Biography

Oscar-winning screenwriter S. J. Perelman was one of the great American humorists, a master at short fiction involving word play and satire who influenced countless American humorists, including Woody Allen. He was born Simeon Joseph Perleman (though known as Sidney or Sydney to family and friends) on February 1, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, where he attended Brown University.

Starting in the 1920s, he became a cartoonist and humorist. His friends would include Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker, two of the key members of the famed Algonquin Round Table. (Perleman was never a member, though caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who illustrated some of Perleman's books, once created a cartoon called "Algonquin Round Table with S. J. Perelman Sitting in Booth Nearby" the year of his death.)

He made his reputation writing short stories, satires and humorous pieces for "The New Yorker" and other top magazines. He described his short humorist pieces as feuilletons (French for "little leaves"), referencing a genre of French literature. He would often write parodies of popular culture, such as the hard-boiled writing of Raymond Chandler, or tales of his misadventures on his farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He began publishing his collected feuilletons in book form starting in the 1940s.

Perleman made his Broadway debut writing the book for the Bobby Clark revue "Walk a Little Faster" that played over three months in the 1932-33 season. The following season his play 'All Good Americans", co-written with his wife Laura (the sister of novelist 'Nathanel West') was not a success, lasting only 40 performances. Seven years later, the couple's "The Night Before Christmas" lasted just 22 performances. In 1943, Perleman was finally associated with a hit with the musical "One Touch of Venus", for which he wrote the book with his friend Ogden Nash. With a music by Kurt Weil and a production staged by the great Elia Kazan (arguably the greatest director in Broadway history), the show ran for 567 performances. His last outing on Broadway, the 1963 comedy "The Beauty Part", returned to his record of failure, lasting only 85 performances.

Perleman had more luck with the movies. Perleman's first two screenplays were for the Marx Brothers' classics Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). He toiled as a screenwriter during the Hollywood studio system off and on from the early 1930s to the early '40s, as did his brother-in-law West. He won his Oscar for his last screenplay, for 'Michael Todd''s blockbuster Around the World in 80 Days (1956), winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1956.

S.J. Perleman was given a special National Book Award in 1978. He died in New York City on October 17, 1979 at the age of 75.