George Kirgo

George Kirgo
George Kirgo, as photographed by Elliott Erwitt, on the cover of his second book, published at the height of the author's early sixties celebrity.
Born	George Blumenthal (1926-03-26)March 26, 1926 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	August 22, 2004(2004-08-22) (aged 78) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Screenwriter, author
Years active	1954–2001

George Kirgo (born George Blumenthal, March 26, 1926 – August 22, 2004) was an American screenwriter, author and humorist.

Kirgo was born George Blumenthal in Hartford, Connecticut, the middle child of three born to Russian immigrants Isadore and Anna Blumenthal. While attending Hartford Public High School, he worked as a movie usher and as a reporter for The Hartford Times; graduating in 1943, he was dubbed "the Orson Welles of HPHS" by his high school yearbook.

In April 1944, while attending Wesleyan University, Blumenthal enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve, eventually serving in the USAAF during the final few months of World War II, in the South Pacific and Japan. It was sometime after his return, but prior to his brief emergence in the early 1950s as a small book seller and publisher, that Blumenthal became George Kirgo, officially adopting his erstwhile nickname.

A screenwriter since 1954, Kirgo's many credits encompass a wide variety of TV series, ranging from Kraft Suspense Theatre to The New People, from Run for Your Life to Room 222, from Mary Tyler Moore to My Mother the Car to The Feather and Father Gang. He scripted or co-scripted such feature films as Red Line 7000, Spinout, Don't Make Waves, and Voices, as well as TV movies such as Get Christie Love!, The Man in the Santa Claus Suit, and the American Playhouse production, My Palikari. He was a producer for the short-lived 1978 situation comedy Another Day.