Miklós László
MIKLOS LASZLO (Author – Original Play) was well known as a playwright in his native Hungary before coming to America in 1938. He won the Royal Hungarian Dramatic Academy’s Grand Prize in 1934 for his internationally produced play, The Happiest Man. His single greatest American success was the play Illatszertar, translated into English as Parfumerie. The screenplay by Samson Raphaelson became the Ernst Lubitsch film “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940) with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan and later “In the Good Old Summertime” (1949) with Van Johnson and Judy Garland. Most recently it has emerged again as the Nora Ephron film “You’ve Got Mail” (1998) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It has also been adapted to the musical theatre as the ever popular She Loves Me (Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick) performed perennially in many venues since its original opening on Broadway in 1963. Another translation/adaptation of Parfumerie is available in the U.S., written by Miklos Laszlo’s nephew E.P. Dowdall which premiered at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida and was used for the Grand Opening of the Wallace Annenberg Center for the Arts in Beverly Hills, California. Only one other of Miklos Laszlo’s plays was ever widely produced in the Americas. Entitled “St. Lazar's Pharmacy”, the play starred famed actress Miriam Hopkins and toured all over Canada and the United States.