As a teen in New York, Brecher was an usher at a movie theater, and started making some extra cash on the side by writing jokes for vaudeville comedians. His first customer was a “brash young comedian” — Milton Berle. Berle got a radio show in 1936, and Brecher was hired as his only writer.
When Berle went west to make movies, Brecher followed, and wrote the final script for Berle’s first film, along with other scripts: At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940) for the Marx Brothers, as well as and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), and Bye Bye Birdie (1963). He even helped fix up the script for a little movie called The Wizard of Oz (1939, uncredited).
But Brecher is probably best known for a radio show he created: The Life of Riley (1949-1950, and later a TV series), and wrote and directed the 1949 film of the same name. Brecher died November 17 at 94.