David Menefee - Biography

Biography

He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, a member of the well-known Menefee family, one of the earliest settlers in Texas. The Menefee family is honored with an historical marker administered by the Texas Historical Commission. His great-great-grandfather, William Menefee, was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. William’s portrait hangs in the San Jacinto Monument in San Jacinto, Texas.

David’s writing career began in 1979 as a writer and marketing representative for the Dallas Times Herald for twelve years during an era characterized by fierce competition with an archrival, the Dallas Morning News. In 1991, the Dallas Morning News bought out their rival, closed its doors, and within weeks, razed the building to the ground. Associates from the Dallas Morning News invited David to join their operation, which then combined their circulation with subscribers obtained in their acquisition of the Dallas Times Herald. David took on leadership responsibilities with their locally produced version of Parade Magazine, for which he anonymously contributed many articles.

Menefee, like many of his contemporaries, broke away from the newspaper industry in 2003 when failing economics forced many publications to downsize or close altogether. He struck out on his own as a freelance writer, immediately finding success with a string of books about the silent film era: Sarah Bernhardt in the Theater of Films and Sound Recordings (McFarland 2003) The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era (Greenwood Praeger 2004) The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era (BearManor Media 2008)

In 2006, David worked for Brown Books Publishing Group, serving as Editor on Sonnets by Robert Brown, Slaves to Medicine by Dr. George Beauchamp, and Downtown Dallas: Romantic Past, Modern Renaissance by Mark Rice. That year, he also collaborated with Richard Davis on Lilian Hall-Davis: The English Rose, a biography of Britain’s famous silent film star.

In 2007, David embarked on a long effort to research many stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He visited and communicated with major archives around the world in a detailed exploration of archive contents to unearth the rarest materials available for several upcoming biographies. In 2008, after amassing enough materials for several books, David began a lengthy journey working on multiple projects developed to appear in print and online in the following two years.

In 2009, David worked for BearManor Media, serving as Editor on Best in Hollywood: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful by James Best and Jim Clark, Burlesque: A Living History by Jane Briggeman, Johnny Olson: A Voice in Time by Randy West. Also in 2009, David was the accredited author of Richard Barthelmess: A Life in Pictures.

In 2010, David shared credit along with William Thomas, Jr. on "Otay" The Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas Story, and he also edited Tales from the Script by accredited author Gene Perrett, Six Cult Films from the Sixties by accredited author Ib Melchior, Will the Real Me Please Stand Up by accredited author Christopher Knopf, Endless Summer: My Life With The Beach Boys by accredited author Jack Lloyd, Confessions of a Scream Queen by accredited author Matt Beckoff, as well as Now and Then, The Movies Get It Right by Neal Stannard.

Early in 2010, David released George O'Brien: A Man's Man in Hollywood, the first full-length biography and filmography of one of Hollywood's most beloved stars. That book struck a particularly responsive audience. David earned many positive reviews, including this one from John Gallagher in the April 2010 The National Board of Review: "BEAR MANOR MEDIA has a simply incredible catalogue of pop culture books, incredible for digging far deeper into film, TV and radio history than any major publisher would ever dare. Take for example David W. Menefee’s biography, George O’Brien: A Man’s Man in Hollywood, a thorough examination of the life and career of this great silent star, the leading man of Murnau’s epochal SUNRISE (1927). O’Brien had a special relationship with John Ford, and was his favorite pre-John Wayne leading man, starring in the Master’s first smash hit, THE IRON HORSE (1924), and THANK YOU (1925), THE FIGHTING HEART (1925), 3 BAD MEN (1926), THE BLUE EAGLE (1926), and the early talkies SALUTE (1929) and THE SEAS BENEATH (1931). O’Brien loved doing outdoors pictures and happily starred in dozens of B Westerns during the 30s before being cast by Ford in FORT APACHE (1948) and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1939). O’Brien would also appear in Ford’s final Western, CHEYENNE AUTUMN (1964). Menefee has done his research here, accessing the O’Brien estate, and loading the book with great graphics and rare photos. O’Brien was the son of the Chief of Police of San Francisco, and the author does a particularly excellent job in recreating the details of the 1906 earthquake and fire, which the O’Brien family survived."

Another important review was earned for that book when Cynthia Tobar from the Mina Rees Library at CUNY Graduate Center wrote, "One can't help but envision George O'Brien as anything less than a hero in life as well as on screen when reading David W. Menefee's richly detailed biography. This touching tribute pays homage to an actor popular with directors and audiences alike . . . researchers will marvel at Menefee's ability to seamlessly interweave absorbing narratives of the lives of those who crossed paths with O'Brien or helped him along his way to stardom . . . this book will prove a rich resource for film historians interested in the silent era and the development of the Western genre."

In 2011, BearManor Media published David's Wally: The True Wallace Reid Story (Foreword by Robert Osborne), the first ever full-length tribute to the renowned silent film star, Wallace Reid. He also served as editor for actress Marilyn Knowlden's autobiography Little Girl in Big Pictures.

Also in 2011, with the creation of Menefee Publishing, Inc., David published Sarah Bernhardt, Her Films, Her Recordings, Charlie O'Doone's Second Chance and Other Stories, as well as launched a new mystery series featuring detective Margot Cranston, including the first four titles, The Secret of the St. Lawrence Lighthouse, The Mystery at Loon Lake, and The Quest for the Jade Dragons. He also published the historical fiction novels, Brothers of the Storm about African American history, and The Remarkable Mr. Messing about surviving the Holocaust in World War Two, as well as The Rise and Fall of Lou-Tellegen, the first biography of actor Lou-Tellegen, and Falling Stars: 10 Who Tried to be a Movie Star.

In 2012, his works included the much discussed Mary Pickford / Owen Moore romance Sweet Memories, and Can't Help Falling in Love (with co-author Carol Dunitz.)

David is now involved with a Hollywood film project, Triple Crown, a screenplay about the famous jockey Earl Sande that was written in collaboration with Richard J. Maturi.

“I believe in doing thorough research,” David stated in a recent interview. “For thirty years, I researched the life and work of Sarah Bernhardt in order to produce the first ever in-depth account of her work in motion pictures and on sound recordings, a part of the Divine Sarah’s work that most of her biographers tended to skip over. There is an old saying that a writer should only write about what he or she knows, and I’m certain that is always the right course to take.”

• This profile also includes quotations from interviews conducted during 2005 and 2007 by Robert L. Willis with David W. Menefee.