Biography

Ted Shane was born on September 20, 1900 in New York City to Samuel and Clara Berg Schoen. His father was a tailor whose family had come to America from Hungary in the mid 1880s. Shane's mother was born in New York, the daughter of German immigrants.

When Shane was only sixteen, he traveled to Montréal and enlisted in The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and was soon sent overseas to fight with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. After the war he attended Columbia University and embarked on his literary career soon after his graduation in 1923. Within a very short period of time Shane became a popular magazine writer known for his humorous articles and stories. His Cockeyed Crosswords Puzzles, which appeared in a number of national publications, remained popular with readers for over three decades.

In the late 1920s a lucrative contract brought Shane to Hollywood as a script writer. It was later reported that for some reason the MGM executive who hired him, thought he was hiring Robert Benchley. When Shane and the movie executive realized that he was not the man they wanted, Shane smiled, bowed his head and said "I'm at your service".

During the 1930s Shane started writing movie revues primarily for Liberty Magazine.

In 1930 he married the writer Margaret Woodward Smith Boyd (1895-1965) and moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut. In 1951 their daughter Gretchen married E.W. Swackhamer at their residence in Ridgefield.

After the war Shane wrote a profiles for a number of publications, mostly on athletes, like: Dizzy Dean ("His Dizziness"), Leroy 'Satchel' Paige ("Satchel Man") and the Harlem Globetrotters ("Barnums of Basketball"). Shane also served as editor of 1000 Jokes magazine and published several crossword puzzle books. He also authored "Softball, So What?"(1940,) with Lowell Thomas, "Heroes of the Pacific" (1944) and, though a teetotaler himself, the humorous and very popular "Bar Guide" (1950), illustrated by Virgil Partch.

Ted Shane passed away on 16 June, 1967 at Ridgefield. He was survived by his daughter and 2 grandchildren. His wife preceded him in death on September 3, 1965.
- IMDb mini biography by: John F. Barlow

Ex-father-in-law of E.W. Swackhamer.

Grandfather of Elizabeth Swackhamer.