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Sid Kuller (27 October 1910 New York City, New York – 16 September 1993 in Sherman Oaks, California) was an American comedy writer, producer and lyricist/composer, who concentrated on special musical material, gags and sketches for leading comics. He collaborated with Ray Golden and Hal Fimberg on the screenplay of the Marx Brothers' vehicle The Big Store, for which he also supplied the lyrics to the musical climax, "The Tenement Symphony". Earlier in their careers, Kuller and Golden wrote comedy songs and special material for the Ritz Brothers. Although he wrote prodigiously and with facility throughout his life, Kuller admitted, "The creation of comedy is a painful experience".Quoted by Adamson, Joe, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo.
On Broadway theatre Kuller and Golden were part of the team which wrote the book for the progressive 1940 revue Meet the People, which included one of his early hit songs Elmer's Wedding Day (with music by Jay Gorney). He also wrote the political musical revue, O Say Can You Sing, which was performed in Chicago,Goldstein, Malcolm, The Political Stage: American drama and theater of the Great Depression, 1974, p. 255. and may have been one of the producers of the original Chicago production of the Federal Theater Project's groundbreaking all-black Swing Mikado.,Lax, David, One Man Show, Washington Irving Gallery publication, 1976, p. 48. which transferred to Broadway without him.
Returning after war service with the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit, Kuller divided his time between writing and producing for Broadway ( Alive and Kicking, debuting Gwen Verdon 1950); television ( Colgate Comedy Hour, hosts Martin and Lewis, Donald O'Connor 1952-3; The Milton Berle Show 1951; The Jackie Gleason Show 1970); and various night-club acts (e.g. The Sportsmen Quartet). In 1952 he executive produced with Ben Hecht Actor's and Sin, using archive footage of Louis B. Mayer and Jack L. Warner, which ran into trouble when some theater chains refused to show it on the grounds that it lampooned Hollywood.Beck, Robert, The Edward G. Robinson Encyclopedia, McFarland, Uni. of Michigan, 2002, p. 21
In the 1970s Sid collaborated with Sandy Matlowsky and Tige Andrews (of Mod Squad fame) on two original songs on the Tiger Records label in Los Angeles, California. "The Modfather" and "Keep America Beautiful" were the A and B sides of the vinyl 45 single release. These songs had humor and poignancy for the post 60s youth culture that was embracing political awareness and the social revolution. Sid's clever writing techniques are at its finest in this rare collection that contributed to the advocacy of world peace and the environmental movement.
Jump for Joy, starring Dorothy Dandridge, Ellington and other leading black performers, ran for three months at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles before an integrated audience, with the backing of the Marx Brothers, Orson Welles and other Hollywood liberals. Kuller co-directed most of the skits he wrote, and together with Paul Francis Webster contributed biting lyrics to the music of Hal Borne and EllingtonBradbury, id. p. 58. (e.g. "Fare thee well, land of cotton; cotton lisle is out of style"). As Kuller later explained: "Traditionally, black humor had been portrayed by blacks for white audiences from a white point of view. Our material was from the point of view of black people looking at whites."Lock, Graham, Blutopia, 1999, p.101. Although the show was an artistic and popular success, it had to be shut down with the outbreak of the Pacific War.Vosburgh; Stewart, op. cit.
Kuller was also an early supporter of comedian and jazzman Scatman Crothers, with whom he worked on television. Kuller cast him in a featured role in his directorial debut, the 1950 swing version of The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan, filmed in the United Kingdom. For Louis Armstrong Kuller created a jazz versus opera routine featuring Robert Merrill.Merrill, Robert, Once More From the Beginning, New York, 1965, p. 263. Kuller together with Borne also contributed to the successful revitalization of the Will Mastin Trio song and dance act in the early 50s, helping launch the breakthrough of Sammy Davis Jr. . Billboard, 25 July 1953, p. 11.
During the 1950s he was involved with some other projects for black performers, most of which did not come to fruition: including another revue entitled Swing Family Robinson,Delson, Susan, Dudley Murphy: Hollywood Wild Card, 2006, p. 180. a biopic of Ellington and a revival of Jumpin for Joy in Las Vegas. Jet, 27 May 1954, p. 61; Jet, 8 September 1955, p. 62.
He was also the writer and producer of Miltown Revisited, the disastrous last Las Vegas show of Abbott and Costello, when the partnership finally split up in 1956.Parish, James R., The Funsters, 1979, p. 18. Kuller recalled that after Abbott turned up drunk for the second show at the Sahara Hotel, Costello never forgave him: "It was the most terrible night of Kuller's life in show business."Vosburgh, op. cit.
Nevertheless, Kuller continued producing night-club acts until his death and was responsible for writing two fondly remembered parody shows for the Jewish dialect comedians Mickey Katz and Billy Gray: The Cohen Mutiny (i.e. Caine takeoff)Katz, Mickey, Papa, Play for Me, Wesleyan Uni. Press, 2002. and My Fairfax Lady, where an upperclass British woman is taught to speak with a Jewish accent!
In 1963 Kuller was heavily involved in writing (and rewriting) the ambitious, but troubled Vernon Duke musical Zenda, based on The Prisoner of Zenda, for the San Francisco Light Opera Company with Alfred Drake and Chita Rivera. But his final stage experience was to be the hit 1981-3 revue Sophisticated Ladies, starring Gregory Hines, where famous songs he and others wrote with Ellington (e.g. "Bli Blip") were introduced to a new generation.
He and his wife Morine were supporters of Oakwood, the cooperative school established in Hollywood by the actor Robert Ryan, a fellow liberal active in the Civil rights movement, and his Quaker wife.Jarlett, Franklin, Robert Ryan, 1997, p. 65.
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