Harry Tugend

Brooklyn-born writer/producer Harry Tugend started as a vaudevillian, before moving on to writing sketches, music and gags for radio and for the Broadway stage (including the 1934 "Ziegfeld Follies"). He was much involved with Fred Allen's radio broadcasts and went on to join the latter in Hollywood in 1935. Signed to a four-year contract with 20th Century Fox as a screenwriter, he was primarily entrusted with musicals and light comedy, often vehicles for Alice Faye or Shirley Temple. In 1941, Tugend took up an executive position at Paramount, contributing, either as writer or producer, to such solid box office winners as Birth of the Blues (1941), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Road to Bali (1952). According to the recollections of director Richard L. Bare, Tugend invariably started each "project with the title, as that set the tone for the story that would be written" ("Confessions of a Hollywood Director", Scarecrow Press 2001, p.248). After leaving Paramount in 1952, Tugend continued on as a free-lancer until his retirement in 1965. Importantly, he was also one of the co-founders of the Screen Writer's Guild, which was re-organised as the Writer's Guild of America in 1954.