About Scott O'Dell

Mr. Scott O'Dell was born on May 23 in 1898. He was born in Los Angeles were there wasn't any airplanes, freeways, and only the wealth could afford automobiles. Soon the O'Dell family moved to San Pedro, where they lived on Rattlesnake Island across from San Pedro. O'Dell was tall and thin, also a track star at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. O'Dell did something unusal. He went to four differen't colleges. Those colleges were Claremont College in California, The University of Wisconsin, Stanford Unversity, and The University of Rome. O'Dell joined the army to fight in 1918, when he was just 20 years old. He entered the army during World War I. At the end of World War I he was sent home. Then when World War II broke out he was enlisted again, but he didn't go fight. Instead he was stationed at Sheppear Air Force Base, Texas. O'Dell was very interested in film. His first job was Palmer Photoplay Company. While he was there he criticized and read movie scripts. While he was working here he came out with his first book Representative Photoplay Analyzed, which was published in 1924 when he was 26 years old. Then after his first job, he worked at Paramont Pictures in silent movies. He was the set dresser. His last movie job was a silent version of Ben Hur. He was the cameraman. Ben Hur was shot in Italy. When Ben Hur was finished shooting O'Dell had liked Italy so much he stayed there after the shooting. While in Italy, he wrote his first novel Pinfeathers, but it waas never published. Don't try to look for Pinfeathers because O'Dell burn the manuscript. Books that O'Dell wrote include Woman of Spain published in 1934, Hill of the Hawk published in 1947, Man Alone published in 1953, Country of the Sun: Southern Califorina, An Informational Guide published in 1957, The Sea is Red published in 1958, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins. O'Dell died in 1989. O'Dell's ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of La Jolla, California. When the boat was going back toward shore a pod of dolphins came out of the water right along the boat. The dolphins stayed with the boat untill the boat entered San Diego Bay.