Allen Rivkin

Allen Rivkin (20 November 1903 – 17 February 1990) was an American screenwriter.

Rivkin was an advertising copy writer, who went to Hollywood and joined the RKO Pictures publicity department. He formed a film writing team with P. J. Wolfson, who got a writer’s contract on the strength of "Bodies Are Dust".[1] They started at Universal Pictures the same day.[1] Through a luncheon conversation that day, they decided to collaborate on a story.[1] In less than two years the pair wrote ten screen plays.[1] They later wrote for the B. P. Schulberg company at Paramount Pictures.[1]

He was one of the co-founders of the Screenwriters Guild, later the Writers Guild of America.[2] He wrote several of his scripts with his wife, Laura Kerr.

  1. ^ a b c d e "In Hollywood". San Pedro News Pilot. San Pedro, CA. 29 December 1932. p. 6. Retrieved 5 April 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection. Volume 5, Number 256
  2. ^ "Allen Rivkin, 86, Dies; Writer of Screenplays", NY Times February 20, 1990 accessed 8 June 2014