John Murray was a playwright best known for writing the 1937 play Room Service

Room Service (play)

Room Service is a play written by Allen Boretz and John Murray. It was originally produced by George Abbott and debuted at the Cort Theatre in New York on May 19, 1937. Its initial production ran for 500 performances, closing on July 16, 1938. The play was revived for a short run of 16...

with Allen Boretz

Allen Boretz

Allen Boretz , was an American songwriter, playwright and screenwriter. The great success of his and John Murray's Broadway hit Room Service led to offers from Hollywood, and he wrote and co-wrote screenplays from the late 1930s through the 1940s.His film credits include It Ain't Hay , Step Lively...

.

Murray was born in New York and attended DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...

, City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

, and Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. His 1937 play, Room Service ran for 500 performances on Broadway and was turned into two films, the first, Room Service

Room Service (1938 film)

Room Service is an RKO film comedy starring the Marx Brothers and based on the 1937 play of the same name by Allen Boretz and John Murray. It co-stars Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Alexander Asro, and Frank Albertson.-Plot outline:...

, starred the Marx Brothers, the second, Step Lively

Step Lively (1944 film)

Step Lively is a 1944 musical film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Sinatra. Step Lively was based on the play Room Service, by Allen Boretz and John Murray.-Cast:* Frank Sinatra - Glenn Russell* George Murphy - Gordon Miller...

, starred Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

. The play was also adapted for two television productions.

During World War II, Murray servived in the United States Army as a captain in the Signal Corp, marrying Joan Loewi in 1941. He return to writing for Broadway after the war, writing songs and sketches for the Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

and Alive and Kicking

Alive and Kicking (musical)

Alive and Kicking is a musical revue with sketches by Ray Golden, I.A.L. Diamond, Henry Morgan, Jerome Chodorov, Joseph Stein, Will Glickman, John Murray, and Michael Stuart; music by Hal Borne, Irma Jurist, Sammy Fain, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Rome, Sonny Burke, Leo Schumer, and Ray Golden; and...

. Murray also began writing for the Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...

 radio show and the Phil Baker radio show. Eventually, he turned to writing for television as well.

As writer

• Room Service (1937)
• Sing for Your Supper
• Straw Hat Revue (1939)
• Earl Carroll Vanities (1940)
• Sticks and Stones (1940)
• Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
• Alive and Kicking (1950)
• The Monkey Walk (1977)
• Reitech (1995)

Books

• Fifteen Plays for Teen-Agers: A Collection of One-Act Royalty-Free Comedies and Mysteries. T. S. Denison & Co. 1959.
• Modern Monologues for Young People 1961

External links