cr to Mary Orr for the original story.
She wrote a sequel to "The Wisdom of Eve" titled "More About Eve", which was published in Cosmopolitan in July 1951. In addition to Applause, Mary Orr and Reginald Denham had four plays that opened on Broadway.
Their first and most successful, Wallflower, ran for 192 performances in 1944.
Round Trip was presented in 1945, while Dark Hammock started its performances in 1946. The fourth, Be Your Age, made its Broadway appearance in 1953. She also acted in Broadway plays, including two of her own: Wallflower and Dark Hammock.
Wallflower was the basis for a 1948 film of the same name.
Orr died of pneumonia in Manhattan in 2006.