In December 1994 he auctioned off his Oscar for Casablanca (1942) for $248,400 to help pay for a granddaughter's graduate studies.
Was the original writer/adapter of the famed Orson Welles' Halloween
"War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. But it was Welles;' idea to change
it to a radio reel.
He was on the blacklist of presumed Communists, but he and his wife
were able to continue writing by moving to England and using
pseudonyms.
Earned a law degree from Columbia University before turning to writing
plays in the late 1920s. Progressed to writing radio scripts, and then
screenplays.