John Patrick Goggan was bom on May 17, 1905, in Louisville. Kentucky, the son of John Francis and Myrtle (Osborn) Goggan. Abandoned by both of them, Patrick spent his childhood in a variety of foster homes and boarding schools, including St. Edward's School in Austin, Texas, and Holy Cross School, in New Orleans.

A drifter during much of his teen years, Patrick landed a job as radio announcer for KPO Radio in San Francisco, California, at the age of nineteen. Changing his name to John Patrick, he wrote over eleven hundred radio screenplays for the "Cecil and Sally" show, which was eventually broadcast by NBC between the years of 1929 and 1933. From 1933 to 1936. he continued to write for NBC, and in 1940. Helen Hayes performed his adaptations of the classics, also on NBC.

Patrick served during World War II as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service from 1941 to...