Early Life

George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1889 to Joseph and Henrietta Kaufman; he was the third child of four. Kaufman first became interested in humor by reading books by authors like Mark Twain. Nevertheless Kaufman first became interested in theatre at his Temple where his Rabbi, Rabbi J. Leonard Levy Jr. said that Kaufman possessed a real talent for acting. At the early age of fourteen Kaufman began writing a play with a friend of his, Irving Pichel; the play was called “The Failure.” In 1907 Kaufman decided to go to law school, but he withdrew during the first semester, shortly afterwards at the age of 20 Kaufman spent three years as a salesman. During these years Kaufman wrote humor pieces that were accepted by the local newspaper, after this he decided to send his work to the New York Evening Mail to the humor column Always in Good Humor, the paper was edited by Franklin Pierce Adams. Adams liked Kaufman’s pieces so much that he used them regularly and eventually invited Kaufman to lunch. As a result the two became lifelong friends, and in 1910 Adams suggested that Kaufman start to think about acting and Kaufman enrolled at the Alveine School of Dramatic Art. This caused Kaufman’s interest in the theatre to be rekindled and he and Irving Pichel started to rework “The Failure.” “The Failure” was inspired by comedies of Clyde Fitch; unfortunately the play was never produced.

In 1912 Adams recommended Kaufman for a job at the Washington Post. A year later he was fired from the Post because the owner of the paper did not hire Jewish people; afterwards Kaufman got a job at the New York Tribune. A year after this Kaufman began work on the one-act “The Lunatic,” with Herbert Seligman, the play was never produced. Shortly after this George Kaufman enrolled in a nighttime playwriting course at Columbia University. It was at this time when Kaufman started to develop his comedic style of playwriting as well as making the playwright a social historian. In the year 1915 George Kaufman enrolled in a modern drama class at Columbia University, following this time he wrote the play “Going Up,” which he wrote solo. “Going Up” experimented with plot devices such as the reversal which would later become a big part of George Kaufman’s unique comedic style. In 1917 Kaufman married Beatrice Bakrow after he became the drama editor of the New York Times, would die an early death in 1945.

Shortly after their marriage Kaufman was solicited by George C. Tyler who asked Kaufman to be the “play doctor” for the show “Among Those Present.” The show mounted in September of 1918 under the title “Someone in the House. Even though the show was not a huge hit the New York Times did say that the humor came in the second act and never left. At the same of House Kaufman collaborated with Robert Nathan on the play “Third Man High,” unfortunately the play was never produced. George C. Tyler’s next endeavor for Kaufman dealt with adapting a play from Danish dramatists Hans Miller. The play was a gloomy melodrama and Kaufman ended up being out of his element and the play never made it out of the try-out circuit.

During this time one of George Kaufman’s friends’s decided to hold a weekly luncheon at the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street; the luncheons would continue for ten years, and Kaufman would also go on to choose many of his collaborators from this group.

Marc Connelly

Marc Connelly was George Kaufman’s first collaborators from this group. In 1921 Tyler asked Kaufman to write another play, and George Kaufman asked Connelly to help in the writing of the play. The play became known as Dulcy short for Dulcinea, which was Tyler’s first idea for the title of the play. Dulcy opened in Chicago on February 20, 1921, the New York opening was on August 13 and the play was sold out every night. One review said that the play was “clean, wholesome, and jolly knit together with a nice sense of cumulative interest, peppered with dialogue, salient, with native wit.” The most important aspect of this play in regards to Kaufman is that it laid the ground work for his style by the perfecting of the “wisecrack.” The wisecrack would become a trademark of Kaufman’s in his later plays. George Kaufman’s other collaborations with Connelly include To the Ladies! (1922) Ran for 128 performances, Merton of the Movies (1922) Series of burlesques about Hollywood, the Deep Tangled Wildwood (1923) Helen of Troy, New York (1923) Musical, ran for 193 performances, and its successors are The Pajama Game and How to Succeed in Business without really trying. Be yourself (1924) Ran for 93 performances, Beggar on Horseback (1924) (Expressionistic, with two styles within the play realistic and dream.) Horseback was their most successful running for 244 performances. It was also one of the first times that expressionistic was used in regards to comedy. The two also wrote a couple of reviews during their collaboration time together.

Solo Life as a Writer

Kaufman also had some success with a solo career. One of his first successful solo endeavors came in 1923 when Kaufman wrote the one act If the Men play Cards as Women Do. This play became the most popular one act for the following thirty years. Two years later Kaufman wrote his first full length play called The Butter and Egg Man. The play ended up running for 241 performances and was Kaufman’s first play to be translated into a different language, French. Second in 1925 was The Cocoanuts, which had a score by Irving Berlin, and stared the Marx Brothers. This show ran for 375 performances. And the film version was made in 1929. Kaufman also wrote a few revues by himself.

Edna Ferber

Earlier in 1923 Kaufman read a short story by Ferber called “Old Man Minick.” Kaufman liked the story a lot and felt as though it would make a good play, so he asked Ferber to adapt the play with him. The play Minick opened on September 24, 1924. (three weeks before Be Yourself) The show ran for 154 performances and was eventually made into three films. Kaufman and Ferber continued to work together for the next twenty-four years, between the years 1925-1948. Their other plays include The Royal Family which was produced in 1927 and ran for 343 performances and was eventually made into a film. The next was Dinner at Eight, which was produced in 1932.

Other Collaborators

Between 1923 through 1924 Kaufman wrote a one-act play entitled “Wayward Bound,” with Isabel Leighton. In 1925 Kaufman wrote a revue sketch with Herman J. Mankiewicz called “Nothing Coming In.” This went unproduced but the two went on to write “The Good Fellow.” It opened in October 1926, and the run lasted a week.

Morrie Ryskind

In 1926 the writing for “Strike Up The Band” began, and contained a score by George and Ira Gershwin. The writing of “Strike Up the Band” began in 1926. The score was written by George and Ira Gershwin. The first Broadway opening was canceled, and Kaufman thought the show was going to be a failure so he did not re-write the play. Instead Morrie Ryskind revised the book. The revised version of the play ran 191 performances. The first script had failed because audiences were not enthusiastic about a musical with a depressing outlook. In 1928 Kaufman and Ryskind worked together on the next Marx Brothers flick entitled Animal Crackers. Animal Cracker opened on October 23, 1928 and ran for 213 performances; the film was made in 1930. A review in the New York Times said that the show was “uncommonly perfunctory in its construction as a musical entertainment.” In 1931 George Kaufman resumed working on a script with Ryskind; the play was titled Of The I Sing. “Of The I Sing” was a huge hit and ran for 446 performances; Kaufman also won his first Pulitzer Prize for the play. In 1933 came the sequel to Of the I Sing, called Let Them Eat Cake. The Show only ran for 89 performances. In 1935 came the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera.

Directing

Directed the play The Front Page in 1928 and the show ran for 276 performances.

Kaufman’s directing career spanned over 30 years, over this time period he directed June Moon(1927) Of Mice and Men (1937), Guys and Dolls (1950), and Romanoff and Juliet (1957) He liked directing his own plays and 23 of his directing credits were of his own plays.

Ring Lardner

In 1929 Kaufman began working with Ring Lardner on the play June Moon. The play was based on Lardner’s short story “Some like them Cold.” The play was a satiric account of how popular songs are composed, published, and pushed in Tin Pan Alley. Opened on Broadway on October 9, 1929 and ran for 272 performances. A film version was released in 1931. Lardner did not cope well with the success of the play; he returned to alcoholism and died in 1933 while he and Kaufman were in the middle of writing another script, about alcoholism.

Alexander Woollcott

Alexander Woollcott and George Kaufman wrote a play called “The Channel Road.” The story was an adaptation of a short story called “Boule de Suif,” by Guy de Maupassant. It opened 8 days after June Moon, and 11 days before October 29, the day the stock market crashed. Unfortunately this caused the play to only run 60 performances. Kaufman tried his hand at mystery with Woollcott entitled “The Dark Tower.” There were several weaknesses in the script and as a result it only ran for 57 performances.

Other Happenings in the 1930s

In 1934-35 Kaufman began work on the play Bring on The Girls. The play suffered from rewrites and poor reviews and did not really get off the ground. Then in November of 1935 came First Lady which ran for 244 performances, and it was later made into a film by Warner Brothers. A year later in 1936 came Stage Door; it ran for 169 performances until the lead actress had to leave because she was pregnant. 1936 also brought a couple more pieces of sketch comedy.

Moss Hart

 December 1929 the two playwrights came together to revamp Once in a Lifetime. Kaufman later said that the writing process for this play was so difficult and so long that he learned to believe the saying” Plays are not written but re-written.” The script went through several revisions. The show ran for 401 performances, and was made into a film in 1932; Kaufman also made his acting debut in the play. Kaufman insisted that 80 percent of the play was Moss Hart, but reviewers insisted that the wit and the style were Kaufman’s. In 1934 Hart contacted Kaufman for a new play Merrily We Role Along. The play had an anti materialistic theme which was a favorite of Kaufman’s. “Merrily we Role Along” also had different events occurring in several different places over a lengthy stretch of time. After this the two started to work on You Can’t take it With You. Reviewers often said that this play was“Funny without being shrill, sensible without being earnest.” You Can’t Take it With You ran for a grand total of 837 performances, and gave Kaufman his second Pulitzer. In 1937 came I’d Rather Be Right, then 1939, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and in 1940 George Washington Slept Here.

Conclusion

Kaufman continued to work until his death in 1961, but he did not achieve the type of success he did in the 20s and 30s. He is often said to be the comedic counter part of Eugene O’Neil. His plays have influenced the construction of stage, film, and television comedy

Sources

George S. Kaufman: An Intimate Portrait 1972

George S. Kaufman: 1988

George S. Kaufman and His Collaborators: 1984