John J. McNally(1855-1931)
- Writer
John J. McNally, who was born in 1855 and who died in 1931, was a writer who had little to do with the development of filmmaking. The only connection to the early cinema he had whatsoever was that a scene from his well-known Broadway musical " The Widow Jones", was adapted into a brief vignette for an Edison Kinetoscope film. This film, the popular yet scandalous "May-Irwin Kiss" features the two stars of the popular musical acting out their kiss scene from Act 1, a brief segment of the entire presentation. By writing this musical McNally thus influenced one of the earliest uses of censorship in film, and he remained a (minor) part of filmmaking for this reason.
