In 1921, Ben Hecht wrote a column for the Chicago Daily News that his editor called -journalism extraordinary; journalism that invaded the realm of literature.- Hecht's collection of sixty-four of these pieces, illustrated with striking pen drawings by Herman Rosse, is a timeless caricature of urban American life in the jazz age, updated with a new Introduction for the twenty-first century. From the glittering opulence of Michigan Avenue to the darkest ruminations of an escaped convict, from captains of industry to immigrant day laborers, Hecht captures 1920s Chicago in all its furor,...

Musical comedy

Book and Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden

Music by Cy Coleman

Based on a play by Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur and also a play by Bruce Milholland

Characters: 17 Principal roles, plus chorus (doubling possible)

Whether performed with elaborate scenery or on a simple scale, this brilliantly comic musical appeals to audiences everywhere. As in the classic original, the story concerns the efforts of a flamboyant theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe to persuade glamorous film star (and former amour) Lily Garland to appear in his next production while...

A daily column written by famous Academy award winning screenwriter Ben Hecht for the Chicago Tribune, 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, was later collected into this book, which brought Hecht fame. These works enhanced his reputation in the literary scene as a reporter, columnist, short story writer, and novelist.

"Ben Hecht's critically acclaimed autobiographical memoir, first published in 1954, offers incomparably pungent evocations of Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s, Hollywood in the 1930s, and New York during the Second World War and after"--