Julius J. Epstein

The Epstein twins, Julius J and Phillip G, as schoolboys helped their father by cleaning his livery stable. Julius fell in love with writing while at Penn State but had difficulty finding a job after graduating. He eventually turned to work as a publicist, promoting The Kate Smith Hour. This led to a contact with Jerry Wald who went to Hollywood and was asked to write a screenplay. Unable to do it himself, he contacted Julius and offered him $25 a week to ghost the script. Over the next eighteen months, he wrote numerous scripts and learned enough about the business to establish his own name, resulting in Living on Velvet, a 1935 drama starring Kay Francis. This got him a Warner Bros contract. He later used his contacts to get his brother Phillip a contract with Warners. The two became a team with films such as The Bride Came C.O.D..and The Man Who Came to Dinner. This put them in line to write Casablanca, the success of which, along with the Oscar that went with it, led to such films as Arsenic and Old Lace, Mr Skeffington and The Last Time I A Saw Paris. Their collaboration ended in 1952 with the death if Phillip. Julius continued writing and sometimes did producing. Among his other credits were Fanny, Pete 'n'Tillie and Reuben, Reuben.