Kubec Glasmon

Bio: Kubec Glasmon was among the very first screenwriters to achieve wide professional recognition in Hollywood during the sound era in movies. At a time when the studios were struggling to make almost everything connected with talking pictures work, and work well, Glasmon, in partnership with his 15-year-younger, American-born contemporary John Bright, authored… More Bio: Kubec Glasmon was among the very first screenwriters to achieve wide professional recognition in Hollywood during the sound era in movies. At a time when the studios were struggling to make almost everything connected with talking pictures work, and work well, Glasmon, in partnership with his 15-year-younger, American-born contemporary John Bright, authored screenplays for such successful movies as The Public Enemy, Taxi!, and Blonde Crazy at the outset of the 1930s. Kubec Glasmon was born in Rocioz, Poland, in 1889, to a Jewish family that later emigrated to the United States. He studied dentistry and pharmacy, and it was as a pharmacist in Hollywood that he hired a young John Bright to work the soda fountain. The two began writing crime stories together and had their first success when Warner Bros. transformed their story Beer and Blood into The Public Enemy -- the movie that put James Cagney on the map. It also earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story, and the two worked as a team at the studio until the summer of 1932, when their partnership ended after Warner Bros. dropped Bright from their employ. A year later, Glasmon moved on to Paramount, where his projects included the first film version of The Glass Key (in 1935), starring George Raft. It was during this period that Bright and Glasmon -- who were among the most well-known screenwriters, a profession that was usually shrouded in anonymity -- helped to co-found the Screenwriters Guild to combat what they felt were the studios' generally harsh tactics and methods in dealing with writers. In 1934, Glasmon moved to Columbia, and over the next few years moved between Fox and then Universal, where he was moved up from writer to associate producer, earning a producer's credit on one movie as well, and then, in 1937, he moved to MGM. On March 13, 1938, he was struck down by a fatal heart attack. One movie based on a story attributed to Glasmon, Calling Dr. Gillespie -- which contained unusual crime thriller elements -- was filmed more than three years after his death. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi