william...@aol.com
2008-11-20 19:04:30 UTC
Irving Brecher dies at 94; Comedy writer got an Oscar nod for 'Meet Me
in St. Louis'
Brecher also created 'The Life of Riley' and wrote for Milton Berle
and the Marx Brothers.
By Dennis McLellan
November 19, 2008
Irving Brecher, a comedy writer whose career in radio, television and
the movies included writing two Marx Brothers comedies, co-writing the
Judy Garland musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" and creating the radio and
TV series "The Life of Riley," has died. He was 94.
Brecher died of age-related causes Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center, said his wife, Norma.
Comedy writer Larry Gelbart, a longtime friend, remembered Brecher for
his great wit.
"He was always a treat whenever he spoke," Gelbart told The Times on
Tuesday. "I, for one, am sorry he didn't do more [writing]. He had had
such success so early."
Born in the Bronx on Jan. 17, 1914, Brecher was a teenage usher at a
movie theater on 57th Street in Manhattan when he began sending one-
liners on penny postcards to columnists Walter Winchell and Ed
Sullivan.
Occasionally, some of his funny lines showed up in print with his name
included.
When he found he could make money selling lines to vaudeville
comedians, he and a friend -- fledgling comedy writer Al Schwartz --
ran a small ad in Variety offering their gag-writing services.
Brecher said in an interview for Jordan Young's 1999 book "The Laugh
Crafters" that at the time, a brash young comedian named Milton Berle
had a self-promoted reputation for stealing other people's material.
Brecher and Schwartz's ad offered "positively Berle-proof gags, so bad
not even Milton will steal them."
Their first customer: Milton Berle, who paid them $50 for a page of
one-liners.
Brecher, then 19, continued to write gags for Berle and other acts
before he turned to radio.
When Berle was signed by CBS in 1936 to do a radio program, "The
Gillette Original Community Sing," Brecher became the program's only
writer.
And when Berle went to Hollywood to costar in the movie "New Faces of
1937," the radio show went west with him. So did Brecher, who
continued to write the program as well as the final script for the
movie.
Brecher was soon under personal contract to producer-director Mervyn
LeRoy, who took him to MGM, where he wrote the screenplays for the
Marx Brothers' "At the Circus" (1939) and "Go West" (1940) and shared
an Oscar nomination for the screenplay for "Meet Me in St.
Louis" (1944).
Among his other screenwriting credits are "Shadow of the Thin Man,"
"Du Barry Was a Lady," "Yolanda and the Thief," "Cry for Happy" and
"Bye Bye Birdie."
In the early '40s, Brecher also created, wrote and produced the radio
series "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix.
Brecher wrote and directed a 1949 feature film version of "The Life of
Riley," and the show became an Emmy Award-winning TV series with
Jackie Gleason as bumbling working-class everyman Chester A. Riley
before Bendix took over the role he played on radio.
Brecher's directing credits include the 1952 Betty Hutton musical
"Somebody Loves Me" and the 1961 Robert Wagner comedy "Sail a Crooked
Ship," which was Ernie Kovacs' last picture.
He also created and co-produced (with George Burns) "The People's
Choice," a 1955-58 sitcom starring Jackie Cooper, which featured a pet
basset hound named Cleo whose voice only the audience could hear.
Brecher recently wrote a book about the Hollywood figures he knew and
wrote for -- "The Wicked Wit of the West," as told to Hank Rosenfeld
-- to be published in January by Ben Yehuda Press.
It is subtitled "The Last Great Golden-Age Screenwriter Shares the
Hilarity and Heartaches of Working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason,
Burns, Berle, Benny & Many More."
Brecher met Groucho Marx in 1938 after LeRoy hired Brecher to punch up
the comedy scenes in "The Wizard of Oz." As Brecher recalled in a 2001
interview with The Times: "The straw man, the tin man, the lion --
Mervyn LeRoy said, 'They're not funny enough.' "
When LeRoy took Brecher into his office, Marx was sitting at LeRoy's
desk, Brecher recalled in 2001 in the Newark Star-Ledger.
"I said, 'Hello, Mr. Marx.' He said, 'Hello? That's supposed to be a
funny line? Is this the guy who's supposed to write our movie?' I
probably turned white.
"Then I said, 'Well, I saw you say hello in one of your movies, and I
thought it was so funny I'd steal it and use it now.' Grouch smiled,
then he bought me lunch," Brecher said.
In the 2001 interview with The Times, Brecher said he found it easiest
to write for Groucho.
"I'm a complainer, a dissenter and a put-downer," he said. "He was my
alter ego. I liked the anarchism."
Brecher was preceded in death by his first wife, Eve Bennett; and his
two children, Joanna Giallelis and Keon Brecher.
In addition to Norma, his wife of 25 years, he is survived by his
stepchildren Jane Ulman, Ellen Zoschak and Michael Waxenberg; and
eight grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Hillside Memorial
Park.
McLellan is a Times staff writer.
***@latimes.com
in St. Louis'
Brecher also created 'The Life of Riley' and wrote for Milton Berle
and the Marx Brothers.
By Dennis McLellan
November 19, 2008
Irving Brecher, a comedy writer whose career in radio, television and
the movies included writing two Marx Brothers comedies, co-writing the
Judy Garland musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" and creating the radio and
TV series "The Life of Riley," has died. He was 94.
Brecher died of age-related causes Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center, said his wife, Norma.
Comedy writer Larry Gelbart, a longtime friend, remembered Brecher for
his great wit.
"He was always a treat whenever he spoke," Gelbart told The Times on
Tuesday. "I, for one, am sorry he didn't do more [writing]. He had had
such success so early."
Born in the Bronx on Jan. 17, 1914, Brecher was a teenage usher at a
movie theater on 57th Street in Manhattan when he began sending one-
liners on penny postcards to columnists Walter Winchell and Ed
Sullivan.
Occasionally, some of his funny lines showed up in print with his name
included.
When he found he could make money selling lines to vaudeville
comedians, he and a friend -- fledgling comedy writer Al Schwartz --
ran a small ad in Variety offering their gag-writing services.
Brecher said in an interview for Jordan Young's 1999 book "The Laugh
Crafters" that at the time, a brash young comedian named Milton Berle
had a self-promoted reputation for stealing other people's material.
Brecher and Schwartz's ad offered "positively Berle-proof gags, so bad
not even Milton will steal them."
Their first customer: Milton Berle, who paid them $50 for a page of
one-liners.
Brecher, then 19, continued to write gags for Berle and other acts
before he turned to radio.
When Berle was signed by CBS in 1936 to do a radio program, "The
Gillette Original Community Sing," Brecher became the program's only
writer.
And when Berle went to Hollywood to costar in the movie "New Faces of
1937," the radio show went west with him. So did Brecher, who
continued to write the program as well as the final script for the
movie.
Brecher was soon under personal contract to producer-director Mervyn
LeRoy, who took him to MGM, where he wrote the screenplays for the
Marx Brothers' "At the Circus" (1939) and "Go West" (1940) and shared
an Oscar nomination for the screenplay for "Meet Me in St.
Louis" (1944).
Among his other screenwriting credits are "Shadow of the Thin Man,"
"Du Barry Was a Lady," "Yolanda and the Thief," "Cry for Happy" and
"Bye Bye Birdie."
In the early '40s, Brecher also created, wrote and produced the radio
series "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix.
Brecher wrote and directed a 1949 feature film version of "The Life of
Riley," and the show became an Emmy Award-winning TV series with
Jackie Gleason as bumbling working-class everyman Chester A. Riley
before Bendix took over the role he played on radio.
Brecher's directing credits include the 1952 Betty Hutton musical
"Somebody Loves Me" and the 1961 Robert Wagner comedy "Sail a Crooked
Ship," which was Ernie Kovacs' last picture.
He also created and co-produced (with George Burns) "The People's
Choice," a 1955-58 sitcom starring Jackie Cooper, which featured a pet
basset hound named Cleo whose voice only the audience could hear.
Brecher recently wrote a book about the Hollywood figures he knew and
wrote for -- "The Wicked Wit of the West," as told to Hank Rosenfeld
-- to be published in January by Ben Yehuda Press.
It is subtitled "The Last Great Golden-Age Screenwriter Shares the
Hilarity and Heartaches of Working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason,
Burns, Berle, Benny & Many More."
Brecher met Groucho Marx in 1938 after LeRoy hired Brecher to punch up
the comedy scenes in "The Wizard of Oz." As Brecher recalled in a 2001
interview with The Times: "The straw man, the tin man, the lion --
Mervyn LeRoy said, 'They're not funny enough.' "
When LeRoy took Brecher into his office, Marx was sitting at LeRoy's
desk, Brecher recalled in 2001 in the Newark Star-Ledger.
"I said, 'Hello, Mr. Marx.' He said, 'Hello? That's supposed to be a
funny line? Is this the guy who's supposed to write our movie?' I
probably turned white.
"Then I said, 'Well, I saw you say hello in one of your movies, and I
thought it was so funny I'd steal it and use it now.' Grouch smiled,
then he bought me lunch," Brecher said.
In the 2001 interview with The Times, Brecher said he found it easiest
to write for Groucho.
"I'm a complainer, a dissenter and a put-downer," he said. "He was my
alter ego. I liked the anarchism."
Brecher was preceded in death by his first wife, Eve Bennett; and his
two children, Joanna Giallelis and Keon Brecher.
In addition to Norma, his wife of 25 years, he is survived by his
stepchildren Jane Ulman, Ellen Zoschak and Michael Waxenberg; and
eight grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Hillside Memorial
Park.
McLellan is a Times staff writer.
***@latimes.com