Norman Krasna was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity.
46 Facts About Norman Krasna
1.
2.
Norman Krasna garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's Princess O'Rourke, which he directed.
3.
Norman Krasna attended Columbia University and St John's University School of Law, working at Macy's Department Store during the day.
4.
Norman Krasna wanted to get into journalism and talked his way into a job as a copy boy for the Sunday feature department of the New York World in 1928.
5.
Norman Krasna quit law school, worked his way up to being a drama critic, at first for The World then the New York Evening Graphic and Exhibitors Herald World.
6.
Norman Krasna was offered a job with Hubert Voight in the publicity department of Warner Bros and moved to Hollywood.
7.
Norman Krasna decided to become a playwright after seeing The Front Page.
8.
The play had a short run, and Norman Krasna was then offered a contract at Columbia Pictures as a junior staff writer.
9.
Norman Krasna would go on to write four pictures at Columbia, one in collaboration, the rest on his own.
10.
Norman Krasna wrote So This Is Africa for Wheeler and Woolsey, who had come to Columbia for one movie.
11.
Norman Krasna went to RKO where he wrote The Richest Girl in the World, which earned him an Oscar.
12.
Norman Krasna stayed at that studio to do Romance in Manhattan.
13.
In November 1934 Norman Krasna signed a two-year contract at Paramount at $1,500 a week.
14.
Back at MGM, Norman Krasna worked on Wife vs Secretary.
15.
Norman Krasna told the idea to Joseph Mankiewicz who bought it as a film for MGM.
16.
Norman Krasna moved to Universal to do As Good as Married for his old collaborator Eddie Buzzell.
17.
Norman Krasna wrote and produced The First Hundred Years, originally called Turnabout.
18.
Norman Krasna wrote the script for Bachelor Mother, which was a huge success.
19.
Norman Krasna was working on another Durbin film The Good Fair.
20.
In September 1941 Norman Krasna was in New York working on a script, Fire Escape, produced by Ross.
21.
In February 1942 Norman Krasna signed a contract to Warner Bros to write and direct.
22.
Norman Krasna spent most of his time in the army at Camp Roach in Los Angeles, enabling him to live in his house in Beverly Hills.
23.
Norman Krasna sent his old Bachelor Mother producer Buddy de Sylva, now at Paramount, the story for what would become Practically Yours.
24.
Norman Krasna adapted The Man with Blond Hair into a movie: in October 1943 Warners announced they purchased an unproduced play by Krasna called Night Action as a vehicle for Helmut Dantine ; the film was not made.
25.
Moss Hart suggested Norman Krasna write something like Junior Miss and Norman Krasna responded with Dear Ruth.
26.
Norman Krasna followed it with another comedy for Broadway, John Loves Mary, originally William and Mary, directed by Joshua Logan.
27.
Norman Krasna returned to directing feature films with The Big Hangover for MGM.
28.
Norman Krasna sold the script for a big amount but the movie was not a success.
29.
In November 1951 Norman Krasna said he "liked it" at RKO "but they would have liked mediocrity".
30.
Norman Krasna took some properties he developed with Krasna including Miss Sadie Thompson and an original of Krasna's Darling I Love You.
31.
In July 1952 Norman Krasna signed a contract with Paramount to write White Christmas, originally meant to be a vehicle for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.
32.
Norman Krasna's fee was $100,000; the film was a massive hit.
33.
Norman Krasna returned to Broadway with a play he had written years earlier: Kind Sir starring Charles Boyer and Mary Martin directed by Joshua Logan.
34.
In February 1954 Norman Krasna announced he would write and direct an original film for Wald, now at Columbia, speak to Me of Love.
35.
Norman Krasna wanted to reteam de Havilland and Forsythe in a film called Cabaret but it was never made.
36.
In November 1954 Norman Krasna was going to direct Jack of Spades starring Jackie Gleason but it was never made.
37.
In October 1956 Norman Krasna signed to adapt the novel Stay Away Joe for MGM with Feur and Martin.
38.
Norman Krasna adapted Kind Sir as Indiscreet, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.
39.
In June 1960 Richard Quine announced Norman Krasna would adapt Leslie Storm's play Roar Like a Dove for Doris Day.
40.
Norman Krasna wrote Sunday in New York, which reached Broadway with Robert Redford in 1961, directed by Garson Kanin.
41.
In 1961 Norman Krasna announced his play French Street, based on the Jacques Deval play Ramon Saro, would be produced by Seven Arts the following year, and turned into a film based on a script by Norman Krasna, but the play did not go to Broadway and no film resulted.
42.
However Litvak was replaced by Blake Edwards and Norman Krasna's script was not used.
43.
Norman Krasna spent many years living in Switzerland, but returned to Los Angeles before his death in 1984.
44.
From 1940 to 1950 Norman Krasna was married to Ruth Frazee, sister of actress Jane Frazee, with whom he had two children.
45.
Norman Krasna had two children from her marriage to Jolson.
46.
Norman Krasna inherited $1 million in trust and a $1 million property from Jolson.