Aug. 7, 1959 in The Times: Preston Sturges, renowned Hollywood film producer-writer-director and Broadway playwright, died of a heart attack yesterday in his New York hotel room. He would have been 61 Aug. 28.

Sturges, who left Hollywood nearly 10 years ago after a series of reverses, had been living for several months in New York's Hotel Algonquin, a favorite of theatrical folk.

Sturges was credited with introducing the flashback technique in "The Power and the Glory."

Lee Shippey interviews Preston Sturges, Oct. 2, 1932: Thus a young man who previously had been notable only for the invention of a "twenty-four-hour lipstick" suddenly became one of the most interesting figures in American drama."

"Nothing surprising about that," he avers. "Playwriting is simply invention. Inventing a lipstick or an engine or a play is very similar work. I have invented an engine, too, for which I have great hopes."

At right, Philip K. Scheuer on Sturges, Aug. 7, 1959.