Read Online The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild by Miranda J. Banks - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Miranda J. Banks
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concern for the human condition to our writing and filmmaking. Of course, speaking up for the rights of the oppressed, for the right of workers to organize, against the evils of unnecessary poverty and for peace and for a world not organized solely in the interests of multinational corporations was considered then, and is considered now, a threat to domestic security. . . . This may be the role of troublemaking dissenters. 38
Central to these conversations about best practices during the war effort was a demand for verisimilitude and heartfelt storytelling that captured the real-life drama in a way that spoke to soldiers, the American people, and even global audiences. Paul Jarrico said of films like
Song of Russia
, a tribute to the Russian war effort that he co-wrote, “All the studios made movies like that. . . . [W]e were writing under orders of the Office of Wartime Propaganda [the OWI]. Louis B. Mayer never let anything he thought was Russian propaganda into his movies. We even had to take out the word ‘community,’ because he felt it sounded too much like ‘Communism.’” 39 Created as propaganda for the American war effort,
Song of Russia
was later condemned by HUAC ascommunist propaganda. Michael Kanin, writer of
Woman of the Year
, recalled that “those who were suspected of being Communists were among the hardest and most dedicated workers in all war effort causes.” 40 Philip Dunne suggested that perhaps the term “mobilization” came back to haunt some writers as having a sinister, communist ring to it. 41
Writers’ interest in defining their role and supporting the liberal causes of freedom and democracy did at times go beyond their studio work and into the realm of education and outreach. Writers were eager to discuss what they had learned and to share information. Following the first American Writers Congress in 1941 on the craft of writing and the social function of writers, those involved in the Hollywood Writers Mobilization suggested a second congress to bridge the gap between writers and educators and to examine the possibilities of writing in the postwar era. In 1943, 1,500 writers and scholars gathered on the Los Angeles campus of the University of California to hear one hundred papers on the war effort and the ways that writers could provide guidance to audiences, clarifying the stakes of World War II and setting the terms for a future peace. Topics ranged from a talk on “The Responsibility of the Industry” by Darryl Zanuck, to “The Exiled Writer in Relation to His Homeland” by novelist Thomas Mann, to “The Director’s Point of View” by Edward Dmytryk, to “The Function of the Radio Dramatist” by Arch Oboler. 42 The event and the discussions it generated were progressive; the writers involved saw it as an opportunity to galvanize support for the war.
But for some in the studio front offices and for politicians like Jack Tenney, a Republican state senator from California who already saw Red whenever he looked at Hollywood writers, the conference came to represent an example of dangerous political behavior and provided evidence of communist infiltration in the motion picture industry. 43 Tenney and his California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities (known as the Tenney Committee) had been ready to attack Hollywood liberals for a number of years. Once the war was over, the time seemed ripe to investigate the industry’s war efforts and, specifically, the Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
Labor Strife in Hollywood: Screen Cartoonists and the CSU
As detailed in chapter 1 , studio moguls fiercely opposed unionization in Hollywood. Two events help to illuminate how anti-union, anti-left sentiment within the industry had been building in the decade leading up to the trial ofthe Hollywood Ten. The first was the Disney animators’ strike in 1941; the second was the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) strike in 1945. It is important to note that this
Central to these conversations about best practices during the war effort was a demand for verisimilitude and heartfelt storytelling that captured the real-life drama in a way that spoke to soldiers, the American people, and even global audiences. Paul Jarrico said of films like
Song of Russia
, a tribute to the Russian war effort that he co-wrote, “All the studios made movies like that. . . . [W]e were writing under orders of the Office of Wartime Propaganda [the OWI]. Louis B. Mayer never let anything he thought was Russian propaganda into his movies. We even had to take out the word ‘community,’ because he felt it sounded too much like ‘Communism.’” 39 Created as propaganda for the American war effort,
Song of Russia
was later condemned by HUAC ascommunist propaganda. Michael Kanin, writer of
Woman of the Year
, recalled that “those who were suspected of being Communists were among the hardest and most dedicated workers in all war effort causes.” 40 Philip Dunne suggested that perhaps the term “mobilization” came back to haunt some writers as having a sinister, communist ring to it. 41
Writers’ interest in defining their role and supporting the liberal causes of freedom and democracy did at times go beyond their studio work and into the realm of education and outreach. Writers were eager to discuss what they had learned and to share information. Following the first American Writers Congress in 1941 on the craft of writing and the social function of writers, those involved in the Hollywood Writers Mobilization suggested a second congress to bridge the gap between writers and educators and to examine the possibilities of writing in the postwar era. In 1943, 1,500 writers and scholars gathered on the Los Angeles campus of the University of California to hear one hundred papers on the war effort and the ways that writers could provide guidance to audiences, clarifying the stakes of World War II and setting the terms for a future peace. Topics ranged from a talk on “The Responsibility of the Industry” by Darryl Zanuck, to “The Exiled Writer in Relation to His Homeland” by novelist Thomas Mann, to “The Director’s Point of View” by Edward Dmytryk, to “The Function of the Radio Dramatist” by Arch Oboler. 42 The event and the discussions it generated were progressive; the writers involved saw it as an opportunity to galvanize support for the war.
But for some in the studio front offices and for politicians like Jack Tenney, a Republican state senator from California who already saw Red whenever he looked at Hollywood writers, the conference came to represent an example of dangerous political behavior and provided evidence of communist infiltration in the motion picture industry. 43 Tenney and his California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities (known as the Tenney Committee) had been ready to attack Hollywood liberals for a number of years. Once the war was over, the time seemed ripe to investigate the industry’s war efforts and, specifically, the Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
Labor Strife in Hollywood: Screen Cartoonists and the CSU
As detailed in chapter 1 , studio moguls fiercely opposed unionization in Hollywood. Two events help to illuminate how anti-union, anti-left sentiment within the industry had been building in the decade leading up to the trial ofthe Hollywood Ten. The first was the Disney animators’ strike in 1941; the second was the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) strike in 1945. It is important to note that this
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