Claude Binyon

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Claude Binyon was a screenwriter and director. He was born October 17, 1905 and died February 14, 1978. His genres were comedy, musicals, and romances.

As a Chicago-based journalist, he became city editor of the show-biz trade magazine Variety in the late '20's. Legend has it that Binyon, rather than Variety's colorful editor Syme Silverman, came up with the famous stock market crash headline, "Wall Street 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 Pun'kin Crick.