Frank R. Gould (born Rayful Goldberg), a Jewish New Yorker born in 1906, was a prolific playwright and actor throughout his life. This collection, the bulk of which dates from the 1940s, features many of the scripts he wrote for Broadway shows and radio dramas. It also documents his time in the U.S. Office of War Information Features Division as a writer in the 1940s. Born in the Russian partition of Poland, Gould immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island in the 1920s. He went to Columbia University for college and graduated from the School of Journalism. Soon after, he spent time on the staff of the Brooklyn Eagle, a daily newspaper published from 1841 to 1955, and the Brooklyn Times-Union, itself bought by Brooklyn Eagle in 1937, before focusing on his playwriting and acting. Around this time, he also met and married Ruth Yagendorf Gould on May 30, 1936.
Working freelance for Himan Brown, an American producer of over 30,000 radio programs, Gould wrote scripts for radio programs such as March of Time, one of the first dramatized radio newsreels -- staged and performed like a drama while sharing news content. Gould also wrote for The Columbia Workshop, a program dedicated to entertaining and experimenting with the genre of radio drama. In 1941, he created the program City Desk, a radio drama that followed two detectives as they uncovered murder mysteries, exposed corrupt politics, and pursued romance in the large metropolis. Although uncredited, Gould also originated and wrote the first, seventh, and tenth episodes of Inner Sanctum Mystery, a popular radio program mixing horror and humor that aired from 1941 to 1952 (the scripts can be found in the collection). At the same time, Gould performed on Broadway in such productions as Having Wonderful Time (1937-1938), Escape This Night (1938), and Cafe Crown (1942) and wrote plays such as The Scene of the Crime (1940). Before World War II Gould also worked as a social director for a venue in the Catskills, part of the "Borscht Belt."
Following the entry of the United States into World War II, Gould became a member of the Features Division in the Office of War Information for the U.S. Army in the North African Theater. He was deployed in 1943 as a non combatant in the Middle East and spent time in Palestine, Turkey, and Egypt, among other countries. Throughout his time in the army, he created reports on various war fronts and countries and wrote plays about the war, such as Homage to Bataan. He also created, wrote, and voiced the "Chaplain Jim" radio broadcast.
After World War II, Gould returned to writing, notably creating the Broadway show Tenting Tonight in 1947 (also referred to as Snow-Job in the collection), which was picked up by a number of theaters. At the same time, he began to write for magazines such as Reader's Digest, True Experience, and True Romance, assuming editorial reponsibility for both True Experience and True Romance. He also instructed aspiring playwrights at conferences around the country.
