Irving Brecher

Even as a teenager working at a Manhattan theater, Irving Brecher, who died Nov. 17 at 94, peddled his comedy writing to anyone who would have it. The Bronx, N.Y., native sent one-liners to columnists Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan, some of which would occasionally make it into print.

Possibly his most important pitch, though, was one that he and a fellow comedy writer submitted to Variety, offering gag-writing services “so bad not even [Milton] Berle will steal them.” But not only did Berle eventually pay $50 for a page of their jokes, but he continued to buy Brecher’s gags, in 1936 made him the only writer on his CBS radio program, and took Brecher along when he moved the show to Hollywood.

Once there, Brecher saw his career flourish. He remains the only person to be given solo writing credit on two Marx Brothers films (At the Circus and Go West). Groucho Marx, the mustached brother, once said that beginning his friendship with Brecher was “the only good thing about making At the Circus.” Groucho–in a play off of Brecher’s uncredited role as script editor on The Wizard of Oz–also bestowed on Brecher the nickname “The Wicked Wit of the West.” Brecher used that wit to create the long-running radio series The Life of Riley and pen the Academy Award–nominated screenplay for Meet Me in St. Louis.

In a video created during last year’s writers’ strike, Brecher urged union members, who were fighting producers for royalty rights to material streamed online, not to “let them take away the Internet.” While angered by the situation, Brecher managed to fit in one last joke. Text on a black screen read: “Irving Brecher, WGA. Looking for representation. Because his agent died.”