Jack Douglas (writer)
| Jack Douglas | |
|---|---|
| Born | Douglas Linley Crickard July 17, 1908 Lynbrook, New York, US |
| Died | January 31, 1989 (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Pen name | Jack Douglas |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, columnist, actor, television personality, comedian |
| Period | 1947-1979 |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Notable works | My Brother Was An Only Child |
| Spouse | Reiko Hashimoto (1960–1989 - his death) Marion Hutton (1949-1954 - divorced) Merle Dean Crain (1937-1949 - divorced) |
| Children | Johnny, Marlene, Peter, Bobby, Timothy |
Jack Douglas (born Douglas Linley Crickard, July 17, 1908 - January 31, 1989) was an American comedy writer who wrote for radio and television while additionally writing a series of humor books.
On radio, he was a writer for Red Skelton, Bob Hope and the situation comedy, Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou (1938–46), in which Riggs switched back and forth from his natural baritone to the voice of a seven-year-old girl.
Continuing to write for Skelton and Hope as he moved into television, Douglas also wrote for Jimmy Durante, Bing Crosby, Woody Allen, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Jack Paar Show, The George Gobel Show and Laugh-In. The producer of Laugh-In, George Schlatter, said, "He saw the world from a different angle than the rest of us. He was not only funny, he was nice."
He was best known for his frequent guest appearances on Jack Paar's shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s. On one such appearance, when Douglas was well established as a Paar guest, he was chastised by Paar for holding a stack of file cards with his jokes while talking with Paar. When Paar returned to television in 1973 and was confronted by unexpected low ratings, he engaged Douglas to contribute monologue material by mail. One week there was no mail from Douglas; but his next package contained a note: "Sorry I didn't send anything last week. I forgot you were on."
Douglas and his third wife Reiko, a Japanese-born singer and comedian, were regular guests on shows hosted by Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson.
By 1959, Douglas' appearances with Paar gave him a huge audience for his humorous memoirs, published by Dutton and Putnam with many mass market paperback editions by Pocket Books and others.
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