Art Cohn

{{Infobox person

| name = Art Cohn

| image = Art_Cohn_&_Mike_Todd.png

| caption = Cohn, at left, with Mike Todd

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|4|5}}

| birth_place = New York City, US

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|3|22|1909|4|5}}

| death_place = Grants, New Mexico, US

| resting_place = Hollywood Forever Cemetery

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| occupation = Sportswriter, screenwriter, author

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| spouse = Marta Frank{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15159099/art_cohn_weds_to_reside_in_berkeley/ |title=Art Cohn Weds, to Reside in Berkeley |newspaper=Oakland Tribune |date=December 23, 1944 |accessdate=November 15, 2017 |via=newspapers.com}}

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}}

Art Cohn (April 5, 1909 – March 22, 1958) was an American sportswriter, screenwriter and author. Cohn and Hollywood producer Mike Todd died in a plane crash in New Mexico in 1958.

Career

=Sportswriter=

Cohn was born in New York City. Early in his career he wrote for the Long Beach Press-Telegram.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11914790/cohnwords_stirred_violence132358/ |title=Art Cohn--'Always Called a Spade a Steam Shovel' |first=Ben |last=Zinser |page=A-1 |date=March 23, 1958 |accessdate=November 15, 2017 |via=newspapers.com}} From 1936 to 1943, he was a sportswriter and sports editor for the Oakland Tribune,{{cite news |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/2011/03/26/dave-newhouse-former-tribune-columnist-died-with-lizs-hubby-no-3/ |title=Former Tribune columnist died with Liz's hubby No. 3 |first=Dave |last=Newhouse |newspaper=The Mercury News |location=San Jose, California |date=March 26, 2011 |accessdate=November 15, 2017}} which published his sports column Cohn-ing Tower (wordplay on "conning tower"). He worked as a press correspondent during World War II.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19580323&id=JLBPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6QQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5142,529552|title=Mike Todd Killed|pages=1, 12|date=March 23, 1958|newspaper=Ocala Star-Banner|accessdate=July 1, 2014}} In January 1958, after being away from newspaper work for 14 years, Cohn joined The San Francisco Examiner;{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11914809/cohna_spade_was_a_steam_shovel32358/ |title=Art Cohn--'Always Called a Spade a Steam Shovel' |first=Ben |last=Zinser |page=A-4 |date=March 23, 1958 |accessdate=November 15, 2017 |via=newspapers.com}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15159799/walter_winchell_column/ |title=Walter Winchell (column) |first=Walter |last=Winchell |authorlink=Walter Winchell |newspaper=The Star Press |location=Muncie, Indiana |date=January 10, 1958 |accessdate=November 16, 2017 |via=newspapers.com}} in his first column there, he wrote, "Things seem to happen where I happen to be."

Cohn was a controversial opinion writer of the time; he "afflicted the sports world with hard questions about racial equality long before the civil rights movement."[http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-cohn22mar22,1,5253172.story?page=1 Columnist was early, angry voice against sports color line]{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2008. He was also a boxing fan.

=Screenwriter=

Cohn was a Hollywood screenwriter on many movies, including:

The Set-Up (1949)
Stromboli (1950)
The Tall Target (1951)
Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
Carbine Williams (1952)
Glory Alley (1952)
Red Skies of Montana (1952)
Fatal Desire (1953)
The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
Tennessee Champ (1954)
Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957)
Seven Hills of Rome (1958)

He also wrote teleplays for unsold television pilots Plane for Hire in 1957 and The Celeste Holm Show in 1958.

=Author=

Cohn was the author of the Joe E. Lewis biography The Joker Is Wild, published by Random House in 1955, on which the movie The Joker Is Wild (1957) was based. At the time of his death, Cohn was writing a biography of Mike Todd, The Nine Lives of Michael Todd, which was finished by Cohn's wife and released by Random House in 1958.

Death

Cohn died on March 22, 1958, in the same plane crash that killed Broadway theatre and Hollywood film producer Mike Todd, pilot Bill Verner and co-pilot Tom Barclay. The twin-engine, 12-passenger Lockheed Lodestar crashed in bad weather in the Zuni Mountains near Grants, New Mexico. Ironically, Todd had named the plane The Lucky Liz after wife Elizabeth Taylor. Cohn, a resident of Beverly Hills, was survived by his wife, Marta, and his two sons, Ian and Ted.

Works

{{cite book |title=The Joker is Wild: The Story of Joe E. Lewis |last=Cohn |first=Art |publisher=Random House |date=1955 |asin=B0007DEU8S |url=https://www.amazon.com/Joker-Wild-Story-Lewis/dp/B0007DEU8S/}}
{{cite book |title=The Nine Lives of Michael Todd |last=Cohn |first=Art |publisher=Pocket Books |date=1959 |asin=B001Q6TNF0 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Lives-Michael-Todd/dp/B001Q6TNF0/}}