Harry Tugend(1897-1989)
- Producer
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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.
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.
