Alan Brandt was born in Brooklyn in 1923 and attended the University of Michigan before serving in Europe as a German language translator for the Army Signal Intelligence Unit, during World War II. He began the varied career that preceded playwriting as a publicist, representing notables ranging from Howdy Doody to Harry Belafonte. In addition, he became the lyricist for songs, including the standard “That’s All.” His work has been recorded by top singers, among them Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mel Torme, and Peggy Lee. For many years, he was a dealer in tribal art and a major source of African and Oceanic sculptures contained in the museum collections at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Detroit and Minneapolis Institutes of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, among others. He was also a member of Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild. 2 1/2 JEWS, which he wrote in his 70s, was his first play. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 78.