Max Wilk


Max Wilk was an American playwright, screenwriter and author of fiction and nonfiction books. In all, Wilk was the author of 19 books, four films, three produced plays as well as many TV shows and magazine articles.

Biography

During World War II Wilk served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.
Formerly a resident of Ridgefield, Connecticut, he moved to Westport, Connecticut, where he lived until his death February 19, 2011, at age 90.

Works

In 1968, Wilk wrote the novelization of The Beatles' cartoon Yellow Submarine. His fiction includes Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River; the movie version starred Jerry Lewis and shifted the locale from "Green Haven" to London, England. On the original bookjacket is the warning:
In the '90s, he published a coffee table book tracing the origins of the musical Oklahoma!. Later he wrote Schmucks with Underwoods--Conversations with Hollywood's Classic Screenwriters.
For decades Wilk was a dramaturg for playwrights at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwright's Conference under the leadership of Lloyd Richards.

Books

  • The Sound of Music: The Making of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Classic Musical, Routledge,
  • OK! The Story Of Oklahoma!: A Celebration of America's Most Beloved Musical, 292 pages, Applause Books;
  • Schmucks with Underwoods: Conversations with America's Classic Screenwriters,, 338 pages, Applause Books,
  • The Golden Age of Television: Notes from the Survivors, 274 pages, Delacorte Press
  • Overture and Finale: Rodgers & Hammerstein and the Creation of Their Two Greatest Hits Paperback: 192 pages, Watson-Guptill Publications
  • American Treasure Hunt: The Legacy of Israel Sack co-author, Harold Sack, 270 pages, Little Brown & Co,
  • A Tough ACT to Follow, co-author, Jim Connor, 346 pages, Norton
  • And Did You Once See Sydney Plain?: A Random Memoir of S.J. Perelman, 83 pages, Norton,
  • Get Out and Get Under, 317 pages, Norton,
  • Represented by Audrey Wood: A Memoir, Doubleday: Garden City, NY,
  • The Moving Picture Boys, 287 pages, Norton,
  • Every Day's a Matinee: Memoirs Scribbled on a Dressing Room Door, 288 pages, Norton
  • They're Playing Our Song: The Truth Behind the Words and Music of Three Generations 295 pages, Atheneum,
  • Memory lane, 1890 to 1925: Ragtime, Jazz, Foxtrot and Other Popular Music and Music Covers, 88 pages, Studioart,
  • The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood: From the Squaw Man to the Hatchet Man, Scribner
  • The Beard, a novel, Simon and Schuster, LCCN 65-23246
  • Cloud Seven,: A Comedy, 84 pages, Dramatists Play Service, ASIN: B0007E1WQK
  • Yellow Submarine novelization
  • Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River
  • "My Masterpiece", a novel, ww Norton Co., 1970, Lib Cong 77-116121

    Plays

According to the "Internet Broadway DataBase":