Grant Carpenter Dashboard Dashboard

Grant Carpenter was active in the silent era between 1915 and 1925. He wrote Shattered Memories (1915), A Child of the Paris Streets (1916), The Woman Gives (1920), starring Norma Talmadge, The Gold Diggers (1923), How to Educate a Wife (1924) with Marie Provost, and Up the Ladder (1925).

During World War I, Carpenter served as assistant secretary of the Motion-Picture War Service Association, an organization that he said was formed to “unify the patriotic work of the 175,000 member motion picture business,” and included Mack Sennett, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and Mary Pickford as officers. He appeared before a Congressional committee to advocate for directors, writers, and actors in regards to excess profits tax laws.

“Take a man, who after preparation and long effort...writes a successful play,” said Carpenter. “It may earn for him $200,000 in one year, and the tax will take a very large proportion of it... he may never write another successful play, and year by year, his one work earns smaller and smaller sums.” Instead, he suggested, revenue could be generated by taxing inheritances, social and country club memberships, and accumulated wealth.

Carpenter was born circa 1864 in California, and died in Los Angeles on April 21, 1936.