(1885-1933)
Born in Niles, Michigan, Ringgold Wilmer Lardner became one of America's greatest humorists with his numerous short stories. He occasionally worked as a songwriter and playwright, and he wrote songs for producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. for the Ziegfeld Follies editions of 1917 and 1922 and the Ziegfeld-produced musical Smiles (1930). Robert E. Sherwood adapted Lardner's story The Love Nest into a play in 1927. Lardner had a mild success with the comedy Elmer the Great (1928) in a George M. Cohan production. His biggest hit came in collaboration with George S. Kaufman on June Moon (1929), a comedy satirizing Tin Pan Alley. His son, Ring Lardner Jr., became a motion picture writer and was famously blacklisted for a time during the McCarthy Communist "witch hunt" era in the 1950s.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.