Born May 3, 1917 to a Brooklyn lawyer and his English teacher wife, Basya Cohen, known professionally as Betty Comden, attended Erasmus Hall High School and New York University, graduating in 1938.
In 1938, mutual friends introduced Comden to aspiring actor Adolph Green, who would become her songwriting partner. She would marry husband Steven Kyle with whom she would have two children in 1942. They would remain married until his death in 1979. Green had married first wife Elizabeth Reitell in 1941. They would divorce in 1942, after which he would be married to actresses Allyn Ann McLerie from 1945-1953 and Phyllis Newman, with whom he would have two children, from 1960 to his death in 2002.
Comden and Green together with Judy Holliday and Leonard Bernstein formed a troupe called the Revuers which performed at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village. Due to their popularity, they were cast in the 1944 film, Greenwich Village. However, their parts in the Carmen Miranda-Don Ameche film were so small that no one noticed them, and they returned to New York.
Comden and Green’s first musical was 1944’s oft revived On the Town with music by Bernstein, book and lyrics by Comden and Green who also had starring roles in the production. They would return to Hollywood with their screenplays for 1947’s Good News and 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway. They followed them with the screenplay for Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s 1949 film version of On the Town. They received Writers Guild nominations for both The Barleys of Broadway and On the town, winning for the latter.
The writing duo next wrote the screenplay for Donen and Kelly’s 1952 film, Singin’ in the Rain for which they won their second Writers Guild award. The film is generally considered to be the best original film musical of all time. In 1953, they received the first of seven Tony awards for Wonderful Town, the musical version of My Sister Eileen. That same year they received another Writers Guild nomination for Vincente Minnelli’s The Band Wagon for which they supplied a new story for the film version of the 1931 Broadway musical. It also earned them the first of their two Oscar nominations.
Comden and Green’s third collaboration for a Stanely Donen-Gene Kelly musical, 1955’s It’s Always Fair Weather earned them their fifth Writers Guild nomination and second and final Oscar nomination. The 1956 Broadway musical, Bells Are Ringing, would earn them their second Tony nomination. The 1960 film version would earn them their final Writers Guild nomination. They would receive a career achievement award at the 2000 awards ceremony.
With later achievements confined to the theatre, Comden and Green would go on to receive an additional ten Tony nominations and six wins for such shows as Hallelujah Baby!, Applause, On the Twentieth Century, and The Will Rogers Follies.
Betty Comden died on November 23, 2006. She was 89.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
ON THE TOWN (1949), directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
Comden and writing partner Adolph Green wrote the lyrics and book for the oft revived Broadway musical on which the film is based. They received their first of two Oscar nominations for their screenplay for the film version starring Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed on location in New York, it was the first musical to be filmed on location. It would be the last of three films starring Kelly and Sinatra. The others were Anchors Aweigh and Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the first of three Donen-Kelly collaboration for which Comden and Green wrote the screenplay.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952), directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
This was the second of the three film musicals directed by Donen and Kelly for which Comden and Green wrote the screenplay. The third would be 1955’s It’s Always Fair Weather for which the writing duo would receive their second and final Oscar nomination. Long considered the greatest original film musical of all time, Singin’ in the Rain, starring Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, curiously underperformed at the Oscars, having received just two nominations – one for the film’s background score by Lennie Hayton and one for supporting actress Jean Hagen, neither of which it won.
THE BAND WAGON (1953), directed by Vincente Minnelli
Comden and Green finally received an Oscar nomination for their original story and screenplay for the film version of a 1931 Broadway musical which retained only the show’s music and its original star, Fred Astaire who appeared in the original with his sister Adele. His co-star in the film version was Cyd Charisse. They were joined by Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant, and Jack Buchanan. The characters played by Fabray and Levant were based on Comden and Green who wrote them as a married couple because they didn’t think the public would accept a male-female writing team that weren’t married to each other. “That’s Entertainment” indeed!
AUNTIE MAME (1958), directed by Morton DaCosta
One of just two non-musicals for which Comden and Green wrote the screenplay is curiously credited to screenplay by them based on Patrick Dennis’ novel without acknowledging playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee who wrote the book for the Broadway play on which it is actually based even though it features four of the play’s original players including star Rosalind Russell and is directed by the play’s director much in the style of the play. The film, released in December 1958, became the highest grossing film of 1959. It was nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Film, Actress, and Supporting Actress (Peggy Cass).
BELLS ARE RINGING (1960), directed by Vincente Minnelli
This buoyant Tony award winning musical is such a joy that it’s poignantly sad to realize that it was the last for so many. It was the last film for Judy Holliday who died at just 43 five years later. It was the next-to-last screenplay from Comden and Green and their last for a musical. Their later career was confined to the stage. It was also the last musical Minnelli directed for MGM, having won an Oscar for the musical Gigi just two years earlier. The director of Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, and The Band Wagon, would direct one more musical, On a Clear Day You can See Forever but that would be for Paramount.
BETTY COMDEN AND OSCAR
The Band Wagon (1953) – nominated – Best Story and Screenplay
It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) – nominated – Best Story and Screenplay
