Bella (Cohen) Spewack was born on March 25, 1899, in Transylvania, at the time a province of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of Romania. In 1922, she married Sam Spewack, a foreign correspondent for the New York World. After a four-year stint in Europe, the two began writing some of the most memorable lyrics in musical theater history. Two librettos, Leave It to Me (1938) and Kiss Me Kate (1948), were Cole Porter collaborations, the first play an adaptation of a 1932 Spewack drama, Clear All Wires, and the second, a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew. In addition, the Spewacks wrote screenplays for several Hollywood hits of the 1940s: My Favorite Wife (1940), with Cary Grant, and Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), with Ginger Rogers and Lana Turner. In 1948, Kiss Me Kate, the movie, had its premiere in New York. Their first play, The Solitaire Man (1927), was seen only in Boston, but Boy Meets Girl (1936) ran for 669 performances in New York.
