Herbert Baker (born Herbert Joseph Abrahams; December 25, 1920,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– June 30, 1983,

Encino, Los Angeles, California Encino ( Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. History In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda ...

) was a

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

and screenwriter for television and films.

Biography

The only son of composer

Maurice Abrahams Maurice Abrahams (March 18, 1883 – April 13, 1931) was an American songwriter and music publisher, who was successful in the early years of the 20th century. Biography Abrahams was born in Odessa, Russia, and emigrated to the US as a child in ...

and singer

Belle Baker Belle Baker (December 25, 1893 in New York City – April 29, 1957 in Los Angeles) was an American singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irving Berlin's " ...

, Herbert attended

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts. His first Broadway credit was in 1944 as the lyricist of

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...

's arrangement of Offenbach's '' La Belle Helene'' as well as other songs and musical pieces for the Broadway musica
''Helen Goes to Troy''

Screenwriting

In 1945, Baker wrote for the Danny Kaye radio show.

Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming we ...

hired Baker to write for his radio show in 1947. Baker began his career in screenwriting in 1948 with Morgan's film debut ''

So This Is New York ''So This Is New York'' is a 1948 satirical movie comedy starring acerbic radio and television comedian Henry Morgan and directed by Richard Fleischer. The cynically sophisticated screenplay was written by Carl Foreman and Herbert Baker from t ...

'', co-written with

Carl Foreman Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' and ''High Noon'', among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were black ...

and based upon

Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Wo ...

's 1920 novel ''The Big Town''. Baker was a Yale classmate of director Richard Fleischer and recommended him to Stanley Kramer for ''So This Is New York''. He wrote ''

Dream Wife ''Dream Wife'' is a 1953 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Sidney Sheldon and produced by Dore Schary, from a screenplay by Herbert Baker, Alfred Lewis Levitt and Sidney S ...

'' (1953) with

Sidney Sheldon Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer. He was prominent in the 1930s, first working on Broadway plays, and then in motion pictures, notably writing the successful comedy '' The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxe ...

for

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

and Deborah Kerr, as well as several films for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis such as ''

Jumping Jacks ''Jumping Jacks'' is a 1952 American semi- musical comedy film starring the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. The film was directed by Norman Taurog, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was one of the military comedies that marked the duo's ea ...

'' (1951), '' Scared Stiff'' (1953), and ''

Artists and Models ''Artists and Models'' is a 1955 American musical romantic comedy film in VistaVision directed by Frank Tashlin, marking Martin and Lewis's 14th feature together as a team. The film co-stars Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, with Eva Gabor ...

'' (1955). The latter film was directed and co-written by Frank Tashlin, with whom Baker worked again on ''

The Girl Can't Help It ''The Girl Can't Help It'' is a 1956 American musical comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield in the titular role, Tom Ewell, Edmond O'Brien, Henry Jones, and Julie London. The picture was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenpl ...

''. Baker kept writing songs, including new ones for ''

Rose Marie Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night ...

'' (1954). He contributed to two

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

films, '' Loving You'' and ''

King Creole ''King Creole'' is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel '' A Stone for Danny Fisher'' by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, ...

''. After

Martin and Lewis Martin and Lewis were an American comedy duo, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. They met in 1945 and debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946; the team lasted ten years to the day. Before they teamed up, Martin ...

split up, Baker wrote '' Don't Give Up the Ship'' for Jerry Lewis and worked on Lewis's television show. One of Baker's best popular songs was written in the mid-1950s, ''I Love To Love'', famously recorded by Lena Horne on her 'Live at the Waldorf Astoria' album and also recorded by Peggy Lee. Baker entered television writing and won Emmy Awards for '' An Evening With Fred Astaire'' in 1959 and ''

The Flip Wilson Show ''The Flip Wilson Show'' is an hour-long variety show that originally aired in the US on NBC from September 17, 1970, to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs ...

'' in 1971. He was nominated twice for ''The Flip Wilson Show'' in 1972 and 1973 and was nominated in 1964 for ''

The Danny Kaye Show ''The Danny Kaye Show'' was an American variety show, hosted by the stage and screen star Danny Kaye, which aired on Wednesday nights from September 25, 1963, to June 7, 1967, on the CBS television network. Directed by Robert Scheerer, it premi ...

''. Baker wrote television scripts for many other singers such as Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, Mac Davis and

Gladys Knight and the Pips Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s. Starting out as simply ...

. He wrote a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...

for a version of '' Some Like It Hot'' in 1961.Profile
cdlib.org; accessed August 5, 2015. In 1965, Baker wrote for ''

The Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'', not to be confused with the ''Dean Martin Variety Show'' (1959–1960), is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the ...

''. When Martin agreed to star in and co-produce a series of

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of t ...

spy films for producer

Irving Allen Irving Allen (born Irving Applebaum, November 24, 1905 – December 17, 1987) was a theatrical and cinematic producer and director. He received an Academy Award in 1948 for producing the short movie ''Climbing the Matterhorn''. In the early 19 ...

in the same year, Baker rewrote the screenplay

Oscar Saul Oscar Saul (December 26, 1912, New York City – May 23, 1994, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter. Saul wrote or collaborated on the screenplays for numerous movies from the 1940s through to the early 1980s. His best-known work was on the sc ...

(''

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pers ...

'') had based on the original Matt Helm novels written by

Donald Hamilton Donald Bengtsson Hamilton (March 24, 1916 – November 20, 2006) was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime ...

to reflect Dean Martin's Rat Pack reputation for the third and final draft of ''

The Silencers ''The Silencers'' is the title of a 1962 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin Matt Helm. Plot summary When a female agent in Mexico is killed before Helm can complete his mission to extract her, he f ...

'' but only received a screen credit for the song parodies he wrote for Martin. Baker received sole credit for '' Murderers' Row'' that Oscar Saul had rewritten but Baker rewrote again. He wrote the third Matt Helm film, '' The Ambushers'', and later wrote a serious spy adventure for Irving Allen, '' Hammerhead'', based on James Mayo's "Charles Hood" character. Baker's final screen credit was ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

'' in 1980. Baker taught music and mentored

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

Azar Lawrence who recalled Baker as "one of the greatest pianists who ever lived" and taught Lawrence to reach down inside himself for his music. A member of the

Writers Guild of America, west The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...

board, Baker was awarded the ''Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award'' from the Guild in 1983.''Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award''
, wga.org; accessed August 5, 2015.

References

Links

The Herbert Baker box papers 1939-1978

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Herbert 1920 births 1983 deaths American television writers American male screenwriters Primetime Emmy Award winners Writers from New York City Yale School of Drama alumni American male television writers Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters