Ernest Lehman Bio In the Works

Ernest Lehman

My colleague Jon Krampner, author of "Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley," is at work on a biography of screenwriter Ernest Lehman. His previous book of the legendary and complex actress Kim Stanley is worth a read. He also helped me out on my bio of George C. Scott, providing lots of information and even videos of a BBC interview from when Stanley and Scott starred together in an ill-fated London production of Chekhov's Three Sisters.

Jon sent me the following email on this fascinating new project:

I'm working on a biography of Lehman, whose film credits include "Sabrina," "The King and I," "The Sweet Smell of Success," "North by
Northwest," "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," and "Hello, Dolly." A pretty diverse and illustrious bunch. Interestingly, before he becoming a screenwriter in the early 1950's, he spent a decade as a Broadway publicist, working for Irving Hoffman, who planted items with Walter Winchell and other columnists. (Hoffman was also a theater critic and had a column, "Tales of Hoffman," in The Hollywood Reporter. He was legendary for being one of the few publicists who could actually stand up to Winchell.)


Lehman would hang out at the Stork Club and other Broadway nightclubs looking for items that could be placed in Winchell's column. And if he couldn't find things to observe, he would, like others in his trade, simply make things up. His novella "The Sweet Smell of Success" (published in Cosmopolitan as "Tell Me About It Tomorrow" because the editor objected to having the word "smell" in the title), was the basis of the Burt Lancaster-Tony Curtis film about the symbiotic relationship between a Winchell-like columnist and an amoral publicist. The novella grew out of
Lehman's experiences on Broadway.

Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success

The novella occasioned a rift between Lehman and Hoffman, although Sidney Falco, Curtis' character does not appear to be a close copy of Hoffman -- as I mentioned, he took a surprisingly independent stance with Winchell. There eventually was a reconciliation between Hoffman and Lehman to the point that Hoffman ran an entire 1952 column saying what a wonderful screenwriter Lehman would make. The column was actually written by Lehman and served as his entree to Hollywood.

If you had any personal connection or stories about Lehman, Jon would love to hear from you. His email is bluewombat@dslextreme.com.