Pillot, Eugene, 1886-1966

Joseph Eugene Pillot, son of Teolin and Anna C. (Drescher) Pillot, was born in Houston, Texas, on 25 February 1886. After attending the University of Texas, he moved to the East Coast to pursue an interest in theater and the arts. In the 1910s, Pillot spent several years at Harvard working with George Pierce Baker's well-known 47 Workshop, where a number of his one-act plays were first produced.

Noted for its technical merits and popularity among American high school students, Pillot's play Two Crooks and a Lady (1918) proved his biggest success. It was produced and republished many times during the 1920s and 1930s. Pillot's other notable plays include My Lady Dreams, Hunger, and Just Two Men, all written in the early 1920s. During his career, Pillot also wrote poems and lyrics for religious songs, and in 1955 he authored the book Azalea for the River Oaks Garden Club in Houston.

Pillot died 4 June 1966.

From the guide to the Eugene Pillot Collection TXRC03-A11., 1917-1955, (The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center)