He was born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1922. He studied at Wesleyan University, before starting work in New York City in the 1950s.He began his career writing teleplays for early anthology series General Electric Theater and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He graduated to feature films as the screenwriter of B-movies capitalizing on the rock and roll craze, including Let's Rock, Senior Prom (both with music by Don Gohman), and Hey, Let's Twist, which earned him a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Written Musical.