Don Quinn
Don Quinn | |
---|---|
Born | Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. | November 18, 1900
Died | December 30, 1967 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 67)
Occupation(s) | Cartoonist, writer |
Years active | 1920s-1965 |
Spouses | Garnette Steve Quinn
(died 1938)
|
Don Quinn (November 18, 1900 – December 30, 1967) was an American comedy writer who started out as a cartoonist based in Chicago. According to sources, Quinn's career as a cartoonist was short-lived but his career as a writer began after he realized that the magazines and newspapers threw away his drawings he sent in but kept his captions.[1]
Quinn was best known as the sole writer (later head writer to
Quinn was also the creator/head writer of radio's
Career
Quinn was born in November 1900 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not much is known about his early life nor is much known about his early career as a cartoonist. However, what little is known is that after discovering that, even though his drawings were thrown away by magazines, his captions were kept, Quinn found a job at WENR in Chicago writing for some of the up-and-coming comedians there.
It was there where Quinn met
That same year, the three of them created
After the wife of a
From the start of the show, Quinn was full partner and by 1941, the Jordans and Quinn were splitting a $6000 paycheck three ways.[1] Fibber McGee co-star Gale Gordon once recalled that Quinn would sometimes send his ideas to other radio comedians including Fred Allen.[6] In 1943, Phil Leslie became Quinn's writing assistant on the show. Quinn left at the end of the 1949-50 radio season to pursue other projects.
In 1945, Quinn created from 1950-1952.
In 1950, Quinn created The Halls of Ivy a lighthearted comedy about a professor, William Todhunter Hall, the president of small, Midwestern College, and his wife, Victoria, a former British musical comedy star who sometimes felt the tug of her former profession, and followed their interactions with students, friends, and college trustees.[7]
The audition episode originally starred Gale Gordon, (of Our Miss Brooks fame), and Edna Best as William and Victoria Hall. Although Gordon and Best were replaced by Ronald Colman and Benita Hume during the show's actual radio run, they still managed to make a lasting impression which led to numerous appearances on The Jack Benny Program in the late 1940s.
The program debuted on NBC Radio in January 1950 and ran until May 1952. Quinn served as the sole writer on the program. The show also had a short radio run during the 1954-55 television season on CBS. Quinn also wrote for the television series as well. The television show lost in the ratings, in part, due to its timeslot, Tuesday night at 8:30, against the last half of NBC's rotating trio of programs: The Milton Berle Show, The Bob Hope Show and The Martha Raye Show.
Quinn broke into television in 1953 as a story editor for the Four Star Playhouse. He would write an episode of the series in 1956. In addition to these two episodes, Quinn also wrote several episodes of Climax!, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Addams Family and Petticoat Junction.
According to the
Personal life
Quinn was married twice. His first wife, Garnette Steve, died in 1938 in a fatal car crash in which her car drove off the road and spun several times. He remarried several years later to Edythe Quinn (August 18, 1909–February 25, 1978). Edythe Quinn was a former reporter with the Chicago American.[8] Quinn had no children.
Quinn died on December 30, at the age of 67. According to author Tony Scott, Quinn had been sick for some time and his death was barely reported in the newspapers.[8] Quinn and his widow Edythe are buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Their grave is located inside the Cathedral Mausoleum Alcove of Devotion.
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1941 | Look Who's Laughing | Writer | Material for Fibber McGee and Molly |
1942 | Here We Go Again | ||
1944 | Heavenly Days | Wrote screenplay | |
1945 | The All-Star Bond Rally | Film short | |
1957 | Public Pigeon No. 1 | Wrote story |
Radio
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1931-1932 | The Smith Family | Writer | |
1931-1935 | Smackout | ||
1935-1950 | Fibber McGee and Molly | Sole writer until 1943 Head writer over Phil Leslie, 1943-1950 | |
1949 | The Beulah Show |
Creator | |
1950-1952 | The Halls of Ivy | Writer |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953 | Four Star Playhouse | Story editor | 1 episode |
1954-1955 | The Halls of Ivy | Writer | 33 episodes |
1955 | Climax! | 1 episode | |
1956 | Four Star Playhouse | 1 episode | |
1958 | Yancy Derringer | Theme song composer | |
1960 | The Dinah Shore Chevy Show | Writer | 1 episode |
1963 | Petticoat Junction | Script consultant | 9 episodes |
1965 | The Addams Family | Writer | 1 episode |
References
- ^ a b "Don Quinn (writer)". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
- ^ "Jim Jordan, Radio's Fibber McGee, Is Dead at 91". The New York Times. Associated Press. April 2, 1988. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
- ^ "Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve: The P. Stands for Philharmonic. Learn More About the Great Man Himself". www.greatgildersleeve.com. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-6094-9211-3. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
- ^ "Cast: Don Quinn as Writer". www.fibbermcgeeandmolly.com. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-4399-0560-9. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ISBN 0-19-507678-8. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
don quinn writer.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-3129-1697-5. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
External links
- Don Quinn at IMDb
- Don Quinn at Find a Grave