Spoiler : Born in Chicago, Illinois 4/21/1914; died 1/13/2003 from complications of Parkinson's disease at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Panama was studing law and political science at the University of Chicago when he and fellow classmate Melvin Frank Panama formed a writing team. Beginning in 1938, the team wrote for radio programs including their first, The Bob Hope Show on CBS and NBC; The Phil Baker Show on CBS and NBC; The Jimmy Durante/Garry Moore Show on NBC and CBS; Command Performance, a syndicated transcribed program produced by the Special Services Division of the War Department (Armed Forces Radio Service beginning in 1943) (1942-1949).

Spoiler : Panama and Melvin Frank were screenwriters for movies including My Favorite Blonde (1942); The Road To Utopia (1945); Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948); White Christmas (1954); The Facts Of Life (1960). Panama and Frank broke up in 1966, Panama formed a new writing team with Albert E. Lewin in 1976, and they wrote 1976's "I Will, I Will....For Now," and many television projects.