Claude Binyon

Who was Claude Binyon?

Claude Binyon was a screenwriter and director. His genres were comedy, musicals, and romances.

As a Chicago-based journalist, he became city editor of the show business trade magazine Variety in the late 1920s. Binyon, according to Variety staffer and historian Robert Landry, came up with the famous 1929 stock market crash headline, "Wall Street Lays an Egg."

He switched from writing about movies to writing for them with 1932's If I Had A Million; his later screenwriting credits included The Gilded Lily, Sing You Sinners, and Arizona.

In 1948, Binyon made his directorial bow with The Saxon Charm. He went on to direct the low-key comedy noir Stella, the Clifton Webb farce Dreamboat, and Bob Hope's sole venture into 3-D, Here Come the Girls; he also helmed the 1952 Aaron Slick of Pun'kin Crick.