Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind | |
---|---|
Born | Morris Ryskind October 20, 1895 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | August 24, 1985 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 89)
Occupation | Dramatist, screenwriter, lyricist, newspaper columnist |
Education | Columbia University |
Years active | 1929-1972 |
Spouse | Mary House (1929–1985) |
Children | 2[1] |
Morris "Morrie" Ryskind (October 20, 1895 – August 24, 1985) was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and movies who became a
Life and career
Ryskind was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Ida (Edelson) and Abraham Ryskind.[2] He attended Columbia University but was suspended shortly before he was due to graduate after he called university president Nicholas Murray Butler "Czar Nicholas" in the pages of the humor magazine Jester in 1917. Ryskind was criticizing Butler for refusing to allow Ilya Tolstoy speak on campus.[3]
From 1927 to 1945, Ryskind was author of numerous scripts and musical lyrics for Broadway productions and Hollywood films, and he later directed several productions. He collaborated with George S. Kaufman on several Broadway hits. In 1933, he earned the Pulitzer Prize for drama for the Broadway production Of Thee I Sing, a musical written in collaboration with composer George Gershwin.[4]
Ryskind wrote or cowrote several Marx Brothers theatrical and screenplays, including the book for the Broadway musical Animal Crackers (1929) (with Kaufman), and he wrote the screenplays for the film versions of The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930).
Later he cowrote, again with Kaufman, the screenplay for A Night at the Opera (1935), which helped revive interest in the Marx Brothers and was selected by the American Film Institute as among the top 100 comedy films. In working on that script, Ryskind was heavily involved in the "cleanup process," watching the brothers repeatedly perform sections of the play before live audiences to determine which lines worked and which did not. In an interview with Richard J. Anobile in The Marx Brothers Scrapbook, Groucho Marx said that he was so appalled by an early draft of the script, which was reportedly written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, that he screamed "Why fuck around with second-rate talent, get Kaufman and Ryskind [to write the screenplay]!"[5]
Ryskind also rewrote the stage version of Room Service (1938), reworking the plot to make the film suitable for the Marx Brothers.[6]
During that period, Ryskind was twice nominated for an
Political activism
For many years, Ryskind had been a member of the
He became a friend to writers
In the 1950s, Ryskind contributed articles to
He lent money to Buckley to help start The
In 1960, Ryskind started to write a feature column in the Los Angeles Times that promoted conservative ideas for the next 11 years. His son Allan H. Ryskind was the longtime editor of the conservative weekly Human Events.[20]
The elder Ryskind's autobiography I Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas: The Morrie Ryskind Story details his adventures from Broadway to Hollywood as well as his conversion to conservative politics.
Stage productions
- Merry-Go-Round (1927, with Howard Dietz to music by Henry Souvaine and Jay Gorney)
- Animal Crackers (1929, with George S. Kaufman to music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby)
- Ned Wayburn's Gambols (1929, lyricist with music by Walter G. Samuels)
- Strike up the Band (1930, bookwriter with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin)
- The Gang's All Here (1931, contributing bookwriter)
- Of Thee I Sing (1931, with George S. Kaufman to music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin) - Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
- Pardon My English (1933, with Herbert Fields to music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin)
- Let 'Em Eat Cake (1933 sequel to Of Thee I Sing, with George S. Kaufman to music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin)
- Louisiana Purchase (1941, bookwriter to music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, later, a film starring Bob Hope)
- The Lady Comes Across (1942, theatre director)
Filmography
- The Cocoanuts (1929, starring the Marx Brothers)
- Animal Crackers (1930, starring the Marx Brothers)
- A Night at the Opera (1935, starring the Marx Brothers)
- Oscarnomination
- Stage Door (1937) - Oscar nomination
- Room Service (1938, starring the Marx Brothers)
- Man About Town (1939)
- His Girl Friday (1940), movie version of The Front Page
- Penny Serenade (1941)
- Claudia (1943)
- Where Do We Go From Here? (1945)
- It's in the Bag! (1945), starring Fred Allen
Bibliography
- ISBN 1-931082-67-7; includes Animal Crackers and Of Thee I Sing)
- ISBN 978-0573681370)
- ISBN 978-0573680373)
- Let 'Em Eat Cake (1933, with George S. Kaufman and Ira Gershwin, New York: Knopf. 1933)
- I Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas: the Morrie Ryskind Story (with John H. M. Roberts, Lafayette, LA: Huntington House, 1994 ISBN 1-56384-000-6)
- Nicholas Miraculous: The Amazing Career of the Redoubtable Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Michael Rosenthal (Columbia University Press, 2006 ISBN 978-0-231-17421-3)
References
- ^ Schmalz, Jeffrey (25 August 1985). "Morrie Ryskind Dies at 89; Wrote Plays and Screen Comedies". The New York Times.
- ^ "I Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas: The Morrie Ryskind Story by Morrie Ryskind, John H Roberts - Alibris for Libraries} (hereafter, "Ryskind, Pajamas")".
- ^ Rosenthal, Michael, Nicholas Miraculous: The Amazing Career of the Redoubtable Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, 2006, Columbia University Press, pp.238-239.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, p.88, 99.
- ISBN 9780517515464. Retrieved 2013-12-25.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.101-117.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.119-141.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.169-171.
- ^ Diggins, John, Up From Communism, Harper & Row, 1975, pp. 201-233; Ryskind, Pajamas, p.184; and, O'Neill, William L., The Last Romantic: a Life of Max Eastman, 1991, Transaction
- ^ Burns, Jennifer, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, 2009, Oxford Univ. Press, p.131.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, p.179, 184.
- ^ Chamberlain, John, A Life with the Printed Word, Regnery, 1982, p.138.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, p.189.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, p.178, pp.206-208.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.165-166.
- ^ Chamberlain, John, A Life With the Printed Word, p.138.
- ^
Piper, Michael Collins (2006). The Judas Goats: The Enemy Within. American Free Press. ISBN 9780981808628. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.183-184.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.198-199.
- ^ Ryskind, Pajamas, pp.186-187.
External links
- Morrie Ryskind at IMDb
- Morrie Ryskind papers, 1911–1985, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts