Ernest Vajda was an accomplished playwright in Europe before coming to the United States to write for motion pictures in 1925. Though his screenwriting career spanned over twenty-five years, his best work was done in the late 1920s and the 1930s. Vajda was a specialist in sophisticated, romantic comedy. His favorite comic motifs included mistaken identity and the mingling of common folk with royalty or the wealthy.

Vajda was born Erno Vajda, the son of Terez Fischer and Lajos Vajda, in Komaron, Hungary. His father, a lawyer and captain in the Royal Hussars, was able to give Vajda an excellent education. He attended the College of the Benedictine Monks in Papa, Hungary, where he received a degree in electrochemistry in 1904, then received a doctorate in civil law, literature, and philosophy from Peter Pazmany University in Budapest in 1908. After graduation, Vajda devoted himself to a literary career. He was secretary...