Claude Binyon

Chicago-based journalist Claude Binyon became city editor of the show-biz trade magazine Variety in the late '20s. Legend has it that it was Binyon, rather than Variety's colorful editor Syme Silverman, who came up with the famous stock market-crash headline "Wall St. Lays an Egg." He switched from writing about movies to writing for them with 1932's If I Had a Million; his later screenwriting credits included The Gilded Lily (1935), Sing You Sinners (1938), and Arizona (1940). In 1948, Binyon made his directorial bow with The Saxon Charm (1948). He went on to direct the low-key comedy noir Stella (1950), the rollicking Clifton Webb farce Dreamboat (1952), and Bob Hope's sole venture into 3-D, Here Come the Girls (1953); he also helmed the 1952 Aaron Slick of Punkin Crick, which starred Dinah Shore. Returning to screenwriting full time in 1954, Claude Binyon went on to write Leo McCarey's final two films, the John Wayne box-office bonanza North to Alaska (1960), and the political comedy Kisses for My President (1964).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide