Joseph Krumgold was bom on April 9, 1908, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Henry and Lena Gross Krumgold.

Fascinated with his father's career as a film exhibitor, Joseph decided that he, too, wanted to work with movies. After receiving his bachelor's degree from New York University in 1928, he worked in the New York office of Metro-GoldwynMayer and later moved to Hollywood to begin a career as a screenwriter and producer with Paramount, Republic, RKO, and Columbia. His screenplays include Lady from Nowhere (1936), The Blackmailer (1936), Adventure in Manhattan (1936), Lone Wolf Returns (1936), Join the Marines (1937), Jim Hanvey— Detective (1937), Lady Behave (1938), Speed to Burn (1938), Main Street Lawyer (1939), The Phantom Submarine (1940), The Crooked Road (1940), Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942), Magic Town (1947), and Dream No More (produced in Israel in 1950).

From 1940 to 1946, Krumgold produced and directed films for Film Associates in New York City and worked for the Office of...