Art Cohn

Art Cohn died. I didn't know him. He was my wife's cousin, and he was her father Ben Cohn's favorite nephew. Ben was well educated and a good listener. Art took council from his Uncle Ben, my wife's father, and he made frequent telephone calls to let Uncle Ben in on his adventures all over the world. Art phoned Ben the night before his airplane crash with Mike Todd. Barbara and I attended the funeral. Art's wife, his son Ted, and friends and family members were there. After the chapel service we drove to the gravesite. Barbara and I were late. There were many on-lookers and photographers being held back from the mourners by hired police. Special police stopped us at the barrier and told Barbara we would not be allowed to go to the grave. Barbara told them she was Art Cohn's cousin, and they let us through. We stood at the back behind the crowd. One of Barbara's cousins spotted her. He left his chair in front and gave it to Barbara who was showing from her first pregnancy. Then he came back and stood beside me. Four men carried the casket to the grave. I recognized a tall actor who was one of the pall bearers and Art's friend.

Barbara told me a little about her cousin. She said Hearst, a giant newspaper owner, fired Art because Art wrote the truth about the war instead of using yellow journalism. I think they wanted him to write only propaganda. But Art was a shoot from the hips type of writer. He wrote what he saw, and he always gave his opinion right or wrong. When General McArthur complained about stories written about him in the Philippines, Art lost his job and returned to the States to write movie scripts.

Ingrid Bergman, a popular movie star, was in a major movie that Art Cohn wrote called Stromboli. It was the film that got her in trouble with the American fans. A married woman, Ingred fell in love with the director Rosselini whom she later married. During the filming there were rumors that Ingrid was pregnant. Art wrote that if anyone knew she was pregnant, he would know. He said he was willing to stake his reputation on the fact that Ingrid was not pregnant. Several weeks later her pregnancy was confirmed. He wanted to protect her. The movie Stromboli became a film classic.

Art wrote the book The Joker's Wild. Frank Sinatra starred in the movie. It was about the life of a Chicago night club entertainer named Joe E. Lewis who had his throat slit for refusing to sing at a club owned by another mobster. The book is entertaining history about the mob, Flo Zigfield, Mae West, and many other people who were well known in the thirties and forties.

Art wrote the script for a movie advertised as the greatest boxing movie of all time. It was filmed in 1949. The Set Up starred Robert Ryan and fifty years later was still rated three stars on television.

I asked Barbara about the tall pallbearer at the Los Angeles grave side. She said the actor had starred in films written by her cousin. The tall actor was Anthony Quinn known also as a sculptor and painter. Quinn started life as a poor barefoot Mexican who didn't know his father. He became a great movie actor, painter, and sculptor. It's a pity Art Cohn did not live to write Anthony Quinn's biography.