Saidy initially worked as a journalist before transitioning into a career as a playwright; initially breaking into the news business as a writer of poetry for
Franklin P. Adams's column. and
Oakland Tribune. By 1937 he was working as a scriptwriter on staff at
Republic Pictures. In 1942 Saidy co-authored the sketches to the musical revue
Rally ’ Round the Flag with
Arthur A. Ross; a work staged at the Assistance League Theatre in Los Angeles which was directed by
Carlos Romero and included songs by Paul Francis Webster,
Walter Jurmann,
Billy Rose, and
Earl Carroll among others. He penned sketches used in the film
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), He followed this by writing the script for the
Lucille Ball-
Dick Powell feature film
Meet the People (1944). the latter having a major success on Broadway where it ran for 653 performances It was the first of several collaborations with Harburg, which included ''
Finian's Rainbow (1947), Flahooley (1951), Jamaica (1957), and The Happiest Girl in the World (1961). Flahooley
and The Happiest Girl in the World'' were both failures, and a London production in 2014. During his lifetime it had three major Broadway revivals (1955, 1960, and 1967), and was also made into a film starring
Fred Astaire and
Petula Clark, directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, in 1968. This film was Saidy's last project, and he was nominated for the
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical. He had earlier collaborated with
Neil Simon and
Will Glickman, among others, on
Satins and Spurs, an original
television musical for
Betty Hutton, which was broadcast by
NBC in September 1954. Saidy died after a long illness on May 14, 1982. He was the father of the international chess master
Anthony Saidy. ==References==