Archives West Finding Aid

Adeline “Ada” M. Leitzbach was a playwright and screenwriter who often worked in collaboration with other writers and actors. She was born in Buffalo, New York in 1884. By the age of 22, Leitzbach already copyrighted one of her plays and by 1910 she was listed as an author. She was often hired to collaborate on silent movie scripts and Broadway plays, where she wrote under the name of Adeline Hendricks. In 1922, Leitzbach met actress and screenwriter Mae West, and became her ghostwriter working on plays such as “The Hussy” and “Sex”. Leitzbach wrote many screenplays and plays for silent film and Broadway including: “White Lights of Broadway” (1906), “The Spotlight” (1914), “Diamonds and Pearls” (1917), “Counterfeit Love” (1923), and “Notorious but Nice” (1929). In the later years of her career, Adeline Leitzbach wrote radio drama and worked for WOR in New York City. In 1968, Leitzbach died in New York, at the age of 84.