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Art Buchwald
Buchwald in 1995
Occupation Writer
Children 3
Early life
Buchwald was born in New York City in 1925, to an Austrian-
Hungarian Jewish immigrant family. He was the son of Joseph Buchwald,
a curtain manufacturer, and Helen (Klineberger). His mother suffered from depression
and was later committed to a mental hospital, where she lived for 35 years. Buchwald
was the youngest of four children, with three older sisters: Alice, Edith, and Doris. When
the family business failed at the start of the Great Depression, Buchwald's father put the
boy in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City, as he could not care for him.
Buchwald was soon placed in foster homes, and lived in several, including
a Queens boarding house for sick children (he had rickets because of poor nutrition). It
was operated by Seventh-day Adventists. He stayed in the foster home until he was 5.
Buchwald was eventually reunited with his father and sisters; the family settled in Hollis,
a residential community in Queens. Buchwald did not graduate from Forest Hills High
School, and ran away from home at age 17.
He wanted to join the United States Marine Corps during World War II but was too
young to join without parental or legal guardian consent. He bribed a drunk with half a
pint of whiskey to sign as his legal guardian. From October 1942 to October 1945,
Buchwald served with the Marines as part of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing. He spent two
years in the Pacific Theater and was discharged from the service as a sergeant. He said
of his time in the Marines, "In the Marines, they don't have much use for humorists, they
beat my brains in."[2]
Journalism
Buchwald in 1953
Film
Buchwald had a cameo in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955). Near the
beginning of the movie, an issue of the Paris Herald Tribune is shown in close-up to
highlight a column, bylined by Buchwald, about jewel thefts on the French Riviera,
which sets up the plot.[8]
He contributed to the English dialogue of Jacques Tati's Playtime.[9] Buchwald also had
a cameo role in a 1972 episode, "Moving Target," of the TV series Mannix. He is shown
in Frederick Wiseman's 1983 film "The Store" delivering a tribute to Stanley Marcus, the
store's owner.
In 1988 Buchwald and partner Alain Bernheim filed suit against Paramount Pictures in a
controversy over the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America. In the Buchwald v.
Paramount lawsuit, Buchwald claimed Paramount had stolen his script treatment. He
won, was awarded damages, and accepted a settlement from Paramount. The case
was the subject of a 1992 book, Fatal Subtraction: The Inside Story of Buchwald v.
Paramount.[10]
Criticism