Home › News › Other News
John Blumenthal
John Blumenthal was born in Middletown, N.Y., the son of 2 certifiable neurotics who unknowingly gave him most of his best material. He attended Tufts University and managed to graduate cum laude in spite of having spent most of his time at Vietnam War protests, rock concerts and the occasional frat party.
Having majored in English, he naturally found work immediately — as a house painter. In keeping with the hallowed tradition in which authors "Experience Life" by taking on insipid jobs, he was also at various times, a dishwasher, an encyclopedia salesman, a newspaper hack, a stock clerk, a dishwasher, a janitor, a sidewalk guitarist and a shoe salesman.
STORY TOOLS 
More from Other NewsIn 1973, he finagled a low-level editorial job at Esquire Magazine, then parlayed that into a better job at Playboy Magazine in Chicago, where he became the unofficial humor editor and later, Hollywood columnist. He was eventually fired from Playboy for refusing to wear pajamas to "cover" one of Hef's pajama parties. "A journalist," he was quoted as saying, "has to draw the line somewhere." Also they would not let him wear Dr. Denton's.
After departing from Playboy, he became a freelance writer. His humorous essays have appeared in Punch, Playboy, The National Lampoon, Oui, PW, Today's Health, Men's Life, American Woman and TV Guide.
In the 1980's, he branched out into writing books of a humorous bent, including a biting Hollywood satire, two mystery spoofs and a parody of romance novels entitled Love's Reckless Rash (St. Martin's Press, co-written under the pen-name Rosemary Cartwheel). For a publicity shoot for Love's Reckless Rash, he was persuaded by his publisher to don an 18th century white gown and chapeau, and he would have looked pretty convincing in this outfit had he shaved his mustache and not walked around with an unlit cigar in his mouth.
Books were fun but the Big Bucks eluded him, so he started writing for TV and film. In all, he sold scripts to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox TV, and also wrote screenplays on assignment for Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Columbia.
Miraculously, 2 of his screenplays were actually made into feature films. In 1989, 20th Century Fox made "Short Time," starring Dabney Coleman and Teri Garr, and 10 years later, in 1999, Columbia Pictures released "Blue Streak," starring Martin Lawrence and Luke Wilson. The first movie was a dismal flop, the second, for reasons he will never comprehend, a huge success.
In 2000, John decided to go back to writing books and sold his first serious comic novel, "What's Wrong With Dorfman?" John currently lives in the Conejo Valley with his wife and two daughters. He is hard at work on another novel, at least when the sun's not out
Published works:
Hollywood High: The History of America's Most Famous
Public School
Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour
What's Wrong with Dorfman?
The Official Hollywood Handbook
The Case of the Hardboiled Dicks
The Tinseltown Murders
Love's Reckless Rash
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.