The collection contains approximately 900 radio scripts and teleplays that Sommers wrote over his four-decade career as a writer and producer in Hollywood.

Jay Sommers was born in 1917 in New York to Alice and Joseph Jay Solomon. He worked as a comedy writer and producer in radio and television for four decades. His first hire was as a gag writer for Milton Berle in 1940. He wrote for radio shows at the Blue Network station WJZ in New York, and worked on shows including Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. Sommers settled in Los Angeles during the late 1940s. Radio performers he wrote for include Milton Berle, Danny Kaye, Spike Jones, Alan Young, Joan Davis, Eddie Albert, Eddie Cantor, Red Skelton, the Victor Borge-Benny Goodman Show, the Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore Show and Lum and Abner. His work on television began with episodes of the Colgate Comedy Hour (for Spike Jones), the Peter Lind Hayes Show (1950), and the short-lived Buster Keaton Show aka Life with Buster Keaton (1951-1952). Sommers wrote for the Ozzie and Harriet radio program from 1952-1954 and the TV series for seasons 2 through 9, 1953-1960. Other TV shows he worked on include My Friend Irma, The Great Gildersleeve, The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show, Dennis the Menace, Grindl, Alice, and Hello Larry. He and writer Don Nelson came up with the original title, idea, and characters for the sitcom Bachelor Father (1957). Sommers was a writer and producer for the CBS series Petticoat Junction during its second and third seasons, 1964-1966. In 1965, prompted by Petticoat creator Paul Henning, Sommers created a spin-off series Green Acres, set in the same fictional universe. The idea derived from a short-lived 1950 radio series created by Sommers called Granby’s Green Acres, in which an urban couple moves to a rural farm. Sommers and co-writer Dick Chevillat wrote almost every one of the 170 episodes spanning 6 seasons of the show. Sommers’ film credits include the Pat Boone comedy All Hands on Deck (1961) and the story, with Dick Chevillat, for Gordy (1994). Jay Sommers died in Los Angeles in 1985 was survived by a wife Barbara, a son Jonathan and four stepsons.

17.5 linear feet, 14 boxes

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Open for research.