The son of a Buffalo jeweler, Al Boasberg established himself in the early twenties as one of the foremost comedy writers in America. Boasberg was kept so busy supplying one-liners and special material to vaudevillians like Burns and Allen and Jack Benny that he ultimately set up a weekly wire service, telegraphing jokes to his scores of clients. It was said that virtually half the acts playing the Loews vaudeville circuit were subsisting on Boasberg's material. He headed to Hollywood in 1926 to work for Buster Keaton, contributing gags and bits of business for the Keaton classics The General (1926) and College (1927). Seldom did he write an entire screenplay; instead, he was what now would be called a script doctor, punching up and improving the work of other writers. Disdaining the regimen of studio life, Boasberg preferred working at home, sitting in a huge bathtub and firing off jokes into a Dictaphone. During the talkie era, he contributed extensively to the films of Wheeler and Woolsey and the Marx Brothers; it was he who came up with the celebrated "stateroom scene" for the Marxes' A Night at the Opera (1935). During this period, he also dabbled in directing, helming several two-reel comedies as well as the 1933 feature Myrt and Marge, which co-starred the Three Stooges. While employed as a comedy troubleshooter at MGM in 1936, Boasberg signed on as one of the chief writers for Jack Benny's radio show. At the end of the 1936-37 season, Benny offered Boasberg a dream contract, paying the writer $1500 per week merely to be "on call" if needed. Al Boasberg agreed to the deal, shook hands with Benny, then headed home--where he died the next day at the age of 45.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Make a Wish
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
Silly Billies
Screenwriter |
1936 | |||
|
A Night at the Opera
Screenwriter |
1935 | |||
|
The Nitwits
Screenwriter |
1935 | |||
|
Uppercutlets
Director |
1935 | |||
|
Murder in the Private Car
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Myrt and Marge
Director, Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Bachelor Mother
Screen Story |
1933 | |||
|
Freaks
Screenwriter |
1932 | |||
|
Cracked Nuts
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Everything's Rosie
Dialogue Writer, Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Fifty Million Frenchmen
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Doughboys
Dialogue Writer, Screen Story |
1930 | |||
|
Free and Easy
Dialogue Writer |
1930 | |||
|
It's a Great Life
Dialogue Writer, Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
The Florodora Girl
Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
Way for a Sailor
Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
Hollywood Revue of 1929
Dialogue Writer |
1929 | |||
|
So This Is College
Screenwriter |
1929 | |||
|
That Certain Thing
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
California or Bust
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Her Father Said No
Continuity, Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
The General
Screenwriter |
1927 | |||
|
Battling Butler
Screenwriter |
1926 |


