Cato Sells Keith (1882-1951) was born in Iowa and grew up in Helena, Montana, where his father was a newspaper editor. At eighteen he moved to Butte, MT, and worked as a reporter. By the 1910s, Cato abandoned journalism and went east pursuing a career in vaudeville. He also spent time writing stage scripts either himself or jointly. His most frequent writing collaborators, as documented in this collection, were Frank L.Whittier and Bessie Warren. During the 1920s, he toured various vaudeville circuits with Maude Parker, as “Keith and Parker.” When the demand for vaudeville declined, Keith tried unsuccessfully to find work in Hollywood. Keith and Parker withdrew to a reclusive life in Montana.