Beginning in 1941, my dad was head writer for the first five years of Duffy’s ten-year run. He was careful about writing and casting. He implemented a program where writers got paid for submissions that he liked and created a path for the best ones to get jobs. One of the best of his discoveries was Larry Gelbart, who later went on to write for Bob Hope, develop M*A*S*H for television, co-write Tootsie, and co-author Broadway shows, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Sly Fox. Larry said of my father, “He was the best of us and the one we always wanted to be.” Abe also
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