Joel Grover Sayre, Jr[1] (December 13, 1900 – September 9, 1979) was an American novelist, war reporter, and screenwriter born in Marion, Indiana.
Sayre failed to join the American army aged sixteen, but with a falsified birth certificate succeeded in joining the Canadian army, being subsequently sent to Siberia with its Expeditionary Force.
On his return, he read literature at Exeter College, Oxford, graduating BA in 1922,[3] and briefly studied medicine at Heidelberg University in Germany.
[4][5] Sayre was the chief screenwriter for the 1939 film Gunga Din.
His novels included Hizzoner the Mayor and Rackety Rax, which the New York Times called "incredibly funny".