Harold MacGrath wrote the 1920 American book The Drums of Jeopardy. The Saturday Evening Post began publishing the story in serial form in January 1920. The book was adapted into a Broadway play in 1922 and a movie the following year. In 1931, a second film adaptation was released. It is reported that a young Boris Karloff, who had previously played a few uncredited cinema roles, got his stage name from a Russian mad scientist character named "Boris Karlov" in this book for his first screen credit in 1920. The character played by Wallace Beery in the film adaptation was originally called "Boris Karlov" from MacGrath's book, but by 1923, actor Boris Karloff had adopted the variation with a similar pronunciation. Less than a year before Frankenstein would make Boris Karloff a household name for generations, the name of the mad scientist was restored to "Boris Karloff" in the 1931 film adaptation with Warner Oland portraying the role. Ironically, Boris Karloff appeared in cinema as numerous insane scientists but never as "Boris Karlov."
American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter Harold MacGrath (September 4, 1871 – October 30, 1922) was a bestselling and prolific author. He occasionally finished more than one mass-market novel per year, with themes including romance, spies, mystery, and adventure. He was the first nationally renowned author hired to produce original screenplays for the fledgling motion picture industry. Additionally, he had three short stories and 18 novels turned into movies, sometimes more than once. Additionally, three of these books were turned into plays that were presented on New York City's Broadway. Although MacGrath spent a lot of time traveling, his home base was always Syracuse, New York, where he was born and reared. He was the son of Thomas H. and Lillian Jane McGrath, and he was born Harold McGrath in Syracuse, New York. Before publishing his first book, a romance titled Arms and Woman, in the late 1890s, he was a teenage reporter and columnist for the Syracuse Herald newspaper. The Puppet Crown, his subsequent novel, reportedly peaked at No. 7 on the New York Times bestseller list for the entire year of 1901. More than one mass-market novel about love, adventure, mystery, spies, and the like was still produced annually by MacGrath.
