Obituaries

Ironically I had the song, "Meet Me in St. Louis," in my head when I read one of the screenwriters of the movie of the same name, Irving Brecher, has died at the age of 94.

In addition to this film, Brecher wrote screenplays for two Marx Brothers movies, At the Circus (1939), and Go West (1940), two of their weaker films.

He did a lot more:

Among his other screenwriting credits are "Shadow of the Thin Man," "Du Barry Was a Lady," "Yolanda and the Thief," "Cry for Happy" and "Bye Bye Birdie."

In the early '40s, Brecher also created, wrote and produced the radio series "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix.

Brecher wrote and directed a 1949 feature film version of "The Life of Riley," and the show became an Emmy Award-winning TV series with Jackie Gleason as bumbling working-class everyman Chester A. Riley before Bendix took over the role he played on radio.

Brecher recently wrote a book, and it will be out in January.