Alfred A. Cohn

Alfred A. Cohn (March 26, 1880 – February 3, 1951) was an American author, journalist and newspaper editor, Police Commissioner, and screenwriter of the 1920s and 1930s.

Cohn was born in Freeport, Illinois, but subsequently moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he began work as a newspaper editor and journalist.

In the 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and began working as a writer, first doing title cards for silent films and, later, scripts and adaptations.

His work on adapting The Jazz Singer, one of the first motion pictures with sound, from a play and short story by Samson Raphaelson, led to his first and only nomination for an Academy Award.

In the 1930s, he retired from screenwriting and was appointed the Police Commissioner of Los Angeles, and he continued writing as a short story writer.