It’s about time we talk about Norman Reilly Raine, the quiet member of the Luzerne County Oscar winners’ club. Unlike Jack Palance and the Mankiewicz brothers, you don’t hear much conversation about Mr. Raine, who won his Oscar for best adapted screenplay for 1937’s “The Life of Emile Zola” — which also won best picture.
Raine was born in Wilkes-Barre on June 23, 1894, on Jackson Street in Wilkes-Barre. It’s kind of hard to imagine the current-day Jackson Street as a birthplace, but let’s trust the old school newspapers on this. Or, maybe we shouldn’t, because the Times Leader actually has a historically terrible track record when it comes to getting the details of Raine’s life correct. In his obituary in 1971, the paper listed his birth year at 1895, which you won’t see listed on any mod