The Front Page was originally a play written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

It has been adapted to film several times:

His Girl Friday and Switching Channels took the unusual twist of changing the sex of a character, from a male Hildy Johnson to females Hildegaard 'Hildy' Johnson and Christy Colleran respectively. John Varley's 1991 science-fiction novel Steel Beach takes the story, and the change of sex, to another level by having the plot include a sex-change by a male reporter named "Hildy Johnson".

There have also been four television productions, all under the title The Front Page:


For the real-life background to the settings, and for a character, of The Front Page, see City News Bureau of Chicago, where MacArthur had worked, and Chicago's American.

External Reference

[Movie Data Base]