Hal Kanter

Last updated

Hal Kanter
BornDecember 18, 1918
DiedNovember 6, 2011(2011-11-06) (aged 92)
Occupation(s)Writer, producer, director
Years active1954–2008
Known forWork as creator/executive producer of the NBC-TV series Julia as well as writer for numerous Academy Awards broadcasts
Spouse(s)Doris Kanter (1941-2011) (his death, 3 children) [1]

Hal Kanter (December 18, 1918 – November 6, 2011) [2] was an American writer, producer and director, principally for comedy actors such as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley (in Loving You and Blue Hawaii ), for both feature films and television. Kanter helped Tennessee Williams turn the play by Williams into the film version of The Rose Tattoo . He was regularly credited as a writer for the Academy Award broadcasts. Kanter was also the creator and executive producer of the television series Julia .

Contents

Biography

Kanter was born to a Jewish family in Savannah, Georgia. [3] He started his career peddling jokes to Eddie Cantor for his radio program. Kanter recalls, "I'd listen to his show and say, 'I can write jokes as funny as that,' so I walked from my rooming house to his show, and told the guard, 'Mr. Kanter is here to see Mr. Cantor, figuring he'd see me because of our names, although his real name was Iskowitch. I was seventeen years old and had the nerve of a burglar." [4] Although Kanter was not hired by Cantor, one of his writers, Hugh Wedlock Jr., paid Kanter $10 per week to write jokes. Wedlock would then resell Kanter's jokes to Cantor. Kanter stated, "So I became a ghostwriter to a ghostwriter." [5]

March 1941 joined the United States Army serving till the end of World War II in 1945. Kanter wrote, produced, and acted in Armed Forces Radio Service shows aired over stations KOA (AM), KLZ, and other local stations in Colorado. He built and ran radio stations in Naval Base Eniwetok and Naval Base Guam; and served as a combat correspondent on Iwo Jima.

Kanter's autobiography, So Far, So Funny: My Life in Show Business, was published in 1999 by McFarland & Company, Inc., of Jefferson, North Carolina. The book chronicles his early life, his struggles in Hollywood during his early years, and his eventual success in show business in general and as a comedy writer in particular.

Kanter died at his home in Encino, California on November 6, 2011, at the age of 92.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gobel</span> American comedian and actor (1919–1991)

George Leslie Goebel was an American humorist, actor, and comedian. He was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, The George Gobel Show, on NBC from 1954 to 1959 and on CBS from 1959 to 1960. He was also a familiar panelist on the NBC game show Hollywood Squares.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sid Caesar</span> American comic actor and writer (1922–2014)

Isaac Sidney Caesar was an American actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. Your Show of Shows and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and Vegas Vacation (1997).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Cantor</span> American comedian and actor (1892–1964)

Eddie Cantor was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Diller</span> American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician and artist

Phyllis Ada Diller was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mort Sahl</span> American comedian and actor (1927–2021)

Morton Lyon Sahl was a Canadian-born Jewish American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. He pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop.

<i>The Life of Riley</i> American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s

The Life of Riley is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, as well as two different television series, and a comic book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Morgan (humorist)</span> American comedian (1915–1994)

Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He first became familiar to radio audiences in the 1930s and 1940s as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist. In the 1950s and later he was a regular and cantankerous panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret as well as other game and talk shows.

<i>Ethel and Albert</i> Radio and television comedy series

Ethel and Albert was a radio and television comedy series about a married couple, Ethel and Albert Arbuckle, living in the small town of Sandy Harbor. Created by Peg Lynch, who scripted and portrayed Ethel, the series first aired on local Minnesota radio in the early 1940s before a run on the NBC Blue Network and ABC from May 29, 1944, to August 28, 1950. It co-starred Alan Bunce as Albert.

<i>Our Miss Brooks</i> Radio and television series

Our Miss Brooks is an American sitcom starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high-school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast on CBS from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television (1952–56), it became one of the medium's earliest hits. In 1956, the sitcom was adapted for the big screen in the film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnac the Magnificent</span> Recurring character on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Carnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. One of Carson's most well-known characters, Carnac was a "mystic from the East" who could psychically "divine" unknown answers to unseen questions.

<i>The Big Show</i> (NBC Radio)

The Big Show was an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of comic, stage, screen and music talent. It was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era, robust against the rapidly growing television tide. For a good portion of its year-and-a-half run, the show's quality made its ambition seem plausible.

<i>The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show</i> American comedy radio program

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, was a comedy radio program which ran on NBC from 1948 to 1954 starring Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Harris had previously become known to radio audiences as the band-leader-turned-cast-member of the same name on The Jack Benny Program while Faye had been a frequent guest on programs such as Rudy Vallée's variety shows. After becoming the breakout stars of the music and comedy variety program The Fitch Bandwagon, the show was retooled into a full situation comedy, with Harris and Faye playing fictionalized versions of themselves as a working show business couple raising two daughters in a madcap home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Gardner</span> American actor (1901–1963)

Ed Gardner was an American comic actor, writer and director, best remembered as the creator and star of the radio's popular Duffy's Tavern comedy series.

<i>The Baby Snooks Show</i> American radio program

The Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedian and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm as Post Toasties Time. The title soon changed to The Baby Snooks Show, and the series was sometimes called Baby Snooks and Daddy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hal Block</span> American comedian (1913-1981)

Harold Leonard Block was an American comedy writer, comedian, producer, songwriter and television personality. Although Block was a highly successful comedy writer for over 15 years, today he is most often remembered as an original panelist of the television game show What's My Line? who was fired from the show in its third season, reportedly for inappropriate on-air behavior. Block is a controversial figure in the history of television, denounced by some, while praised by others as a writer and for contributing to the original success of What's My Line?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melville Shavelson</span> American screenwriter

Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987.

Bob Weiskopf was an American screenwriter and producer for television. He has credits for I Love Lucy which he and his writing partner Bob Schiller joined in the fifth season. They also wrote for The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Maude, All in the Family, Archie Bunker's Place, The Red Skelton Show, the short-lived Pete and Gladys, and Sanford.

Albert Schwartz was an American screenwriter, television producer, and director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straight man</span> Stock character, notable for remaining composed in a comedic performance

The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The straight man is a foil, a contrasting character to the funny man. The direct contribution to the comedy a straight man provides typically comes in the form of a deadpan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Nachman</span> American journalist (1938–2018)

Gerald Weil Nachman was an American journalist and author from San Francisco.

References

  1. https://variety.com/2014/tv/people-news/writer-doris-kanter-widow-of-comedy-scribe-hal-kanter-dies-at-95-1201159272/
  2. "Welcome to the US Petabox". Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2020.{{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  3. Archived August 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine November 17, 2011
  4. Nachman, Gerald (1998). Raised on Radio, p. 41. Pantheon Books, New York. ISBN   037540287X.
  5. Nachman, Gerald (1998). Raised on Radio, p. 41. Pantheon Books, New York. ISBN   037540287X.

Further reading