Fred Saidy

Fred Saidy (February 11, 1907 – May 14, 1982) was an American playwright and screenwriter.

Early life and education

Fareed "Fred" Milhelm Saidy was born in Los Angeles, California on February 11, 1907.[1] He graduated from New York University with a degree in journalism,[1] and while a student there wrote for the NYU Daily News. He formed closed friendships with other writers working at that student paper; including future playwright and screenwriter Jerry Horwin (1905-1954), lyricist Paul Francis Webster, and lawyer David Garrison Berger.[2] In 1927 Saidy quit the school paper in protest after the paper refused to publish an editorial he wrote that criticized NYU's faculty over the dismissal of Estelle Hertz who was forced out of her position as president of NYU's League of Women. His decision to quit was the subject on an article in The New York Times.[3]

Career

Saidy initially worked as a journalist before transitioning into a career as a playwright;[1] initially breaking into the news business as a writer of poetry for Franklin P. Adams's column.[4] In the 1930s he contributed work to the New York Herald Tribune[5] and Oakland Tribune.[6][7] By 1937 he was working as a scriptwriter on staff at Republic Pictures.[2] Much of his early work in film died in development; including a planned biographical film of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky which he co-authored with Gilbert Gabriel (1890-1952).[4] While working for Republic his son was born on May 16, 1937.[8]

In 1942 Saidy co-authored the sketches to the musical revue Rally ’ Round the Flag with Arthur A. Ross; a work staged at the Assistance League Theatre in Los Angeles which was directed by Carlos Romero and included songs by Paul Francis Webster, Walter Jurmann, Billy Rose, and Earl Carroll among others.[9] He penned sketches used in the film Star Spangled Rhythm (1942),[4] and wrote the screenplay for the Red Skelton comedy I Dood It (1943).[10] He followed this by writing the script for the Lucille Ball-Dick Powell feature film Meet the People (1944).[4]

Saidy's first significant contribution to a stage musical was the book for the Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg's Bloomer Girl;[4] the latter having a major success on Broadway where it ran for 653 performances[10] from 1944-1946.[1][11] Starring Celeste Holm, the work was set during the American Civil War and told the story of a rebellious young woman who harbors an escaped slave on her journey pn the Underground Railroad.[10] It was later adapted into a television film starring Barbara Cook.[12] It was the first of several collaborations with Harburg, which included Finian's Rainbow (1947), Flahooley (1951), Jamaica (1957), and The Happiest Girl in the World (1961).[11] Flahooley and The Happiest Girl in the World were both failures,[1] but Finian's Rainbow and Jamaica were both hits in their original productions.[11] Jamaica was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, and was a starring vehicle for Lena Horne.[10]

Finian's Rainbow is Saidy's most enduring work with recent revivals including a Broadway production in 2009[13] and a London production in 2014.[14] During his lifetime it had three major Broadway revivals (1955,[15] 1960,[16] and 1967),[17] and was also made into a film starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in 1968.[18] This film was Saidy's last project, and he was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.[19] He had earlier collaborated with Neil Simon and Will Glickman, among others, on Satins and Spurs, an original television musical for Betty Hutton, which was broadcast by NBC in September 1954.[20]

Saidy died after a long illness on May 14, 1982.[21] He was the father of the international chess master Anthony Saidy.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Ewen, David (1970). "Saidy, Fred". New Complete Book of the American Musical Theater. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. p. 710.
  2. ^ a b Sobol, Louis (May 19, 1937). "The Voice of Broadway". The Miami News. p. 11.
  3. ^ "QUITS N.Y.U. BOARD IN ROW WITH FACULTY; Student Resigns From Publication When Editorials Criticizing Officials Are Barred". The New York Times. February 9, 1927. p. 36.
  4. ^ a b c d e Wright, Virginia (November 6, 1944). "Drama Editor". New York Daily News. p. 11.
  5. ^ "Thoughts Mundane and Cosmic". The Kansas City Star. July 9, 1933. p. 46.
  6. ^ Saidy, Fred (May 18, 1934). "Deflated Penny Worth of Thought". Oakland Tribune. p. 29.
  7. ^ Saidy, Fred (June 26, 1935). "F.P.A. the Conning Tower". Oakland Tribune. p. 19.
  8. ^ "Births". Variety. Vol. 126, no. 11. May 26, 1937. p. 62.
  9. ^ Wright, Virginia (February 2, 1942). "Drama Editor". New York Daily News. p. 13.
  10. ^ a b c d Lawson, Carol (May 18, 1982). "FRED M. SAIDY, 75; CO-AUTHOR OF BOOKS AND STAGE MUSICALS". The New York Times.
  11. ^ a b c Gänzl, Kurt (2001). "Saidy, Fred". The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, Second Edition. Vol. III. Schirmer Books. p. 1776. ISBN 9780028655741.
  12. ^ "Abbreviation Bright in TV Spectacular of Bloomer Girl". The Cincinnati Enquirer. May 30, 1956. p. 30.
  13. ^ Isherwood, Charles (October 29, 2009). "A Pot of Sunny Gold in Those Green Hills". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "Finian's Rainbow – Charing Cross Theatre". Musical Theatre Review. 24 April 2014.
  15. ^ Chapman, John (May 20, 1955). "City Center's Finian's Rainbow a Happy Revival of a Grand Show". New York Daily News. p. 59.
  16. ^ Chapman, John (June 12, 1960). "Something Very Grandish". New York Daily News. p. 26.
  17. ^ Chapman, John (April 6, 1967). "Songs Are the Strongest Part in Revival of Finian's Rainbow". New York Daily News. p. 65.
  18. ^ Terry, Clifford (October 14, 1968). "Rainbow Lacks Color". Chicago Tribune. p. 16, section 2.
  19. ^ Kennedy, Matthew (2015). Roadshow!: The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s. Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN 9780190262440.
  20. ^ "Hutton To Get $2000 a Minute for TV Show". Press of Atlantic City. August 2, 1954. p. 20.
  21. ^ "Funeral Announcements: Saidy, Fred". Los Angeles Times. May 17, 1982. p. 45.
  22. ^ Saydah, Charles (June 10, 1982). "Fred Saidy Left Me the Memory of His Rainbow". The Record. p. C19.
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