| Helen Meinardi | |
| Birth Date: | July 7, 1909 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Death Date: | March 31, 1997 |
| Death Place: | Carmel, California, USA |
| Education: | Indiana University |
| Occupation: | Screenwriter |
| Relatives: | Hoagy Carmichael (brother-in-law) |
Helen Meinardi (1909-1997) was an American screenwriter and songwriter who wrote a string of films in the 1930s.
Helen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Garrett Meinardi and Sarah Henderson. Her parents separated when she was young, and her father won custody; however, Sarah briefly kidnapped Helen and Helen's younger sister, Ruth.[1]
She attended the Lucy Cobb Finishing School in Georgia as a young woman before graduating from Indiana University. After college, she worked in New York City for a time before heading to Los Angeles, determined to forge a career for herself in Hollywood.[2]
Helen began writing songs and screenplays in the 1930s; she wrote a number of songs for musician Hoagy Carmichael, who eventually became her brother-in-law.[3] Helen won an RKO contract after writing the story that inspired the 1937 film I Met Him in Paris. In her later years, she worked as a journalist for CBS in New York before retiring to Maine.[4]