Tony- and Grammy-winning writer Betty Comden was born Basya Cohen in Brooklyn to Russian immigrants on May 3, 1917. She attended Erasmus Hall H.S. and studied drama at New York University. In 1938, she met fellow aspiring actor Adolph Green, with whom she formed The Revuers. The group’s popular club act led to their film debut in Greenwich Village (1944), but disheartened to see their roles substantially trimmed, the pair returned to New York. Within the year, they would make their Broadway acting and writing debuts in On the Town (1944, music by Leonard Bernstein), which brought Comden a Theatre World Award.
They followed with book and lyrics for Billion Dollar Baby (1945, music by Morton Gould), which only ran 220 performances, and Bonanza Bound (1947, music by Saul Chaplin), which closed before opening on Broadway. So, Comden and Green headed back to Hollywood and landed in MGM’s Freed Unit, writing screenplays for Good News (1947), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), and On the Town (1949). Below is the original trailer for the latter.
Over the next decade, Comden and Green worked steadily on stage and screen, including book and lyrics for the Broadway revue Two on the Aisle (1951, music by Jule Styne) and screenplays for Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and The Band Wagon (1953), which earned them their first Oscar nomination. They also wrote lyrics for the musicals Wonderful Town (1953, music by Bernstein) and Peter Pan (1954, music by Styne) and screenplay for MGM’s It’s Always Fair Weather (1955), which brought them their second Oscar nod. Below is Tony winner Rosalind Russell performing “Swing!” in a 1958 telecast of Wonderful Town.
They worked again with Styne on the musical Bells Are Ringing (1956) and songs for the play Say, Darling (1958), before creating their career-spanning revue A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958), which earned them Grammy nominations for both comedy album and musical theater album. After screenplays for Auntie Mame (1958) and What a Way to Go! (1964), the writing team concentrated on stage work. Below is the full 1979 TV adaption of A Party with …, accompanied by their longtime musical director, Paul Trueblood.
The screenplay adaptation of Bells Are Ringing brought Comden and Green two Grammy nods, and the lyrics for Do Re Mi (1960, music by Styne) brought them two more: musical theater album and song of the year, for “Make Someone Happy.” They continued working with Styne on their next three shows: Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Fade Out – Fade In (1964), and Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), which earned them another Grammy nomination and their first Tony Award.
Their work in the 1970s included the libretto for Applause (1970, score by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams), new lyrics for Lorelei (1974, music by Styne), and the book and lyrics for On the Twentieth Century (1978, music by Cy Coleman), which brought them two Tony wins and another Grammy nomination. Below is the cast of On the Twentieth Century at the 1978 Tony Awards.
After induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1980) and American Theatre Hall of Fame (1981), they worked with Larry Grossman on A Doll’s Life (1982), which brought them Tony nods for book and score. In 1985, they earned another Tony nomination for the book to the stage adaptation of Singin’ in the Rain. Their final show was The Will Rogers Follies (1991, music by Coleman), which brought them their fourth Tony win and first Grammy Award. Below is the cast of Will Rogers at the 1991 Tonys.
In 1991, the pair received the Kennedy Center Honors. In 1995, Comden published her memoir, Off Stage, and won the National Board of Review Award for Distinction in Screenwriting, followed by the 2001 WGA’s Laurel Award for Screen Writing Achievement. Four year after Green, Comden died on Nov. 23, 2006. Below is the 1997 interview Comden and Green did with Theater Talk.