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Morey Amsterdam was born on December 14, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The youngest of the three sons of Max and Jennie (Finder) Amsterdam, Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary. His father was a concert violinist and wanted him to become a musician, but the wisecracking Morey only used his cello as a prop in his comedy acts.
Morey Amsterdam started working in vaudeville at the age of 14, as a straight man for his piano-playing brother. By 1924, he was working in a speakeasy operated by Al Capone. After being caught in the middle of a shootout in the club one night, Morey moved to California, where he became a writer. During the 1930s, Amsterdam was a regular on The Al Pearce Show radio program, and by 1937 was the master of ceremonies on The Night Club of the Air. Amsterdam also had a notable career as a songwriter. In the early 1940s, he was a screenwriter, contributing dialogue for two East Side Kids films. He is listed as screenwriter for the 1943 film The Ghost and the Guest and 1944's Bowery Champs. By 1947, he was performing on three daily radio shows. Amsterdam made the move to television in 1948 on the variety show "Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One" and hosted his own show in 1950. He also did a radio show called the Laugh and Swing Club, broadcasting from the Filmart Theater on Vine Street in Hollywood, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.The Morey Amsterdam Show ran on CBS TV from December 1948 to March 1949 and on DuMont from April 1949 to October 1950. In 1950, he briefly hosted the comedy-variety show Broadway Open House, TV's first late-night entertainment show, on NBC. In February 1952, Amsterdam made his dramatic TV debut on an episode of the DuMont Television Network series Not for Publication. From 1957 to 1959, Amsterdam starred on the program "Keep Talking" before landing his big role on the hit The Dick Van Dyke Show. He appeared on Hollywood Squares in the 1970s and did stand-up in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He wrote the screenplay Ghost and the Guest (1943), and coauthored Kid Dynamite (1943) and Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title (1966). Amsterdam also wrote material for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. He was the author several books, including Keep Laughing and Betty Cooker Crock Book for Drunks.
Morey married Mabel Todd in 1933, but they divorced in 1945. His second spouse was Kay Patrick since 1949. Kay and Morey had 2 children: a son Gregory and a daughter Cathy.
