Ernest Howard Culbertson

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Ernest Howard Culbertson (April 29, 1886 – July 1972) was an American newsreel editor, journalist, playwright, and screenwriter. He was born in New York City and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he attended Seaton School and McKinley Manual Training High School. While in school, he served in the Navy Cadet Corps and later led youth groups that put on music and drama.

Culbertson started his writing career with William Randolph Hearst as a features writer for The Washington Times. He later became a key figure in early newsreel journalism, serving as head of the features department for Fox News in 1919, the company that helped create the newsreel. He also worked as a newsreel editor for Universal Newsreel and wrote screenplays for Pathé Exchange and Paramount Pictures. He contributed features to the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record.

As a playwright, Culbertson is best known for Goat Alley, which opened on Broadway in 1921 and was revived in 1927. The play tells stories from the Goat Alley neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and aimed to raise awareness and support for welfare, housing, and education reforms. It was supported by the Medical Review of Reviews for its social importance.

Goat Alley is notable for being the first full-length Broadway drama with an all-black cast, a groundbreaking move at a time of strong racial prejudice. The play sparked discussion about race in American theatre. Some reviews praised its realism, while others criticized its portrayal of dialect and characters. The production also reflected the era’s complicated views on race and social issues, including debates around eugenics and urban poverty.

Culbertson also wrote a one-act play, The End of the Trail, published in 1924, and worked as a writer for the 1937 CBS Radio program Living Dramas of the Bible. He passed away in July 1972 in New York City at the age of 86.