Abe Burrows (December 18, 1910 â€" May 17, 1985) was an American
humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage. He won a Tony
Award.Born Abram Solman Borowitz in New York City, Burrows graduated
from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and later attended both City
College and New York University. He began working as a runner on Wall
Street while at NYU, and he also worked in an accounting firm. After
he met Frank Galen in 1938, the two wrote and sold jokes to an
impressionist who appeared on Rudy Vallée's radio program.His radio
career gained strength when he collaborated with Ed Gardner, the
writer and star of radio's legendary Duffy's Tavern. The two created
the successful series after Gardner's character, Archie, premiered on
This Is New York, an earlier radio program. Burrows was made the
show's head writer in 1941, and he credited his experience with
inventing the Runyonesque street characters he fashioned for Guys and
Dolls. "The people on that show," Burrows once said about Duffy's
Tavern, "were New York mugs, nice mugs, sweet mugs, and like (Damon)
Runyon's mugs they all talked like ladies and gentlemen. That's how we
treated the characters in Guys and Dolls."Burrows also wrote for Danny
Kaye's short-lived mid-1940s radio comedy show, helping head writer
Goodman Ace fashion material for Kaye and co-stars Eve Arden and
Lionel Stander. He quit Duffy's Tavern in 1945 to work at Paramount
Pictures but soon returned to radio. As a guest on Here's Morgan in
1947, Burrows performed "I'll Bet You're Sorry Now, Tokyo Rose, Sorry
for What You Done."
humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage. He won a Tony
Award.Born Abram Solman Borowitz in New York City, Burrows graduated
from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and later attended both City
College and New York University. He began working as a runner on Wall
Street while at NYU, and he also worked in an accounting firm. After
he met Frank Galen in 1938, the two wrote and sold jokes to an
impressionist who appeared on Rudy Vallée's radio program.His radio
career gained strength when he collaborated with Ed Gardner, the
writer and star of radio's legendary Duffy's Tavern. The two created
the successful series after Gardner's character, Archie, premiered on
This Is New York, an earlier radio program. Burrows was made the
show's head writer in 1941, and he credited his experience with
inventing the Runyonesque street characters he fashioned for Guys and
Dolls. "The people on that show," Burrows once said about Duffy's
Tavern, "were New York mugs, nice mugs, sweet mugs, and like (Damon)
Runyon's mugs they all talked like ladies and gentlemen. That's how we
treated the characters in Guys and Dolls."Burrows also wrote for Danny
Kaye's short-lived mid-1940s radio comedy show, helping head writer
Goodman Ace fashion material for Kaye and co-stars Eve Arden and
Lionel Stander. He quit Duffy's Tavern in 1945 to work at Paramount
Pictures but soon returned to radio. As a guest on Here's Morgan in
1947, Burrows performed "I'll Bet You're Sorry Now, Tokyo Rose, Sorry
for What You Done."
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