Bill Schenley
2007-09-10 05:43:17 UTC
Dalton Trumbo, Film Writer, Dies; Oscar Winner
Had Been Blacklisted
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FROM: The New York Times (September 11th 1976) ~
By Jon Nordheimer, Special to The Times
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10
Dalton Trumbo, the Hollywood screen
writer who was perhaps the most famous
member of the blacklisted film industry
authors called "the Hollywood Ten,"
died of a heart attack early today at his
home here. He was 70 years old.
Mr. Trumbo, who was awarded an Oscar
for a screenplay written under a
pseudonym during his years of forced
exile from work in films, underwent
surgery for lung cancer in 1973.
Although he served one year in Federal
prison for his refusal to provide the House
Un-American Activities Committee with
any information about his political leanings
in 1947, he was able in later years to recall
with sardonic humor his Communist
association.
A Ginger Rogers Film
"I joined the Communist Party in 1943 and
left it in 1948 on the ground that in the future
I should be far too busy to attend its
meetings, which were, in any event, dull
beyond description, about as revolutionary
in purpose as Wednesday-evening testimonial
services in the Christian Science Church," he
said in 1970.
"I never considered the working class
anything other than something to get out of,"
he remarked at another time.
One of Mr. Trumbo's movies that drew
suspicious examination by the House
committee was "Tender Comrade," which
starred Ginger Rogers, who had won an
Oscar for her performance as a strong-willed
secretary in his earlier success, "Kitty Foyle."
When "Tender Comrade" was released in
1943, it was regarded as a sentimentally
innocuous story of a worker in a war plant
courageously struggling while her husband
was off fighting. By 1947, with the Cold War
at its height, nuances were seen in single
words such as "comrade" and in bits of
dialogue.
That year, the tearful mother of Ginger
Rogers told the committee that her daughter
had been forced to utter the "Communist
line" in the film: "Share and share alike -
that's democracy."
A Highly Paid Writer
The only member of the Hollywood Ten
to come from a working-class background,
Mr. Trumbo, until his blacklisting, had been
one of the highest-paid screen writers in the
film capital, earning as much as $4,000 a
week while assigned to a script.
His credits in the preblacklisting era include
"Kitty Foyle," "A Guy Named Joe" and
"Thirty Seconds over Tokyo." He was
also the author of the 1939 was novel
"Johnny Got His Gun," which won the
National Book Award that year and which
Mr. Trumbo later worked into a screenplay
for the 1971 film of the same name. The
film was awarded the International Critics
Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
His screenplay credits after the 13-year
blacklist was broken by a Hollywood
largely shamed by the hysteria associated
with the search for Communists during the
late 1940's and early 1950's include:
"Spartacus," "Exodus," "Lonely Are the
Brave," "The Sandpiper," "Hawaii,"
"Papillon" and "The Fixer."
The Hollywood blacklist was reported to
have been conceived in 1947 - the year
Mr. Trumbo was cited for contempt of
Congress - at a conference of studio
executives at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in
New York City. The list, never fully
disclosed, reportedly contained the names
of some 300 writers, directors, actors and
others in the industry who were known or
suspected to have had Communist
affiliations or who had invoked the Fifth
Amendment against self-incrimination when
questioned by the House Committee.
The blacklist period after his year in prison
was a time of hardship for Mr. Trumbo.
Unable to find work at home, he sold his
ranch and moved his family to Mexico,
grinding out scripts under a pseudonym for
low-budget films. He completed 18
screenplays in a two-year period at an
average fee of $1,750 for each full-length
feature. "None was very good," he later
acknowledged.
But, unlike some other members of the
Hollywood Ten, Mr. Trumbo kept active,
and maintained his equilibrium during those
trying years, even finding some humor in the
time he spent in the Federal prison in
Ashland, Ky., for refusing to cooperate
with the investigators of the Un-American
Activities Committee.
"It was a place of quality," Mr. Trumbo
later said of the correctional facility at
Ashland, "as evidenced by the fact that the
head librarian was a Congressman there for
a felony called taking a bribe, whereas I was
there for a misdemeanor called contempt of
Congress. Try as I might I could not
repent of the crime of contempt of an idiotic
Congress."
He was assigned to work as a clerk in a
storeroom at the prison, and discovered
that he had a typewriter at his disposal for
the entire year. He completed a screenplay,
which he later sold on the black market.
In later years, he also delighted in
recounting the fact that one of his
Congressional inquisitors, J. Parnell Thomas,
who was convicted of defrauding the
Government, had served a sentence at a
prison with two other members of the
Hollywood Ten.
Mr. Trumbo briefly rejoined the Communist
Party during the blacklist in 1954 as a
gesture of support for 14 Communist
officials in California convicted under the
Smith Act, but severed his ties again after
these convictions were reversed and the
defendants freed.
Oscar Under a Pseudonym
In 1957, the Academy Award for best
screenplay went to Robert Rich, the name
listed on the credits of the film "The Brave
One," but it was discovered, much to the
embarrassment of some in the industry who
still feared political reprisals, that Mr. Rich
was, in fact, Mr. Trumbo, working under
one of many names he used to sell his work.
The Oscar was finally presented to
Mr. Trumbo last year.
Kirk Douglas, the star of "Spartacus,"
reportedly wanted to publicize
Mr. Trumbo's participation in that film in
1960, but it was Otto Preminger, the
director, who broke the blacklist months
later by publicly announcing that he had
hired Mr. Trumbo to do the screenplay for
"Exodus," a move that went relatively
unopposed in the film community after years
of pressures and handwringing.
Mr. Trumbo is survived by his wife, Cleo;
a son, and two daughters. His will provides
that his body will be donated to the Medical
Center of the University of California at Los
Angeles. Arrangements for a memorial
service are incomplete.
---
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Had Been Blacklisted
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FROM: The New York Times (September 11th 1976) ~
By Jon Nordheimer, Special to The Times
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10
Dalton Trumbo, the Hollywood screen
writer who was perhaps the most famous
member of the blacklisted film industry
authors called "the Hollywood Ten,"
died of a heart attack early today at his
home here. He was 70 years old.
Mr. Trumbo, who was awarded an Oscar
for a screenplay written under a
pseudonym during his years of forced
exile from work in films, underwent
surgery for lung cancer in 1973.
Although he served one year in Federal
prison for his refusal to provide the House
Un-American Activities Committee with
any information about his political leanings
in 1947, he was able in later years to recall
with sardonic humor his Communist
association.
A Ginger Rogers Film
"I joined the Communist Party in 1943 and
left it in 1948 on the ground that in the future
I should be far too busy to attend its
meetings, which were, in any event, dull
beyond description, about as revolutionary
in purpose as Wednesday-evening testimonial
services in the Christian Science Church," he
said in 1970.
"I never considered the working class
anything other than something to get out of,"
he remarked at another time.
One of Mr. Trumbo's movies that drew
suspicious examination by the House
committee was "Tender Comrade," which
starred Ginger Rogers, who had won an
Oscar for her performance as a strong-willed
secretary in his earlier success, "Kitty Foyle."
When "Tender Comrade" was released in
1943, it was regarded as a sentimentally
innocuous story of a worker in a war plant
courageously struggling while her husband
was off fighting. By 1947, with the Cold War
at its height, nuances were seen in single
words such as "comrade" and in bits of
dialogue.
That year, the tearful mother of Ginger
Rogers told the committee that her daughter
had been forced to utter the "Communist
line" in the film: "Share and share alike -
that's democracy."
A Highly Paid Writer
The only member of the Hollywood Ten
to come from a working-class background,
Mr. Trumbo, until his blacklisting, had been
one of the highest-paid screen writers in the
film capital, earning as much as $4,000 a
week while assigned to a script.
His credits in the preblacklisting era include
"Kitty Foyle," "A Guy Named Joe" and
"Thirty Seconds over Tokyo." He was
also the author of the 1939 was novel
"Johnny Got His Gun," which won the
National Book Award that year and which
Mr. Trumbo later worked into a screenplay
for the 1971 film of the same name. The
film was awarded the International Critics
Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
His screenplay credits after the 13-year
blacklist was broken by a Hollywood
largely shamed by the hysteria associated
with the search for Communists during the
late 1940's and early 1950's include:
"Spartacus," "Exodus," "Lonely Are the
Brave," "The Sandpiper," "Hawaii,"
"Papillon" and "The Fixer."
The Hollywood blacklist was reported to
have been conceived in 1947 - the year
Mr. Trumbo was cited for contempt of
Congress - at a conference of studio
executives at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in
New York City. The list, never fully
disclosed, reportedly contained the names
of some 300 writers, directors, actors and
others in the industry who were known or
suspected to have had Communist
affiliations or who had invoked the Fifth
Amendment against self-incrimination when
questioned by the House Committee.
The blacklist period after his year in prison
was a time of hardship for Mr. Trumbo.
Unable to find work at home, he sold his
ranch and moved his family to Mexico,
grinding out scripts under a pseudonym for
low-budget films. He completed 18
screenplays in a two-year period at an
average fee of $1,750 for each full-length
feature. "None was very good," he later
acknowledged.
But, unlike some other members of the
Hollywood Ten, Mr. Trumbo kept active,
and maintained his equilibrium during those
trying years, even finding some humor in the
time he spent in the Federal prison in
Ashland, Ky., for refusing to cooperate
with the investigators of the Un-American
Activities Committee.
"It was a place of quality," Mr. Trumbo
later said of the correctional facility at
Ashland, "as evidenced by the fact that the
head librarian was a Congressman there for
a felony called taking a bribe, whereas I was
there for a misdemeanor called contempt of
Congress. Try as I might I could not
repent of the crime of contempt of an idiotic
Congress."
He was assigned to work as a clerk in a
storeroom at the prison, and discovered
that he had a typewriter at his disposal for
the entire year. He completed a screenplay,
which he later sold on the black market.
In later years, he also delighted in
recounting the fact that one of his
Congressional inquisitors, J. Parnell Thomas,
who was convicted of defrauding the
Government, had served a sentence at a
prison with two other members of the
Hollywood Ten.
Mr. Trumbo briefly rejoined the Communist
Party during the blacklist in 1954 as a
gesture of support for 14 Communist
officials in California convicted under the
Smith Act, but severed his ties again after
these convictions were reversed and the
defendants freed.
Oscar Under a Pseudonym
In 1957, the Academy Award for best
screenplay went to Robert Rich, the name
listed on the credits of the film "The Brave
One," but it was discovered, much to the
embarrassment of some in the industry who
still feared political reprisals, that Mr. Rich
was, in fact, Mr. Trumbo, working under
one of many names he used to sell his work.
The Oscar was finally presented to
Mr. Trumbo last year.
Kirk Douglas, the star of "Spartacus,"
reportedly wanted to publicize
Mr. Trumbo's participation in that film in
1960, but it was Otto Preminger, the
director, who broke the blacklist months
later by publicly announcing that he had
hired Mr. Trumbo to do the screenplay for
"Exodus," a move that went relatively
unopposed in the film community after years
of pressures and handwringing.
Mr. Trumbo is survived by his wife, Cleo;
a son, and two daughters. His will provides
that his body will be donated to the Medical
Center of the University of California at Los
Angeles. Arrangements for a memorial
service are incomplete.
---
Photos: Loading Image...
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Poster:
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