ABSTRACT
Jack Douglas was born in 1908 in Lynbrook, New York. He described the location as rural and generally uninteresting: "About the only fun we had was watching railroad crossing accidents". His mother was English with a theatrical background; his father worked as a cable engineer. Douglas played drums in the high school band, gaining experience that helped him break into show business as a drummer/singer at a dance marathon in Madison Square Garden. He went on to write successful radio and television comedy for Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Durante, Jack Carson, Johnny Carson, Phil Harris, Garry Moore, Danny Thomas, Ed Wynn, Jack Paar and others. In 1955, he received a comedy-writing Emmy for the extremely popular George Gobel Show; his work helped win another Emmy award for Red Skelton.
