By 1940 Seton I. Miller was an established Hollywood screenwriter—Yale-educated, a collaborator of Howard Hawks and others, and moving between the major studios. In that year his marriage to his first wife, Bonita, ended in a very public rupture: Bonita sued for divorce and demanded $2,000 a month in alimony, alleging that Miller had subjected her to verbal and physical abuse. The claim was striking for its bluntness and the size of the monthly demand—especially at a time when such domestic disputes were often hushed up within the studio system. The filing placed Miller’s private life into the newspapers just as his professional life was in flux—he had officially left Warner Bros. in 1939, wrote The Sea Hawk in 1940, and would soon co‑write Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), which won an Academy Award.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1940s
Seton I. Miller's 1940 Divorce Explodes into a Public Alimony and Abuse Allegation
Seton I. Miller / 1940s
By 1940 Seton I. Miller was an established Hollywood screenwriter—Yale-educated, a collaborator of Howard Hawks and others, and moving between the major studios. In that year his marriage to his first wife, Bonita, ended in a very public rupture: Bonita sued for divorce and demanded $2,000 a month in alimony, alleging that Miller had subjected her to verbal and physical abuse. The claim was striking for its bluntness and the size of the monthly demand—especially at a time when such domestic disputes were often hushed up within the studio system. The filing placed Miller’s private life into the newspapers just as his professional life was in flux—he had officially left Warner Bros. in 1939, wrote The Sea Hawk in 1940, and would soon co‑write Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), which won an Academy Award.
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