Hal Kanter, writer-producer-director-cartoonist, has contributed to radio, television, and motion pictures in addition to writing a novel and actively participating in Democratic national politics in the course of his forty year professional career.
Born in Savannah, Georgia on December 18, 1918, Kanter was educated at elementary and high schools in Savannah, Miami, and New York, including the Art Students League in New York and The Federal Art Project, New York City. He did some college work at the University of Kansas and through the Army Educational Service program.
He sold his first cartoon in 1933 and for the following five years was a free-lance cartoonist for newspapers and magazines. In 1936 he went to Hollywood where his first job was to ghost write for a ghost writer of a comic strip.
Not long after, he began to write for the Jack Oakie radio program, briefly wrote for Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin' in New York, and then as a free-lancer wrote 25 radio dramas before his March 1941 induction into the U.S. Army. Until his discharge in 1945, Kanter wrote, produced, and acted in Army radio shows aired over stations KOA, KLZ, and other local stations in Colorado; built and ran radio stations in Eniwetok and Guam; and served as a combat correspondent on Iwo Jima. After the war he wrote comedy for Danny Kaye under Goodman Ace and followed Kaye to Hollywood in 1946. There he wrote a series of radio comedy-variety shows including The Jack Paar Program, The Beulah Show, and The Bing Crosby Show for four years.
In 1950, he was head writer for The Ed Wynn Show at CBS-TV, which was the first network show originating in California. Kanter also created, produced, wrote, and directed NBC's The George Gobel Show. His work on these two series earned him seven Emmy awards and two Peabody awards, including a 1954 Emmy for Best Comedy Writing. He also wrote, produced, and directed teleplays for Bob Hope's Chrysler Theatre, 1966-1967, and wrote for Dragnet, 1967-1968 as well as co-authoring The Academy Award Show, 1958-1972. In the 1960s, Kanter created three series: Valentine's Day, The Jimmy Stewart Show, and Julia. Julia starred Diahann Carroll and was the first television series featuring the home life of a black family; it ran for three seasons, 1968-1971, and aroused considerable comment.
Kanter was also writer and executive producer for All in the Family (1975-1976) and supervising producer and writer for Chico and the Man (1976-1977). He has also been involved in several television specials including two Democratic National Telethons and The Bob Hope Special “Texaco Presents: JOYS!”, for which he served as producer and head writer.
Kanter's contribution to the motion picture industry has been mainly as a writer. From 1951 to 1962 he wrote the screenplays for 20 feature films, including Rose Tattoo (Paramount, 1956), Let's Make Love (Fox, 1960), A Pocketful of Miracles (Paramount, 1961), and Blue Hawaii (Paramount, 1962). Not limiting himself merely to screenplays, he directed George Gobel in Paramount's 1956 I Married a Woman and wrote and directed Loving You in 1957, also for Paramount. In 1958 he produced Once upon a Horse for Universal.
In 1966-67, Kanter wrote a novel, Snake in the Glass, which was published in 1971; its theme was the disintegration of a writer's integrity and its affect on the quality of his work. He has also written numerous newspaper and magazine articles and short stories; has guested as a panelist and panel moderator on several Los Angeles television programs; and has been a guest lecturer at UCLA, USC, Denver University, and Columbia College.
He has long been active politically in the Democratic Party. In 1959, he was involved in “The Harry S. Truman Diamond Jubilee,” and worked for Eugene McCarthy's campaign in 1968 and George McGovern's in 1972.
