Background
Rand's inspiration for the play came primarily from two sources. One was seeing a performance of The Trial of Mary Dugan, a melodrama about a showgirl on trial for killing her wealthy lover. This play gave Rand the idea to write a drama about a trial, but one where the ending would not be fixed. The other source was news reports about the suicide of Ivar Kreuger, a Swedish businessman known as the "Match King" because of monopolies on match production he had negotiated with various governments. When his business empire became financially unstable, he shot himself amid accusations of shady and possibly illegal financial deals. From this incident Rand got the idea to make the victim a businessman of great ambition and dubious character, who could have been murdered for more than one reason.
Read more about this topic: Night Of January 16th
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