Read Online The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild by Miranda J. Banks - Free Book Online
Authors: Miranda J. Banks
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fallen into a slump. Box office sales were down by a third, foreign markets were weak, and the practice of block booking (selling films to theaters only in groups) was starting to be banned. 22 Many of the studios already had war films in production, and now they were set to be released. Even better for Hollywood, film attendance rose at local movie houses around the nation as gas rationing made leisure travel difficult. Everyone still at home was going to the movies.
Classical Hollywood filmmaking was at its finest in 1941: the studios premiered
How Green Was My Valley, The Lady Eve, The Maltese Falcon, Dumbo
,
Sullivan’s Travels
, and
Citizen Kane
. Many people went to the theaters not just to escape but also to get in touch; civilians were eager to see footage from the front lines, which was accessible to them only through newsreels. The American film industry was still producing movies at an impressive rate, especially in relation to countries where the war had crippled or entirely suspended production of features. Oddly, as screenwriter Marc Norman points out in his history of screenwriting, World War II brought a cease-fire to some of Hollywood’s infighting. 23 From the moguls to the above-the-line creatives and the below-the-line craftspeople, virtually everyone in Hollywood was ready and willing to participate in the war effort.
SWG members were active both as soldiers overseas—almost 300 deployed to active service during the war years—and as participants in the Hollywood Writers Mobilization (HWM). 24 The HWM, like its East Coast counterpart, the Writers War Board, served the American government by writing informational materials, public service documentation, advertising, and agitprop for the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Office of Civilian Defense. 25 Many celebrated writers, including Samson Raphaelson, Pearl S. Buck (author of
The Good Earth
), Howard Estabrook, Arch Oboler (writer of
Escape
), Budd Schulberg (writer of
On the Waterfront
and
A Face in the Crowd
), and Talbot Jennings (writer of
Mutiny on the Bounty
), participated in the Free World Radio, a series of nineteen half-hour radio plays written in conjunction with the OWI. Over the course of the war years, 3,500 writers—novelists, radio writers, cartoonists, publicists, journalists, and screenwriters—joined the HWM. 26 In 1943, the SWG calculated that it had packaged 9,507 programs—each of which included one feature, one or two short subjects, and a newsreel—to be screened on the front lines. The shorts alone tallied 13,027. 27 By October 1944, the HWM had written scripts for 143 shorts, trailers, and documentaries for various federal agencies, as well as 839 radio scripts and spot announcements. Participants crafted 784 sketches for live United Service Organization (USO) shows and staged Department of Defense entertainment events. By 1944, as the SWG’s records indicate, its members had provided the OWI, the US armed forces, government agencies (such as the Treasury Department), and American branches of charities like the Red Cross with 861 speeches, 19 brochures, 96 feature articles, 52 songs, and 315 posters and slogans. 28 Guild members even offered creative writing workshops to returning veterans (something the Writers Guild Foundation still offers today). 29
In order to provide a consistent voice for these materials, writers were instructed on best practices through a
Manual for Writers
that was created bythe SWG and the OWI. The goal, particularly for screenwriters speaking to international audiences, was to clarify for viewers “those ideas and ideals we are fighting for” and also to present those American values in such a way “that they are kept continually fresh and interesting to the public.” 30 In the chapter entitled “Aspects of the Enemy Which Need Dramatization,” the manual instructs writers to keep in mind that the enemy may be lurking at home as well as abroad, and that both battlefronts are
Classical Hollywood filmmaking was at its finest in 1941: the studios premiered
How Green Was My Valley, The Lady Eve, The Maltese Falcon, Dumbo
,
Sullivan’s Travels
, and
Citizen Kane
. Many people went to the theaters not just to escape but also to get in touch; civilians were eager to see footage from the front lines, which was accessible to them only through newsreels. The American film industry was still producing movies at an impressive rate, especially in relation to countries where the war had crippled or entirely suspended production of features. Oddly, as screenwriter Marc Norman points out in his history of screenwriting, World War II brought a cease-fire to some of Hollywood’s infighting. 23 From the moguls to the above-the-line creatives and the below-the-line craftspeople, virtually everyone in Hollywood was ready and willing to participate in the war effort.
SWG members were active both as soldiers overseas—almost 300 deployed to active service during the war years—and as participants in the Hollywood Writers Mobilization (HWM). 24 The HWM, like its East Coast counterpart, the Writers War Board, served the American government by writing informational materials, public service documentation, advertising, and agitprop for the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Office of Civilian Defense. 25 Many celebrated writers, including Samson Raphaelson, Pearl S. Buck (author of
The Good Earth
), Howard Estabrook, Arch Oboler (writer of
Escape
), Budd Schulberg (writer of
On the Waterfront
and
A Face in the Crowd
), and Talbot Jennings (writer of
Mutiny on the Bounty
), participated in the Free World Radio, a series of nineteen half-hour radio plays written in conjunction with the OWI. Over the course of the war years, 3,500 writers—novelists, radio writers, cartoonists, publicists, journalists, and screenwriters—joined the HWM. 26 In 1943, the SWG calculated that it had packaged 9,507 programs—each of which included one feature, one or two short subjects, and a newsreel—to be screened on the front lines. The shorts alone tallied 13,027. 27 By October 1944, the HWM had written scripts for 143 shorts, trailers, and documentaries for various federal agencies, as well as 839 radio scripts and spot announcements. Participants crafted 784 sketches for live United Service Organization (USO) shows and staged Department of Defense entertainment events. By 1944, as the SWG’s records indicate, its members had provided the OWI, the US armed forces, government agencies (such as the Treasury Department), and American branches of charities like the Red Cross with 861 speeches, 19 brochures, 96 feature articles, 52 songs, and 315 posters and slogans. 28 Guild members even offered creative writing workshops to returning veterans (something the Writers Guild Foundation still offers today). 29
In order to provide a consistent voice for these materials, writers were instructed on best practices through a
Manual for Writers
that was created bythe SWG and the OWI. The goal, particularly for screenwriters speaking to international audiences, was to clarify for viewers “those ideas and ideals we are fighting for” and also to present those American values in such a way “that they are kept continually fresh and interesting to the public.” 30 In the chapter entitled “Aspects of the Enemy Which Need Dramatization,” the manual instructs writers to keep in mind that the enemy may be lurking at home as well as abroad, and that both battlefronts are
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