Author and Dramatist. Throughout his 20's and 30's Blumenfeld wrote plays, and published four novels, of which the best known was "Jew Boy", about the East End; it originally came out in the US as The Iron Garden in 1932, was published in Britain in 1935 and was republished over 50 years later. Simon's famed 1937 novel, "Phineas Kahn", was republished in 1988, with an introduction by Steven Berkoff. Little is known about his plays, except The Battle Of Cable Street, which surfaced at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987. In the 1930s, he became a correspondent for a French news agency; he also wrote western novels under the name Huck Messer, from the Yiddish term for a carving knife. Following his service in the British army he went into publishing, with the newspaper Weekly Sporting Review, combining entertainment and sport, particularly boxing, another enthusiasm. The paper came to a sudden end when it was taken to court for libel by the managers of Tommy Steele. By this time, Blumenfeld had made strong freelance connections, including ghostwriting a Sunday newspaper column for nightclub proprietor Harry Meadows, whose Churchill's Club was at the time a fashionable venue.In the early 1960s, Simon became the light entertainment editor of the Stage. As variety gradually disappeared, Vauncez, as he was by then known, realised that its successor was the thriving club scene, based in the north but gradually moving south. Such was his advocacy of this new entertainment that he gave up writing about theatre and became its acknowledged authority. A confirmed Marxist and Guinness Book of Records holder as the world's oldest columnist, Blumenfeld died in 2005 and was cremated at Golders Green. His plaque can be found alongside those of many famous British Communists.
Author and Dramatist. Throughout his 20's and 30's Blumenfeld wrote plays, and published four novels, of which the best known was "Jew Boy", about the East End; it originally came out in the US as The Iron Garden in 1932, was published in Britain in 1935 and was republished over 50 years later. Simon's famed 1937 novel, "Phineas Kahn", was republished in 1988, with an introduction by Steven Berkoff. Little is known about his plays, except The Battle Of Cable Street, which surfaced at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987. In the 1930s, he became a correspondent for a French news agency; he also wrote western novels under the name Huck Messer, from the Yiddish term for a carving knife. Following his service in the British army he went into publishing, with the newspaper Weekly Sporting Review, combining entertainment and sport, particularly boxing, another enthusiasm. The paper came to a sudden end when it was taken to court for libel by the managers of Tommy Steele. By this time, Blumenfeld had made strong freelance connections, including ghostwriting a Sunday newspaper column for nightclub proprietor Harry Meadows, whose Churchill's Club was at the time a fashionable venue.In the early 1960s, Simon became the light entertainment editor of the Stage. As variety gradually disappeared, Vauncez, as he was by then known, realised that its successor was the thriving club scene, based in the north but gradually moving south. Such was his advocacy of this new entertainment that he gave up writing about theatre and became its acknowledged authority. A confirmed Marxist and Guinness Book of Records holder as the world's oldest columnist, Blumenfeld died in 2005 and was cremated at Golders Green. His plaque can be found alongside those of many famous British Communists.
Bio by: Kieran Smith
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