Adela Rogers St. Johns on AllMovie

Adela Rogers St. John appeared in a couple of films and wrote a few screenplays for silent movies, but she is best remembered for her groundbreaking exploits as a "girl reporter." The daughter of a prominent San Francisco criminal lawyer who was good friends with publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, she got her first job at age 19 working as a cub reporter for Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. She eventually rose to become one of the paper's ace reporters and was on hand for some of her era's biggest stories. She also worked closely with the influential Photoplay magazine and was once hailed as "Mother Confessor of Hollywood." She worked at MGM for a time as a story consultant and script doctor. Some of Rogers Saint Johns' stories served as the basis for other studios' films. In 1981, she played a small role in Reds, a film about her former compatriot reporter, John Reed.