Herbert Kretzmer, Fleet Street journalist and lyricist (“Les Miserables”), was born on October 5, 1925 in South Africa, where he began his professional career writing documentary films and the commentary for a weekly cinema newsreel. However, he soon moved on to print journalism, initially as a reporter and feature writer for the Johannesburg Sunday Express. He has lived in London since the mid-Fifties, pursuing twin careers as newspaperman and l...
more
Herbert Kretzmer, Fleet Street journalist and lyricist (“Les Miserables”), was born on October 5, 1925 in South Africa, where he began his professional career writing documentary films and the commentary for a weekly cinema newsreel. However, he soon moved on to print journalism, initially as a reporter and feature writer for the Johannesburg Sunday Express. He has lived in London since the mid-Fifties, pursuing twin careers as newspaperman and lyric writer.
After several years as a feature writer on the London Daily Sketch, Kretzmer became a profile writer on the Sunday Dispatch and the Daily Express, interviewing such notables as John Steinbeck, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Sugar Ray Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Henry Miller, Cary Grant and Duke Ellington. In 1962 he became senior drama critic of the Daily Express post he held for 18 years, covering about 3,000 first nights.
From 1979 to 1987 he wrote television criticism for the Daily Mail, winning in this capacity two national...
less
