Alan Hyman (writer)

Alan Maurice Hyman (10 January 1910 - ) is an English author, journalist and film writer.

Hyman was the son of A Hyman, and was educated at St Cyprian's School, Repton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He became a journalist and worked on the staff of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Graphic from 1929 to 1932. Then he became a screenwriter and spent much of his life in the film industry. At Gaumont, he worked for Michael Balcon and collaborated on the scripts of "Sunshine Suzie" and "Falling in Love". Subsequently he worked with Herbert Wilcox on "The Three Maxims" and "Victoria the Great" and then with Thorold Dickinson as co-author of the script for the film The Arsenal Stadium Mystery in 1939. [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0405153/ Internet Movie Database] ] Later he collaborated with Sidney Box on "I met a murderer". During World War II, he worked for the Royal Navy as a screenwriter.

Hyman wrote scripts for BBC radio including the programme "Spotlight on a Tunesmith" compered by Ben Lyon and "Pioneers of Jazz" among other musical series. He joined Shell International in 1952, writing and producing scripts for their Visual Aids Unit. From 1954 to 1958 he served on the Council of the Screenwriters' Association, and was also a member of the Film Panel that selected the best British film scripts each year. He continued in journalism and became an expert on Sullivan's light operas and on burlesque theatre. He described this in "The Gaiety Years" a book about Gaiety Girls. He also wrote an important work on Horatio Bottomley, the swindler.

Filmography

*Sunshine Suzie
*Falling in Love (1935) (story) ... aka Trouble Ahead (USA) starring Charles Farrell and Gregory Ratoff
*The Three Maxims (1936)
*Victoria the Great (1937)
*The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939) (adaptation)
*I met a Murderer

Bibliography

*"The Rise & Fall of Horatio Bottomley: the biography of a swindler" Cassell, 1972 ISBN 0304290238
*"The Gaiety Years" Cassell 1975 - ISBN 0304293725
*"Sullivan and his Satellites: a survey of English operettas 1860-1914" Elm Tree Books 1978 ISBN 0903443244

References

*Repton School Register
*Dustjacket notes to "The Gaiety Years"