Review of The Hollywood Writers' Wars by Nancy Lynn Schwartz (1982)
The Hollywood Writers’ Wars. By Nancy Lynn Schwartz and Sheila Schwarz. Lincoln, NE: Knopf, 1982. 334 Pages.
By Patrick Charsky
Nancy Lynn Schwartz does an admirable job depicting a time of trouble in Hollywood between Big Studio bosses and radical Screenwriters. The Hollywood Writers Wars is a detailed, loosely structured, account of the conflicts Screenwriters endured in Hollywood from the Great Depression and World War II to the beginnings of The Cold War. Nancy Lynn Schwartz did most of the research and writing for Writers’ Wars, but it was her mother, Sheila Schwartz, who finished the book. Sadly, Nancy Lynn, died of brain cancer at the age of twenty-six. Writer’s Wars shows Nancy Lynn’s courage and dedication to standing up to injustice and giving the underdog a voice in a Hollywood dominated by Producers and the Studio System.
Through the extensive use of sources, Nancy Lynn constructs a history of a controversial topic in Hollywood History. She uses many legal and political documents to substantiate her story. In courtless legal decisions, declarations from Unions or the Screenwriters Guild, Memoirs, autobiographies, and Oral history, she recreates the tensions, and conflicts which constitute the Wars she references in the title to her book.
Schwartz uses Donald Ogden Stewart’s autobiography to depict the thoughts of a leading Screenwriter in the fight for justice against the Big Studios. Of particularly good use is Ogden Stewart’s thoughts about the violation of the Non- aggression pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia by Hitler. Ogden Stewart sees it as an act that will unite the Left against Nazism, Fascism, and bring about concessions from the Producers in the negotiations between the Guild and the Studios.
Another great use of sources by Schwartz is her quoting of Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo was a colorful character and, perhaps, the leading critic of the Studio System. In his book Time of the Toad Trumbo writes about what he calls the “inquisition” in America that resulted in the blacklist. For his refusal to answer any questions at the House Un-American Activities Committee, Trumbo and nine others were cited for contempt and imprisoned for one year.
Ms. Schwartz has done an excellent job finding sources; documents, books, people that reveal the details, negotiations, secret meetings, protests, and proceedings before Congress. She writes like an on the scene journalist while retaining the perspective of a Historian.
The sources reveal all the details, but it is the context which adds greatly to the story. The Great Depression and World War II feature highly in Ms. Schwartz’s book. We get glimpses of FDR interacting with Screenwriters and Guild Lawyers. We see the inner workings of studios through people like Louis B. Meyer and Daryl F. Zanuch. And of course the lives of screenwriters like B.P. Schulberg and Ring Lardner, Jr.
After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the movement for anti- Fascism became a popular one in Hollywood. By 1938, membership in the Communist Party of Hollywood was growing and had many fellow travelers. The violation of the Non-aggression pact by Hitler swung many more Screenwriters into the Communist Party of Hollywood and saw a resurgence of the popularity and power of the Screenwriters Guild. The time of World War II was a time of peace and cooperation between Producers and Writers.
It was even fashionable to be a Communist. Bud Schulberg shines as a great example of the popularity of the Soviet Union and Communist ideology in a new generation of Hollywood Screenwriters. Schulberg’s father was a Producer with Leftist sympathies. It was scandalous when Schulberg went to the Soviet Union and came back an enthusiastic supporter of the Russian experiment.
Ms. Schwartz paints a beautiful picture of writers, actors, and directors; the talent of Hollywood, coalescing in each other's homes and having readings of Marxist literature. She shows the life of “Jigee” Viertel who became a fellow traveler of Communists during the late thirties, but she left all of that behind her in the mid-forties. “Jigee” was like so many people who were enchanted with the Left, only to be disillusioned after investigations started and the Cold War began at the end of WWII.
More History is made with the election of 1946. Ms. Schwartz pinpoints this moment when the likes of Richard Nixon were elected to Congress and McCarthyism was carried out against anyone with affiliations to Roosevelt’s New Deal or even worse with the Soviet Union. In chapter eleven Ms. Schwartz does an excellent job of showing the proceedings in front of HUAC. She shows how HUAC led to the Waldorf Declaration which effectively barred Communists or fellow travelers from working in Hollywood. A blacklist that would last for a decade and ruin hundreds of people’s careers. Ms. Schwartz does an excellent job of describing the historical context and then showing how it applied to Producers and Screenwriters in Hollywood.
Writers’ Wars is loosely structured which caused me some confusion. I read the book twice and noticed that some of the chapters are lacking in the overall narrative of Writers Wars. They describe events but do little to place them in a story. I found myself asking the question, “what was the point of this chapter?” Another negative was Ms. Schwartz’s overemphasis on using the term “wars.” In the early chapters society gatherings are used to exemplify acts of war against the studios. I had some reservations that these upper class types were involved in anything like a war. More like a garden party.
A great question Writers Wars raised was to ask what was the point of HUAC? Ms. Schwartz makes clear her opinion; it was a witch hunt which ruined lives and careers and lasted for ten years. She makes a convincing argument that the “Bad Old Days” of Hollywood were very bad for hundreds of people who endured the Wars and ended up on the Blacklist. Like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible which lambasted the HUAC hearings as a Witchhunt, Ms. Schwartz’s book stands as a testament to a time when freedom of speech was violated, the constitution ignored, and a warning that America is not immune from totalitarian instincts.
By Patrick Charsky
Nancy Lynn Schwartz does an admirable job depicting a time of trouble in Hollywood between Big Studio bosses and radical Screenwriters. The Hollywood Writers Wars is a detailed, loosely structured, account of the conflicts Screenwriters endured in Hollywood from the Great Depression and World War II to the beginnings of The Cold War. Nancy Lynn Schwartz did most of the research and writing for Writers’ Wars, but it was her mother, Sheila Schwartz, who finished the book. Sadly, Nancy Lynn, died of brain cancer at the age of twenty-six. Writer’s Wars shows Nancy Lynn’s courage and dedication to standing up to injustice and giving the underdog a voice in a Hollywood dominated by Producers and the Studio System.
Through the extensive use of sources, Nancy Lynn constructs a history of a controversial topic in Hollywood History. She uses many legal and political documents to substantiate her story. In courtless legal decisions, declarations from Unions or the Screenwriters Guild, Memoirs, autobiographies, and Oral history, she recreates the tensions, and conflicts which constitute the Wars she references in the title to her book.
Schwartz uses Donald Ogden Stewart’s autobiography to depict the thoughts of a leading Screenwriter in the fight for justice against the Big Studios. Of particularly good use is Ogden Stewart’s thoughts about the violation of the Non- aggression pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia by Hitler. Ogden Stewart sees it as an act that will unite the Left against Nazism, Fascism, and bring about concessions from the Producers in the negotiations between the Guild and the Studios.
Another great use of sources by Schwartz is her quoting of Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo was a colorful character and, perhaps, the leading critic of the Studio System. In his book Time of the Toad Trumbo writes about what he calls the “inquisition” in America that resulted in the blacklist. For his refusal to answer any questions at the House Un-American Activities Committee, Trumbo and nine others were cited for contempt and imprisoned for one year.
Ms. Schwartz has done an excellent job finding sources; documents, books, people that reveal the details, negotiations, secret meetings, protests, and proceedings before Congress. She writes like an on the scene journalist while retaining the perspective of a Historian.
The sources reveal all the details, but it is the context which adds greatly to the story. The Great Depression and World War II feature highly in Ms. Schwartz’s book. We get glimpses of FDR interacting with Screenwriters and Guild Lawyers. We see the inner workings of studios through people like Louis B. Meyer and Daryl F. Zanuch. And of course the lives of screenwriters like B.P. Schulberg and Ring Lardner, Jr.
After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the movement for anti- Fascism became a popular one in Hollywood. By 1938, membership in the Communist Party of Hollywood was growing and had many fellow travelers. The violation of the Non-aggression pact by Hitler swung many more Screenwriters into the Communist Party of Hollywood and saw a resurgence of the popularity and power of the Screenwriters Guild. The time of World War II was a time of peace and cooperation between Producers and Writers.
It was even fashionable to be a Communist. Bud Schulberg shines as a great example of the popularity of the Soviet Union and Communist ideology in a new generation of Hollywood Screenwriters. Schulberg’s father was a Producer with Leftist sympathies. It was scandalous when Schulberg went to the Soviet Union and came back an enthusiastic supporter of the Russian experiment.
Ms. Schwartz paints a beautiful picture of writers, actors, and directors; the talent of Hollywood, coalescing in each other's homes and having readings of Marxist literature. She shows the life of “Jigee” Viertel who became a fellow traveler of Communists during the late thirties, but she left all of that behind her in the mid-forties. “Jigee” was like so many people who were enchanted with the Left, only to be disillusioned after investigations started and the Cold War began at the end of WWII.
More History is made with the election of 1946. Ms. Schwartz pinpoints this moment when the likes of Richard Nixon were elected to Congress and McCarthyism was carried out against anyone with affiliations to Roosevelt’s New Deal or even worse with the Soviet Union. In chapter eleven Ms. Schwartz does an excellent job of showing the proceedings in front of HUAC. She shows how HUAC led to the Waldorf Declaration which effectively barred Communists or fellow travelers from working in Hollywood. A blacklist that would last for a decade and ruin hundreds of people’s careers. Ms. Schwartz does an excellent job of describing the historical context and then showing how it applied to Producers and Screenwriters in Hollywood.
Writers’ Wars is loosely structured which caused me some confusion. I read the book twice and noticed that some of the chapters are lacking in the overall narrative of Writers Wars. They describe events but do little to place them in a story. I found myself asking the question, “what was the point of this chapter?” Another negative was Ms. Schwartz’s overemphasis on using the term “wars.” In the early chapters society gatherings are used to exemplify acts of war against the studios. I had some reservations that these upper class types were involved in anything like a war. More like a garden party.
A great question Writers Wars raised was to ask what was the point of HUAC? Ms. Schwartz makes clear her opinion; it was a witch hunt which ruined lives and careers and lasted for ten years. She makes a convincing argument that the “Bad Old Days” of Hollywood were very bad for hundreds of people who endured the Wars and ended up on the Blacklist. Like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible which lambasted the HUAC hearings as a Witchhunt, Ms. Schwartz’s book stands as a testament to a time when freedom of speech was violated, the constitution ignored, and a warning that America is not immune from totalitarian instincts.
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