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Leonard Gershe

Shows · Leonard Gershe

ComposerLyricistBook Writer 1922–2002

Leonard Gershe (June 10, 1922 – March 9, 2002) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist. Born in New York City, Gershe made his Broadway debut as a lyricist for the 1950 revue Alive and Kicking. He wrote the book for Harold Rome's musical stage adaptation of Destry Rides Again in 1959 and the play Butterflies Are Free in 1969. Later Gershe wrote the play Snacks for Tony Danza. He wrote the lyrics for the "Born in a Trunk" sequence from the Judy Garland/James Mason musical A Star Is Born. In the 1950s, Gershe wrote 10 scripts for the Ann Sothern sitcom Private Secretary. He also wrote a number of episodes of The Lucy Show. His screen credits include Funny Face, 40 Carats, and Bu…

Also credited on3 works

Alive and Kicking
Destry Rides Again
Funny Face

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • Lyrics : Paul Francis Webster, Ray Golden, Harold Rome, Sid Kuller, Leonard Gershe, and Mike Stuart (Michael Stewart)ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Music : Hal Borne, Irma Jurist, Sammy Fain, Harold Rome, Ray Golden, Sonny Burke, Leonard Gershe, Billy Kyle, Sid Kuller, and Leo Schumerebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • While he battled Better, Merrick invited Leonard Gershe to write an entirely new book. Gershe had written the screenplays for the Hollywood musicals Silk Stockings and Funny Face. (He had also written the lyrics for "Born in a Trunk," which Judy Garland sang in A Star Is Born.)ebooks/Kissel, Howard/David Merrick - The Abominable Showman_ The Unauthorized Biography (Applause Books) - Howard Kissel.txt
  • Merrick still had no gift for finding original plays. He turned down the opportunity to produce Leonard Gershe's Butterflies Are Free, despite his friendliness toward Gershe during Destry Rides Again. When Byron Goldman produced the play and it became a hit, Merrick chided Gershe: "You should have pressed me harder.ebooks/Kissel, Howard/David Merrick - The Abominable Showman_ The Unauthorized Biography (Applause Books) - Howard Kissel.txt
  • Chapter Eleven: This chapter is based on interviews with Leonard Gershe, Dolores Gray, Mort Mitosky, Harold Rome and contemporary press accounts.ebooks/Kissel, Howard/David Merrick - The Abominable Showman_ The Unauthorized Biography (Applause Books) - Howard Kissel.txt
  • Chapter Twenty-Nine: This chapter is based on interviews with Keith Baxter, Judy Bryant, Alvin Cooperman, Hal David, Pete Feller, Garson Kanin, Leonard Gershe, Fred Golden, John Handy, Biff Liff, Helen Nickerson, Linda Otto, Gerald Schoenfeld, Irene Selznick, Willard Shaffar, Joel Thurm, Jonathan Tunick and Charles Willard, as well as con…ebooks/Kissel, Howard/David Merrick - The Abominable Showman_ The Unauthorized Biography (Applause Books) - Howard Kissel.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — composer, lyricist, book writer — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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