An American screenwriter and producer, born in New York City, USA. After graduating from Columbia University, he began his career in journalism. At the age of eighteen, he was the youngest writer to have a short story accepted by the Saturday Evening Post. In the early 1930s, he wrote and produced radio comedies including the hit show Baby Snooks starring Fanny Brice. Hollywood picked up one of his original stories, "1,000 Dollars a Minute," and made it into a film in 1935 starring Roger Pryor and Leila Hyams. He wrote Larceny, Inc. (1942) and The Princess and the Pirates (1944). During World War II, he was recruited to make training films for soldiers. He and his brother, Devery, were among the other 36 writers to contribute to the production of Ziegfeld Follies (1946). In 1947, he wrote The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. After retiring from the industry, due to health concerns, he taught writing classes at the University of California, Los Angeles.