Shirley Ulmer

Born in New York, teenage Shirley Ulmer came out to the movie capital for the first time in the early 1930s, after her banker-father was wiped out in the Crash. While her dad tried to make a new start in California, Shirley met picture people and began working as a script supervisor. She was married to independent producer Max Alexander when she met and instantly fell in love with director Edgar G. Ulmer, eventually divorcing Alexander--nephew of Universal president Carl Laemmle. Hollywood outcasts, Ulmer and his new missus Shirley were subsequently forced to work in the East, on Poverty Row and at other small indie studios, where the indomitable Ulmer forged a remarkable career as a master of minimalism. Shirley is also a writer of screenplays, teleplays (The Lone Ranger (1949), Batman (1966), S.W.A.T. (1975), CHiPs (1977), more) and the book "The Role of Script Supervision in Film and Television"; in recent years, she and daughter Arianne have maintained a high profile keeping alive the memory of Ulmer and his highly personal films. They are currently collaborating on the documentary "The Edgar G. Ulmer Story."