 Some of his other screenplays were "Shadow of the Thin Man" (1941), "Ziegfeld Follies" (1945) and "Bye Bye Birdie" (1963).Born in the Bronx, New York, Brecher's first professional involvement with movies came when he became an usher at a Manhattan, New York movie theater at age 19.Even as a teenager he was writing jokes, sending them to newspaper columnists Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan on postcards.