Irving Brecher(1914-2008)

American radio writer, who became a close friend of Groucho Marx and went on to script two classic Marx Brothers comedies (At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940). Brecher jokingly referred to "Go West" "as the longest short ever made". He began his career as an usher at a Manhattan movie theater. A critic from "Variety" magazine told him that he could earn money writing jokes for comedians and he consequently moved to Hollywood in 1937. He wrote gags for Milton Berle and worked at MGM for some time, afterwards creating, producing and writing the popular radio sitcom "The Life of Riley" and then turning it into a feature film and a TV series.