Vina Delmar; Adapted ‘The Awful Truth’ for the Screen

Vina Delmar, who as a young woman wrote a series of novels that scandalized the country, making them not only best-sellers but giving her entree to Hollywood, has died in a Pasadena convalescent hospital.

The author of “Bad Girl,” a 1928 Literary Guild selection about premarital sex and pregnancy that later became a play and film, was 86 at her death Jan. 19.

The widow of Eugene Delmar, a writer who became her editor, lived much of her life in Beverly Hills where she later wrote historical novels.

Her screen adaptation of “The Awful Truth,” a play by Arthur Richman, was nominated for an Academy Award. The now cult classic comedy starred Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a couple going through divorce and an ultimate reconciliation.

Mrs. Delmar’s other works included “Kept Woman,” a collection of short stories called “Loose Ladies” and her historical works--”Beloved,” “The Big Family,” “A Time for Titans” and a domestic novel, “The Marcaboth Women,” a Literary Guild selection in 1951.

Her other work in films included “About Mrs. Leslie,” “Make Way for Tomorrow” and “Cynthia,” an early Elizabeth Taylor movie.

More recently she had written “The Becker Scandal: A Time Remembered” about a 1912 New York City police scandal.

Survivors include four grandchildren.