A man of very definite ideas and convictions, Morrie Ryskind has created a body of work that examines the general folly of the human race. He never worked as sole scenarist, but the scripts he wrote with others brought him into contact with some of Hollywood's most prodigious talents: the Marx Brothers, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, Jack Benny, and directors Howard Hawks and George Stevens. Ryskind had a major role in creating such classic films as Animal Crackers (1930), Ceiling Zero (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), Penny Serenade (1941), and It's in the Bag (1945).

The son of Abraham Ryskind, a storekeeper, and Ida Eddleston Ryskind, Morris Ryskind began contributing to the New York literary scene while still in high school. By the time he graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1912, he had frequently contributed to Franklin P. Adams's column, "The Conning Tower", and was...