Milton Shulman

Milton Shulman(1 September 1913 – 24 May 2004) was a Canadian author, film and theatre critic who was based in the United Kingdom from 1943.

Milton Shulman
Born	(1913-09-01)1 September 1913 Toronto,Ontario, Canada
Died	24 May 2004(2004-05-24)(aged 90) London, England
Occupation(s)	Author, critic
Spouse	Drusilla Beyfus ​ (m.1956)​
Children	Jason Shulman Alexandra Shulman Nicola Shulman

Early life

Shulman was born inToronto,Ontario, the son of a successful shopkeeper. His parents were born inUkraineand were driven out of theRussian Empireby poverty and anti-Jewish pogroms. Shulman's father was only 26 when he died of the flu epidemic but had already acquired three millinery shops as well as a men's haberdashery.

Shulman was educated at Harbord Collegiate, then spent four years at theUniversity of Toronto.Although he wished to pursue a writing career, he was articled to a law firm, attending lectures atOsgoode Hall Law Schoolfor a further three years before being called to theOntario barjust beforeWorld War IIbroke out in 1939.

War service

After the period called the "phoney war",Shulman signed up for the Canadian army, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in theCanadian Armoured Corpsand posted to England in June 1943. Stationed in London as a captain he was assigned to the secret operational intelligence unit MI 14b, dealing with the order of battle of theWehrmacht's formations.

He joined Canadian Army HQ three months beforeD-Dayas a major and by the war's end he was an intelligence officer with theFirst Canadian Army.While still in uniform, he interviewed many of the captured German generals in the following months and years includingGerd von RundstedtandKurt Meyer.As a result of these interviews, he wrote the Second World War military historyDefeat in the West,published in London by Secker & Warburg in April 1947, and by Dutton in New York in January 1948. A paperback edition remains in print.

London career

Shulman joined the staff of the LondonEvening Standardin 1948 and, for over forty years, wrote about theatre, film, television and politics with sharp humour and irreverence.He was theatre critic for theStandardfrom 1953 until November 1991, and remained a weekly columnist until February 1996. He had initially become theStandard's film critic in 1948 and later became film critic forVogue.For 18 years he was a regular participant inBBC Radio 4's talk showStop The Week.

During this time he also wrote two novels,The Victors(Dell 1963) andKill Three(Collins 1967); thePreepseries of children’s books; and two serious books on the impact of television,The Ravenous Eye(Cassel 1973) andThe Least Worst Television in the World(Barrie and Jenkins 1973), as well as a 90-minute play forBBC 2also calledKill Threefrom which the novel was adapted. (The Victorswas unique in being a novelization of theCarl Foremanscreenplay about American soldiers in WWII, which was itself based uponAlexander Baron's book of short stories about British WWII soldiers,The Human Kind.Baron declined to write the novelization himself, wanting it to have an authentic-sounding American voice and avoid retreading his own work; but nonetheless also wanted to select the novelist and maintain control over the project. As the book's copyright registration, assigned to Baron, particularizes, Baron engaged Shulman to write the novelization as awork for hire.)

Shulman and his fellow criticHerbert Kretzmerco-wrote the story for the film comedyEvery Home Should Have One(1970); the screenplay derived from it was written by the film's star,Marty Feldman,along withBarry TookandDenis Norden;after which the material circled back to Shulman and Kretzmer whonovelizedthe script—and as a movie tie-in edition, it was published in paperback byHodder & Stoughtonto coincide with the film's release.

Shulman received theIPAAward as Critic of the Year 1966. In 1956, he wrote a scathing review of a musicalWild Grows the Heatherbased on aJ. M. Barrieplay,The Little Minister.Directed byRalph Reader,who also wrote the lyrics, it received an ovation on its first night but Shulman and other critics knew that this was because Reader had given out first night tickets to the boys taking part in one of his Boy Scout productions and told them to go along and give the piece a good reception. Among other things, Shulman said that the plot "moved at the pace of cold porridge going uphill."

In 1980, he was instrumental in setting up the London Theatre Associate awards for new and revived works undertaken by fringe, community based and touring companies.

In 1994, three years after Milton Shulman had retired from theatre reviewing,The ObservercriticMichael CoveneypublishedThe Aisle is Full of Noises,a spirited "vivisection of the live theatre" which he arranged in the form of a diary, including some witty if not entirely flattering references to Shulman, while bracketing him with "the kosher butchers —Herbert Kretzmer,Bernard LevinandDavid Nathan".

Shulman took great offence, as reported inThe Timesnewspaper diary of 21 September 1994: "Solicitors are trying to hammer out a deal to prevent court action againstNick Hern,the small publisher of the offending work. "I thought the comments were in the spirit of the book,' pleads Coveney. 'I rather regret that Milton, of whom I am actually rather fond, didn't take them in that spirit.' Shulman is tight-lipped, 'There are negotiations going on at the moment. I have not issued a writ for libel.'" The outcome was that the book was withdrawn from circulation but, according to Coveney speaking in October 2007, by then most of the copies had been sold.

Family

Shulman married his first wife Joyce in Toronto in 1943, two months before he embarked on a troopship for England, and never saw her again. They were divorced in 1948.

He first met journalistDrusilla Beyfusin 1951: "I had for months been meeting Drusilla in cocktail bars and restaurants. She was the most decorative aspect of theDaily Express,where her elegant figure, piquant face and ever-smiling personality were in constant demand by feature writers and columnists. "After a long courtship, interrupted by her sojourn in America as an author and freelance writer, they married atCaxton Hallon 6 June 1956. There are three children of the marriage:Alexandra Shulman(born 1957),Nicola Shulman(born 1960) andJason Shulman(born 1963). The family moved toBelgraviafor some years after the birth of the children.He described his family as less a journalistic dynasty than "an epidemic".

He died in London, aged 90. His son Jason used some of his ashes in an artwork of stratified, magnetized, color-coded layers; this was shown in 2006 at the Madder Rose gallery near London'sOld Street.

References

• Marilyn, Hitler and Me:The Memoirs of Milton Shulman, André Deutsch, London (1998)ISBN0-233-88408-4
• Herbert, Ian (1981).Who's who in the Theatre A Biographical Record of the Contemporary Stage.Gale / Cengage Learning.ISBN978-0-8103-0235-8.

Publications

• Defeat in the West,(Secker & Warburg, 1947; revised edition 1986)online
• How to be a Celebrity,with caricatures byVicky,(Reinhardt & Evans, 1950)
• Carl Foreman's The Victors(Panther, 1963)
• Preep: The Little Pigeon of Trafalgar Square,with illustrations by Dale Maxey, (Random House, 1964; Collins, 1965)
• Preep in Paris,illustrations by Dale Maxey, (Collins, 1967)
• Kill 3(Collins, 1967)
• Preep and the Queen,illustrations by Dale Maxey, (Collins, 1970)
• The Least Worst Television in the World(Barrie & Jenkins, 1973)
• Ravenous Eye: The Impact of the Fifth Factor(Cassell, 1973)
• Marilyn, Hitler and Me: The Memoirs of Milton Shulman(André Deutsch, 1998)

External links

• Guardian obituary
• Milton ShulmanatIMDb