David Freedman

David Freedman was born in Botosani, a major city in northeast Romania. He was the son of Israel and Sarah Freedman. After coming to America in 1901, David's family settled in New York's lower East Side where his father began writing for Jewish language newspapers under the name "Israel the Yankee" and later "Yankee Freedman". David graduated with honors from De Witt Clinton High School and later attended the College of the City of New York (now New York University) where he earned his Phi Beta Kappa key. Before his meteoric rise as a radio gag writer, David was a failed poet, superintendant of an orphanage, editor of a baker's trade paper, the manager of a cardboard box factory and what he called "a self-inflicted pianist". It was his stories about a fictitious slacker philosopher named Mendel Marantz that first brought him literary success. "Mendel Marantz - Housewife", which he sold to the Pictorial Review for the princely sum of $350, was considered one the best short stories of 1922. A Mendel Marantz novel, play and film script followed in rapid succession. David worked with many of the great radio stars of the 1920s and 30s. Before his split with Eddie Cantor over a contract dispute, he had helped the comedian write his autobiography and had collaborated with Cantor on a biography of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. The King of the Gag-Writers died of a heart attack on the morning of 8 December, 1936, just hours before he was to get up to attend the second day of his court battle with Cantor. David Freedman was survived by his wife, the former Beatrice Goodman and four children.