Compiled by Fredonia Coupe

From Radio Hero Magazine, July 1988

George Leroy Tirebiter began working as a child actor in the Chicago area and, after a stint with the Chicago World’s Fair (1933-34) found steady radio work on top-rated WOP. As Tirebiter phrases it, “Poetry, commercials, prosperous young men-about-town, character roles, I did them all.” He created a daily serial, “Young Tom Edison, Electric Detective,” for WOP in 1936, wrote every show and played the title role until the program went off the air in early 1940. Tirebiter’s early years in show business - 1930 to 1942 - have been documented in detail by Freedonia Clinton and Langley Coupe in their article “Boy Wonder” in Radio Hero Magazine for October 1987.

CBS brought GLT to Hollywood in 1941 to star in a new comedy-variety series, “Hollywood Madhouse.” At the same time, he was offered a contract as a director by Paranoid Pictures. Tirebiter expected to be given a film series based on his radio show, but instead was assigned to direct, as he put it, “inexperienced young performers in the feel-good stories that spaced out the ballads, dances and swing band numbers in Paranoid’s light-weight musicals.” GLT was co-writer on such forgettable movies as Babes in Khaki (1942), Dog Fights Over Broadway and Ruthless Combat (both released in 1943) Pardon My Sarong and Swing, Swing, Swing Shift (both 1944), Pardon My Pinup and First WAC in Tokyo (both 1945).

“Hollywood Madhouse” was on the air (CBS, Friday nights at 7:30) for its fifth and final season from September 1945 through May 1946. The cast included Tirebiter’s wife, former “Vandals” star Lilly Lamont, teen-age singing ingenue Rita Monroe, vaudeville comic Phil Baines (as “Sir Lionell Flynn”), night club entertainer Mattie Daniels, and announcer Ben Bland, speaking for Glamorama Soap.

Tirebiter’s final feature for Paranoid, “Three WACS in a Jeep,” was released as “First WAC in Tokyo” with new scenes added, in September 1945. Paranoid double-billed it with “Black Deborah,” a pirate movie starring Jean Heather and Cosmo Sardo.

Alas, in the Summer of 1946, Lilly and George split up. Lilly moved from their Toluca Lake home to Santa Barbara, where she became a long-time inhabitant of a bungalow at the El Encanto Hotel.

On loan from Paranoid, in August 1946, GLT directed “Dixie Has Latin Trouble,” the second in a series of programmers starring former burlesque queen Dixie Cupps for Cameo International, produced by GLT’s friend Derrick Darling, who ran the studio. It was released for the holidays billed with Cameo’s “Ice Carnival of 1947.”

In February 1947 GLT directed “Dixie In The Dark” for Cameo. Released in October with “Meet Mr. Hyde,” a thriller starring Rock LaRouche.

During the spring of 1947 GLT directed six episodes of “Buffalo Bill vs. Sitting Bull” for RKO under the name “Elmo Yakima.” As he explained it, “I needed to pay off some outstanding debts.’

In November, 1947 GLT directed “Dixie Brings Down The House.” This was the last film in GLT’s loanout period at Cameo. His contract was not picked up by Paranoid. This last in the Dixie Cupps series was released in February 1948 along with “Bobbie Sox Beauty,” a high school musical.

In Spring 1948, GLT wrote “What A Family!” for Argyle Artists. In this seminal script, he introduced “Georgie” and the rest of the Tirebiter family and friends. In the film, Georgie’s father, Franklyn Tirebiter, runs for Elmwood City animal control officer, but his son’s shenanigans get him locked up in the dog pound for a night and almost cost him the election. Directed by George B. Selz, starring Brod Crawford, Spring Byington, Mickey O’Niell, Herman Hutton and Sammy Stone. It plays major showcase theatre dates with Spike Jones and his City Slickers and is popular enough to call for a sequel.

In the Winter of 1948, GLT became “The Sunkist Storyteller” in a 13-week series for Don Lee Radio Network. He narrated dramatized stories of cowboy life in early Southern California. Scheduled following the nightly 5-minute “Frost Warnings,” the show did not prosper.

Also during 1948, GLT wrote the story and, replacing Brod Crawford, played Georgie’s father in “What A Family Goes Hollywood!” In this script, Mr. Tirebiter moves the family from Elmwood to Glendale, so that everybody can get a job in the movies. Trouble is, the studio that hires them is run by a bunch of crooks. Released by Argyle in the fall of 1949, the film is a big hit, spawning a number of sequals, the best known of which is “Georgie and Jug Ears” (1950), starring Dave Casman and Joe Bertman in the title roles.

From early 1948 until September 1951, GLT and Derrick Darling were partners in Flintridge Films, an independent production company. Aspiring to do only one important film a year, the team manages to release two films through Cameo International. They were:

“Morgan For Hire,” with a screenplay by GLT based on the hard-boiled novel “Night Rides” by Conrad Wyrich. Directed by Darling in the fall of 1948 and released in May 1949. Morgan was played by Scott Brady.

“Lust For Light,” with a screenplay by GLT based on the popular novel about the painter Gaugin, directed by Darling and starring Lee Marvin, was released for the holidays in 1950.

GLT wrote an original screenplay based on “Gulliver’s Travels,” but Flintridge never delivered its promised third film.

In 1949, GLT developed a radio series for NBC, “Max Morgan, Crime Cabby,” based on the cab driver character in “Morgan For Hire.” It was scheduled to run in the prime slot following Talullah Bankhead’s “The Big Show.”

In January 1950, “Max Morgan” premiered on the air, starring GLT, running through May and continuing for a second season in September.

In March 1950, GLT dated Marilyn Monroe and, as a result of the publicity, Lilly began divorce proceedings.

In late 1950, Lillie denounced GLT as a fellow-traveller in order to clear her own name and make way for her comeback role in “Yesterday’s Sunset.” She portrayed Baby Heather, a psychotic former Follies star whose power-hungry understudy Eva (played by Marie O’Saint) steals the affections of Baby’s voice coach and young lover, “The Professor” (William Holden). Baby’s jealous butler (Brod Crawford) shoots Eva as she decends the staircase to the swimming pool, ending her threat to Baby’s already failed career. Released by Paranoid in 1951, this film got six nominations, but no awards.

“Max Morgan” was cancelled and off the air in June 1951. GLT sold the television rights to Dumont and the series ran from the 1951 Fall season through May 1954. Scott Brady played Max.

Early in 1951 GLT sold their Toluca Lake house as a part of the divorce settlement with Lilly. After several months living in Darrick Darling’s guesthouse in Woody Glen, GLT bought the Rose-Bud Court from screenwriter Oliver Tulley. Located south of Downtown Los Angeles, in the University of Southern California area, on 30th Street just an alley away from Adams Boulevard, the Rose-Bud had been built in 1926. Tulley had picked up the attractive nine apartment court from its long-time owners, Rose and Bud Levy, in a 1948 real estate swap.

GLT bought the court and moved there in September 1951. Eccentric ex-sailor Seaman O’’Toole and elderly sun-bather Mrs. Whitmer were living there at the time, and had been for years. The Perry’s, Will and Sally, moved in just before Litttle Joe was born in December 1951. Will Perry was about to become a famous scifi illustrator and turned GLT onto the science-fiction “scene.”

Gideon Selz, brother of the director and a Movietone News cameraman had rented another of the bungalows for years, first because it was convenient to a job with the USC Photo Lab, and later as a retreat. When he retired to the Motion Picture Home in 1952 he passed it on to his twin daughters, Sappho and Sabina. They moved in October 31, 1952, confusing GLT into thinking there is only one of them, a USC student he nick-named “Silly Sally.” Two of the other bungalows remained rented to a regular turnover of USC students.

GLT was out of work for the rest of 1951. He decided to write a novel and began work on “Street of Broken Glass,” a semi-autobiographical noir. In 1952, after seeing “Destination Moon,” he wrote his first scifi story and quickly sold two novellas, “Nomads From Neptune” and “How Time Flies” to Astonishing Science Fiction, both under the pen-name of Ty Pritter.

GLT played the crippled evil genius Doctor Loco in a Mexican language version of “Frankenstein,” in which “Frankenstina La Monstra” was played by a very drunken Dolores Del Valle. This was a guest spot GLT promoted for himself while beachcombing in Puerto Airto in October-December 1952.

In early 1953, GLT was still working on his noir novel and had landed several jobs - scripting a film version of “Nomads From Nepture” and writing and directing (as Ty Pritter) one of the first 3-D scifi films, “The Beast From Under the Bed.” As “Dixon W. Franklyn” he wrote the 14th installment of the famous “Smartee Boys” series of novels for youths, in which the brothers Smartee encounter the “Mystery of the Flying Saucer.” Busy in Hollywood once again, GLT landed a writing job at Metro - additional dialog for the sensational new wide-screen movie, “Quo Vadis,” and thirteen episodes of the last Western serial, “Buffalo Bill’s Horse” (based on a Mark Twain story) for Columbia. Later in 1953, he wrote additional dialogue for “Julius Caesar.”

Kat Musik moved into the Rose-Bud Court, across from GLT’’s bungalow in the Spring of 1953, two years after her husband was MIA in the Korean war. A young television producer, Kat introduced George to the hot new medium and a new phase in both his love life and his show business career.

Reprinted by permission from Radio Hero Magazine