Introduction
Les Colodny (25 October 1925) is an American screenwriter, producer, and author.
Early life
Les Colodny was born Lester Colodny on October 25, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended public schools in Newark, New Jersey, and on Coney Island, Brooklyn, before entering Brooklyn College. His higher education was interrupted by World War II when he served in the Navy as a seaman on board a Landing Craft Infantry, a craft used to ferry soldiers and equipment from ship to shore. He chronicled his experience in the navy in an early chapter of his 2010 book A Funny Thing Happened. After the war, Colodny went back to Brooklyn College to finish his education.
Career
After getting his degree, aged 21, he worked various odd jobs in South Bend, Indian; Indian Lake, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; and Denver, Colorado. After doing some graduate work at the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois, he went back to New York where he began working in show business. His first job was that of an emcee at a Bronx strip joint called Ziggy's. The job lasted only a day.
Following the gig at Ziggy's Colodny became a comedy writer and sold seven jokes to American comedian and violinist Henny Youngman. He also wrote sketches for such early television shows as "Hellzapoppin" and Jerry Lester's TV Show.
He eventually moved to California, where he got to work with several Hollywood greats such as Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Lana Turner, Gene Barry, Hugh Hefner, Joan Rivers, Cary Grant, and Fred Gwynne.
In 1962, he was hired as a writer by acclaimed animator Seymour Kneitel, for whom he wrote for four short animation films: Psychological Testing, A Tree Is a Tree Is a Tree?, Home Sweet Swampy, and Hero's Reward. The following year, he wrote for 8 episodes of animation series Beetle Bailey.
In 1964, Colodny co-produced with Joe Connelly the "Bad Day at Bristol Court" episode of director E.W. Swackhamer's TV series Tom, Dick and Mary, starring Don Galloway, Joyce Bulifant, and Steve Franken. After producing the TV series The Medicine Men in 1967, he produced two TV movies: Mad Mad Scientist (1968) and Baja Marimba Band (1969).
As a writer, his last work was a 1972 episode of TV romance/comedy series Love, American Style, starring Stuart Margolin, Barbara Minkus, and William Callaway.
Books
In 2010, he, with Susan Heller, published a humorous book titled A Funny Thing Happened, in which he captured his experience working as a talent agent, writer, actor, director, and producer in Hollywood and New York.
In 2012, he published What Might Have Been, an entertaining memoir of sorts about his interaction with show business notables such as Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Cary Grant, Joan Rivers, Mae West, Dave Garroway, Jerry Lewis, Steve Wynn, and Donald Trump among others.