GUY BOLTON (1884-1979)
Born in England of American parents, he started by writing straight plays. His first musical play was 90 in the Shade for Jerome Kern with whom he went on to write five more works. In addition to Anything Goes, he collaborated with P.G. Wodehouse on four more musicals. Other collaborators included George Gershwin, George Abbot and Sammy Fain. He did several screen scripts and, with Wodehouse, co-authored the book Bring on the Girls.

P.G. WODEHOUSE (1881-1975)
Born Pelham Grenville Wodehouse whose upper-class English background is reflected in many of his over 96 works. Today he is best known for his Jeeves and Blanding Castle stories, but he also wrote or collaborated on 15 plays and 30 musicals. Among his hit songs is "Bill" from Jerome Kern's Showboat.

His father was a Judge, and he was educated in private schools where he excelled as a student and a sportsman. Many of his experiences are reflected in his books. When family finances did not allow him to attend university, he was trained to be a banker. However, he was not really interested and spent most of his free time writing and publishing comic materials for magazines such as Punch. In 1915 his big break came with a work for The Saturday Evening Post. Soon he began collaborating on musical comedies and divided his time between America and England. He was living in France when World War II broke out and was interned by the Germans for a year. After the war he moved to New York and became an American citizen in 1955, never to return to England. Nevertheless, just before his death he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

HOWARD LINDSAY (1889-1968)
Born Herman S. Nelke, he later adopted the pseudonym by which he is best known. A true man of the theatre, Howard Lindsay was not only a librettist but also a playwright, actor, director and producer. He was originally chosen to direct Anything Goes brought in to rewrite it when the original version had to be scrapped. He was a frequent collaborator with Russel Crouse on works such as The Sound of Music. As an actor he portrayed 'Father' in Broadway's Life with Father which ran for 3,224 performances. He was the recipient of Pulitzer and Tony Awards.

RUSSEL CROUSE (1893-1966)
Ohio born Russel Crouse started his theatrical career as an actor but soon turned to writing. His longtime partnership with Howard Lindsay began in 1934 with their rewriting of the libretto for Anything Goes. Their best known work is The Sound of Music. A testament to their working relationship was such that he named his daughter Lindsay Ann. They often worked as producers of their own works. With Irving Berlin he helped to create Call Me Madam which starred Ethel Merman.

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Revised August 2009
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