11 Facts About Abe Burrows

Abe Burrows won a Tony Award and was selected for two Pulitzer Prizes, only one of which was awarded.

Abe Burrows began working as a runner on Wall Street while at NYU, and he worked in an accounting firm.

Abe Burrows was made the show's head writer in 1941, and he credited his experience with inventing the Runyonesque street characters he fashioned for Guys and Dolls.

Abe Burrows wrote for Danny Kaye's short-lived mid-1940s radio comedy show, helping head writer Goodman Ace fashion material for Kaye and co-stars Eve Arden and Lionel Stander.

Abe Burrows quit Duffy's Tavern in 1945 to work at Paramount Pictures but soon returned to radio.

Such informal performances led to a nightclub act and regular appearances as a performer on CBS radio programs, and to his eventually hosting his own radio program on CBS Radio from 1947 to 1949, a 15-minute weekly comedy that Abe Burrows wrote and directed as well.

Lambert, according to Abe Burrows, complained that the show wasn't selling much of the toothpaste.

Abe Burrows wrote and directed the first Broadway musical version of a Jane Austen novel, First Impressions, a rewriting of Pride and Prejudice.

Abe Burrows thought that critics panned the show because they wondered why a comedy guy was taking on "tired period drama," but the script shows some unusual choices.

Yet Abe Burrows himself downplayed that role in his memoir, and discussed his fixing of Make a Wish:.

Abe Burrows died from Alzheimer's disease in his native New York City.