Editing Eric Maschwitz (section)

==Life and work==
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Born in [[Edgbaston]], [[Birmingham]], England,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> the son of a Lithuanian Jewish father,<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://spartacus-educational.com/SPYmaschwitz.htm |title=Eric Maschwitz |website=Spartacus Educational |access-date=16 July 2020}}</ref> Eric Maschwitz was educated at Arden House preparatory school, [[Henley in Arden]], [[Repton School]] and [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]].<ref>Took, Barry, 'Maschwitz, (Albert) Eric (1901–1969)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38408, Retrieved 19 August 2009].</ref>

As a lyricist, Maschwitz wrote, often credited to his pseudonym "Holt Marvell", the [[screenplay]]s of several successful films in the 1930s and 1940s, but is perhaps best remembered for his lyrics to 1940s popular songs such as "[[A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (song)|A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square]]" (music by [[Manning Sherwin]]) and "[[These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)|These Foolish Things]]" (music by [[Jack Strachey]], reinterpreted in 1973 by [[Bryan Ferry]] on his first solo album of the same name).<ref name="LarkinGE"/> According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Maschwitz had a brief romantic liaison with British cabaret singer [[Jean Ross]], the inspiration for [[Sally Bowles]] in [[Christopher Isherwood]]'s stories about 1930s Berlin, later adapted as the musical ''[[Cabaret_(musical)|Cabaret]]'', and their relationship inspired the lyrics for "These Foolish Things".<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Parker |first=Peter |title=Ross, Jean Iris (1911–1973) |date= September 2004 |url= https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74425 |access-date=18 June 2017 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74425}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Frost |first=Peter |title=Jean Ross: These Foolish Things |newspaper= [[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Morning Star]] |location= London |date= 31 December 2013 |access-date=18 June 2018 |url= https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-52c7-Jean-Ross-the-real-Sally-Bowles}}</ref> (Other sources have suggested that either Maschwitz's wife [[Hermione Gingold]] or American actress [[Anna May Wong]] inspired the lyrics,{{sfn|Gingold|1989|p=54}} but Maschwitz's autobiography cites "fleeting memories of [a] young love."{{sfn|Maschwitz|1957|pp=77–79}})

Maschwitz started his stage acting career in the early 1920s, playing Vittoria in the first successful modern production of Webster's ''[[The White Devil]]'' (Marlowe Society, Cambridge ADC Theatre, 1920). He joined the [[BBC]] in 1926. His first radio show was ''[[In Town Tonight]]''. While at the BBC, he wrote a radio operetta ''Goodnight Vienna'', with the popular song of the same title co-written by [[George Posford]]. In 1932, it was adapted as a film, ''[[Goodnight, Vienna]]'', starring [[Anna Neagle]].<ref name="LarkinGE"/>

Between 1927 and 1933, Maschwitz was the editor of the weekly broadcast listings magazine ''[[Radio Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.radiotimesarchive.co.uk/facts.html |title=Radio Times Facts and Figures |access-date=15 April 2018 |website= Radiotimesarchive.co.uk}}</ref> Under contract to MGM in Hollywood from 1937,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090113192532/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/600012 BFI database page] on Eric Maschwitz</ref> he co-wrote the adaptation of ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)|Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'',<ref name="LarkinGE"/> made by [[MGM-British Studios|MGM-British]], for which he shared an [[Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay|Academy Award]] nomination.

From August 1939, he was a postal censor in Liverpool. From November 1939, he served with the [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (SIS)/MI-6 D Section (sabotage). In 1940, he briefly worked to establish a [[Auxiliary Units|resistance organization]] in [[Beverley]], Yorkshire, and for Army Welfare in London before being assigned to the [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE). In 1940 he was commissioned into the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]]. He was then sent to New York City to work for the [[British Security Coordination]] (BSC). In 1942, he returned to London, briefly supervising radio programmes for the troops. He then transferred to the [[Political Warfare Executive]] (PWE). He ended the war as chief broadcasting officer with the [[21st Army Group]], leaving the army as a [[lieutenant-colonel]]. Maschwitz, along with Major John MacMillan (members of "No 1 Field Broadcasting Unit"), was responsible for taking over the "Reichssender Hamburg" on 3 May 1945.<ref>See Ahrens, Michael, Die Briten in Hamburg: Besatzerleben 1945 - 1958. München: Döllin und Galitz Verlag, 2011, p. 50.</ref> 

This requisition enabled the British occupation troops to start broadcasting programmes for their soldiers in northern Germany, and was the nucleus for the British Forces Network (BFN), inaugurated with Maschwitz's help in July 1945, eventually to become the [[British Forces Broadcasting Service]] (BFBS).<ref>See Taylor, Doreen, ''A Microphone and a Frequency: Forty Years of Forces Broadcasting'', London: Heinemann, 1983, pp. 36-49<br><br>Zöllner, Oliver, BFBS, "Freund in der Fremde". British Forces Broadcasting Service (Germany) – der britische Militärrundfunk in Deutschland, Göttingen: Cuvillier, 1996, pp. 18–21</ref>

In 1947, Maschwitz became chairman of the Songwriters' Guild of Great Britain, which was founded by Ivor Novello, Sir Alan Herbert, Eric Coates, Haydn Wood, Richard Addinsell and others, for the encouragement and protection of British popular music.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://spartacus-educational.com/SPYmaschwitz.htm |title=Eric Maschwitz |website=Spartacus Educational |access-date=16 July 2020}}</ref> He was the first Vice Chair and Chairman from July 1948 for one year, and again between December 1954 and April 1958.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nZSHjgEACAAJ |title=Success Story, 1947-1968 |year=1968 |publisher= Songwriters' Guild of Great Britain}}</ref>

In 1958, near the start of the BBC/[[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] [[Audience measurement|ratings]] wars, he rejoined the BBC as Head of Television Light Entertainment.<ref name="LarkinGE"/>   

Maschwitz left to join the rival ITV in 1963. During the course of his varied entertainment career, Maschwitz also adapted French comedies such as ''Thirteen For Dinner''; wrote the book and lyrics for numerous musicals, amongst them ''[[Balalaika (musical)|Balalaika]]'', ''Summer Song'', which used the music of [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvorak]], ''Happy Holiday'' (based on [[Arnold Ridley]]'s play ''[[The Ghost Train (play)|The Ghost Train]]''), and ''[[Zip Goes a Million]]'', which was written specially for [[George Formby, Jr.|George Formby]];<ref name="LarkinGE"/> and he was the creator of the radio series ''Café Collette''. He also edited the ''[[Radio Times]]'', and turned his hand to the detective novel: ''Death at Broadcasting House'', co-written with [[Val Gielgud]] and published in 1931, revolves around a radio play disrupted by the murder of one of the cast.

Maschwitz was married twice: first to [[Hermione Gingold]], who was granted a divorce in 1945, and then immediately to Phyllis Gordon, they lived at 12 Dorset House, Gloucester Place, London NW1. She remained his wife until his death at an Ascot Nursing Home in Sunninghill, Berkshire. 

His autobiography, ''No Chip On My Shoulder'', was published by Herbert Jenkins in 1957.{{sfn|Maschwitz|1957}}<ref>{{cite web |website= British Musical Theatre |title=Eric Maschwitz |url= http://www.musical-theatre.net/html/composers/ericmaschwitz.html |access-date=19 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080820121133/http://www.musical-theatre.net/html/composers/ericmaschwitz.html |archive-date=20 August 2008}}</ref>

He was created an Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in 1936.