Samuel Spewack
Samuel Spewack was a notable playwright, screenwriter, and author, recognized for his significant contributions to theater and film during the 20th century. Born in Bachmut, Ukraine, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1903. After starting his career as a police reporter, he transitioned into playwriting, often collaborating with his wife, Bella Cohen, who was also an accomplished journalist. Together, they created several plays, with their most famous work, *Kiss Me, Kate*, achieving great success on Broadway.
Spewack's writing often drew upon his journalistic background, allowing him to craft compelling narratives and dramatic environments. He also ventured into Hollywood, where he wrote scripts for numerous films, including adaptations of their stage plays. The Spewacks were particularly successful in satirizing the entertainment industry, as seen in their play *Boy Meets Girl*, which humorously critiqued Hollywood studios. Throughout his career, Samuel Spewack was involved in both collaborative and independent projects, leaving a lasting legacy in American theater and film.
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Samuel Spewack
Author
- Born: September 16, 1899
- Birthplace: Bachmut, Ukraine
- Died: October 14, 1971
Biography
Samuel Spewack, usually called Sam, had a highly productive career as playwright, script writer for Hollywood, and author of a nonfiction work based on his journalistic reports about Russia filed in his days as a foreign correspondent. Spewack, the son of Noel and Sema Zelavetski Spewack, was born in the Ukrainian town of Bachmut, but his parents left in 1903, immigrating to the United States when their son was four. After high school, Spewack attended Columbia University but in 1917 left without a degree to work as a police reporter for the New York World. By 1922, he covered the Geneva Convention in Switzerland for the Evening World. In this year that he met Bella Cohen, a reporter for the New York Call, and married her.
For the next four years, the couple spent more time abroad than in the United States. Bella, an outstanding writer, made a name for herself as an investigative journalist. Both Sam and Bella were particularly adept at observing and reporting accurately what went on around them, an ability they transferred easily into creating believable dramatic environments in their plays. Bella first hatched the idea of writing plays with Sam. He warmed to the suggestion and their first collaboration, The Solitaire Man, opened in Boston in 1926. It closed almost immediately. Despite this inauspicious beginning, a film adaptation of the play written by James McGuinness in 1933 was reasonably successful.
The couple persisted with a second play, The War Song, a collaboration with George Jessel that played unsuccessfully on Broadway. Their first real triumph, however, was Clear All Wires!, a drama based on the couple’s newspaper experiences. Impressed by this play, the Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio offered the Spewacks contracts to write film scripts. They moved to California, and worked there intermittently for six years.
Ironically, their Boy Meets Girl is a satire on Hollywood studios, one of several produced around that time. The Spewacks’ play, however, was the longest running of them all, totaling 669 performances on Broadway. In the two main characters, Law and Benson, many people saw shades of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, although the Spewacks denied this connection. Despite the swipes the play took at Hollywood, Warner Brothers produced it, using the Spewacks’ film script.
With their creative talents commanding increasing respect, the Spewacks went on to write a dozen more plays together. Two of them, Leave It to Me! and Kiss Me Kate, both collaborations with Cole Porter, were resounding successes. The Spewacks wrote the scripts for some fourteen films. Sam wrote several plays independently, notably The Golden State, with Bella as producer, the highly experimental Under the Sycamore Tree, which ran for 189 performances in London but closed after a month in New York, Festival, and Once There Was a Russian, which closed after the first night. Their final collaboration was The Enchanted Nutcracker in 1961.