Harry Tugend Biography

Entering show business as a comic actor, Harry Tugend both performed in and wrote material for vaudeville, radio, and The Ziegfeld Follies. In the early '30s, Tugend was principal writer for radio star Fred Allen; when Allen headed to Hollywood to appear in 20th Century Fox's Thanks a Million (1935), Tugend went along, thereby launching a long and fruitful movie career. He wrote or co-wrote a number of Fox musicals starring the likes of Alice Faye, Shirley Temple, and Don Ameche. At Paramount in the early '40s, he became a producer at that studio in 1944, turning out such box-office winners as Practically Yours (1944), Golden Earrings (1947), and Road to Bali (1953). He also remained active in the theater world, authoring the hit Broadway comedy Wayward Stork. Harry Tugend retired after scripting the 1963 Jerry Lewis vehicle Who's Minding the Store? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi