May Tully

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May Tully (born Mary Gertrude Tully; 1880s – March 9, 1924) was a Canadian actress, writer, director, and producer in theatre and early film. She was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia. After her father Frank Tully died in the 1887 Nanaimo mine explosion, she and her widowed mother moved to Victoria, where her mother remarried. May studied at McGill University and at Mrs. Wheatley’s Dramatic School in New York.

Tully wrote eight silent films, including The Winning of Beatrice (1918), Mary’s Ankle (1920), His Wife’s Money (1920), Bucking the Tiger (1921), The Old Oaken Bucket (1921), Chivalrous Charley (1921), Kisses (1922), and That Old Gang of Mine (1925). She directed That Old Gang of Mine and The Old Oaken Bucket, and produced The Old Oaken Bucket. On stage, she acted in The Christian (1900), In the Good Old Summer Time, and The Two Mr. Wetherbys (1906). She wrote the Broadway play Mary’s Ankle (1916), a farce that starred Irene Fenwick, Zelda Sears, and Bert Lytell and did well in New York and elsewhere. She also performed in vaudeville with sketches she wrote, such as Stop! Look! and Listen! (1907), The Late Mr. Allen (1912), The Battle Cry of Freedom (1912), and Mona Lisa (1914). A contemporary called her the tireless worker of vaudeville and one of the most businesslike women playwrights. At the Palace Theatre, she was the sketch writer and produced a fashion show in 1915, which toured the Keith circuits for years. Her vaudeville piece Curves (1911–1912), about baseball, co-starred Christy Mathewson and Chief Meyers, showing her love for the game. Giants coach Muggsy McGraw even said she knew inside baseball better than most fans.

May Tully died of nephritis in New York City on March 9, 1924, at about 40. After her death, Damon Runyon and others noted her wide circle of baseball friends and her deep understanding of the sport.