John Howard Lawson
Encyclopedia
John Howard Lawson was an American writer. He was head of the Hollywood division of the Communist Party USA
. He was also the cell's cultural manager, and answered directly to V.J. Jerome, the Party's New York-based cultural chief. He was the first president in the Writers Guild of America, West
after they changed from their name from Screen Writers Guild.
, his sister Adelaide Jaffery Lawson was named after a friend of hers who was socially active, and Wendell Holmes Lawson was named after Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
and then Cutler School (New York)
in New Rochelle, New York
. In 1906, Simeon sent the three children on a tour of Europe, and seeing theatre was on the list. John Howard would take notes on the set designs, actors, and plays. In 1909, they were sent on a tour of America and Canada.
At age seven, he attended Elizabeth and Alexis Ferms' "Children's Playhouse" school, an experimental school for children.
After studying at Williams College
(1910–1914) and graduating with a B.A., he became a successful writer with plays such as Standards (1916) and Servant-Master-Lover (1916). While there, his brother was in Germany studying music and art. Works of Karl Kautsky
struck him because of his sense of alienation. He was not only a contributor to The Williams College Monthly, but also an editor of the senior-class book and a member of the varsity debating team. He was known to other students as a good-natured iconoclast
and a frequent speaker at undergraduate meetings. After graduating, he would become an editor at Reuters
from 1914-1915.
Standards was bought by George M. Cohan
and Sam Harris and was given a tryout in Albany and Syracuse in 1915. It never made it to Broadway. Oliver Morosco
produced Servant-Master-Lover in a run in Los Angeles, but to bad reviews.
entered World War I
in 1917, he was opposed to joining. His father helped get a position in the Norton-Harjes Volunteer Ambulance Corps. In June 1917, he left for the war and aboard the ship he met John Dos Passos
. In November, when Norton-Hayes folded into the American Red Cross
's Ambulance Service, Dos Passos and Lawson decided to become drivers and the left for Italy. At this time, Dos Passos was working on One Man's Initiation: 1917 and Lawson on Roger Bloomer. While serving, they were outfitted to Paris where Lawson went to the Comédie-Française
and Sergey Diaghilev's ballet troupe. In January 1918, Dos Passos wrote a letter that was critical of the ambulance company, made its way to the Red Cross officials, and he was forced to resign. Lawson was under suspicion, but he managed to stay in Italy and do public-relations work for the Red Cross.
In the spring of 1919, Lawson left Italy for Paris, where he married his first wife, Katharine (Kate) Drain, who was a volunteer nurses aide, and later would be an actress. They would have one child, but divorce by 1923.
. He then lived in Paris in 1920-1921, which is where he would complete Roger Bloomer. This was Lawson's first show to reach Broadway, which opened on March 1, 1923. It was put on by the Equity Players and ran for fifty performances.
His next show, Processional,opened on Broadway on January 12, 1925 and was put on by the Theatre Guild
. It ran for 96 performances. The production, however, failed financially, and the Theatre Guild told Lawson that they would not stage any more expressionistic plays.It was later revived in 1937 for the Federal Theatre Project
to critical and popular acclaim.
His love of theatre was heightened when in 1926 the New York International Theatrical Exposition showcased experimental European cubist, futurist, and constructivist plays. After seeing this, Lawson, Dos Passos, and Michael Gold
(founder/editor of The New Masses
) formed the Workers Drama League to produce revolutionary plays. Only one production and a few weeks later, the three men disbanded. They then joined Em Jo Basshe and Francis Edward Faragoh
and formed the New Playwrights Theatre. This lasted until 1929, mostly due to the funding from millionaire Otto Hermann Kahn
.
March 3, 1926 was the premiere of Nirvana at the Greenwich Village Theatre, but only ran for six performances. The play calls for a new religion that can help people survive the swirling cyclone of jazz, new machinery, great buildings, science fiction, tabloids, and radio. The play was only put on for that long because of Lawson's reputation after Processional and the incredible set design by Mordecai Gorelik
.
In late 1926, along with Dos Passos, Gold, were on the National Executive Committee
who attempted to found the Proletarian Artists and Writers League, with backing from a similar Soviet organization. In August 1927, Dos Passos, Gold, and Lawson went to Boston to protest the Sacco and Vanzetti
trial. In his diary afterword, Lawson would write that he could "neither ignore the flaws in American politics and economics nor bring himself to become more deeply involved in the struggle".
The first play produced by the New Playwrights Theatre, Loud Speaker
opened on March 7, 1927 at the 52nd Street Theatre and ran for forty-two performances. The idea of the play stemmed from the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone at the new Theatre Guild playhouse in 1924, in which Governor Alfred E. Smith
and Otto Kahn were both in attendance. Lawson wondered if Kahn would be a more interesting governor than Smith.
, with the set design by John Dos Passos
. It opened on January 12, 1928 and ran for twenty-seven performances.
In 1928, Lawson moved to Hollywood where he wrote scripts for films such as The Ship for Shanghai, Bachelor Apartment, and Goodbye Love. In the winter of 1930-1931, it was at this time during the Great Depression
that Lawson wrote Success Story. The Theatre Guild rejected the script, but Harold Clurman
, a reader for them, had recently just formed the Group Theatre (New York)
and needed new scripts. Clurman and Lawson reworked the play during the summer of 1932, and Success Story opened on September 26, 1932 for 121 performances. Lawson would also pen the screenplay based on the play, Success at Any Price in 1934.
In 1933, Lester Cole
, Samuel Ornitz, and Lawson helped to organize and become first presidents of the Screen Writers Guild
. After he was fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
, he moved to Washington, D.C to have the group established by National Labor Board
for purposes of bargaining for screenwriters. While in D.C., The Pure in Heart and Gentlewoman were being produced in New York.
Lawson wrote The Pure in Heart while he was working on Success Story. The Theatre Guild
agreed to produce the play, but closed it when the out-of-town tryout in Baltimore failed. After the Group Theatre also rejected the play, it was produced by Richard Aldrich
and Alfred De Liagre. The Pure in Heart opened on March 20 and had a run of only seven performances.
Gentlewoman, in association with D. A. Doran Jr, was put up by the Group Theatre and opened on March 22, 1934. It ran for twelve performances.
During the 1930s, leftists accused Lawson of having a lack of ideological and political commitment. New Playwrights Theatre associate Mike Gold
attacked him in The New Masses
on April 10, 1934 , calling him a "A Bourgeois Hamlet of Our Time" who wrote adolescent works that lacked moral fiber or clear ideas. Lawson responded a week later in The New Masses in the article "'Inner Conflict' and Proletarian Art" he cited his middle-class childhood as the reason why he could fully understand the working people. He also recognized that his prosperity and Hollywood connections were suspect in the fight for workers' rights. Due to the criticism, he joined the Communist Party
and began a program of educating himself about the proletarian
cause. He would soon travel throughout the poverty-stricken South to study bloody labor conflicts in Alabama and Georgia.
While in the South, he would submit articles to the Daily Worker
, which got him arrested numerous times. These experiences would inspire his next play, Marching Song. It was put on by the radical Theatre Union and it opened on February 17, 1937 and ran for sixty-one performances.
Lawson, who joined the American Communist Party in 1934, made several films that were political, including Blockade
(1938), which starred Henry Fonda
. It was a film on the Spanish Civil War
for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story
. Lawson also wrote Counter-Attack
(1945), a tribute to the Soviet-USA alliance during the Second World War. He also wrote more innocuous films, such as the critically acclaimed Algiers
(1938) and the Humphrey Bogart
vehicles Sahara and Action in the North Atlantic
in 1943.
, the House Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC) began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named several individuals whom they accused of holding left-wing views.
Lawson appeared before the HUAC on October 29, 1947, but like Alvah Bessie
, Herbert Biberman
, Albert Maltz
, Adrian Scott
, Dalton Trumbo
, Lester Cole
, Edward Dmytryk
, Samuel Ornitz and Ring Lardner Jr, he refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the First Amendment
of the United States Constitution
gave them the right to do this. The HUAC and U.S. appeals courts, however, disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of Congress and Lawson was sentenced to twelve months in Ashland Prison and fined $1,000. In his 1951 HUAC testimony, Edward Dmytryk
testified that Lawson had pressured him to put communist propaganda
in his films.
Lawson had organized and led the attack on Albert Maltz when Maltz published an article, "What Shall We Ask of Writers", in The New Masses, challenging the didacticism of the American Communist Party's censorship of writers. Surprised by the ferocity of attack from his fellow writers, including Lawson, Howard Fast, Alvah Bessie, Ring Lardner, Jr., Samuel Sillen, and others, Maltz publicly recanted.
where he began writing Marxist interpretations of drama and film-making such as The Hidden Heritage (1950), Film in the Battle of Ideas (1953) and Film: The Creative Process (1964). He also wrote one of the first anti-apartheid movies, Cry, the Beloved Country
(1951) under a pseudonym.
After he was blacklisted, he taught at several universities including: Stanford University
, Loyola Marymount University
, and Los Angeles University of Judaism.
In his book Film in the Battle of Ideas, Lawson asserted that "the rulers of the United States take the film very seriously as an instrument of propaganda" and that the influence of Hollywood movies is utilized to "poison the minds of U.S. working-class people" and that inaccurately describes the reality of U.S. working-class life. Lawson asserted that Hollywood "falsifies the life of American workers" and its "unwritten law decrees that only the middle and upper classes provide themes suitable for film presentation, and that workers appear on the screen only in subordinate or comic roles." According to Lawson, "workers and their families see films which urge them to despise the values by which they live, and to emulate the corrupt values of their enemies" and "the consistent presentation on the nation's screens of the views that working-class life is to be despised and that workers who seek to protect their class interests are stupid, malicious, or even treasonable" is what Hollywood engages in.
Lawson also argued that Hollywood promoted degrading images of women in the first half of the 20th century. According to Lawson, "Hollywood treats 'glamour' and sex appeal as the sum-total of woman's personality" and "portraits of women in Hollywood films fall into three general categories: the woman as a criminal or the instigator of crime; the woman as man's enemy, fighting and losing - for she must always lose - in the battle of the sexes; the woman as a `primitive' child, fulfilling the male dream of a totally submissive vehicle of physical pleasure." Lawson also argued that in most U.S. movies "when a woman succeeds in the world of competition, Hollywood holds that her success is achieved by trickery, deceit, and the amoral use of sexual appeal."
His unpublished autobiography is at Southern Illinois University Carbondale
in Carbondale, Illinois
.
His father also insisted for appearances sake they should join a Christian church. They joined the First Church at 96th Street and Central Park West, but John Howard still maintained strict observation of Jewish dietary laws.
While at Williams College
during his sophomore year, he was denied election to the editorial board of The Williams College Monthly because some students raised questions about his Jewish background. He would later say that is was a good experience because it forced him "to begin his struggle to come to terms with his Jewish identity".
(2006), The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lawson, John Howard (1949), The Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting, New York: G.P. Putnam’s.
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
. He was also the cell's cultural manager, and answered directly to V.J. Jerome, the Party's New York-based cultural chief. He was the first president in the Writers Guild of America, West
Writers Guild of America, west
Writers Guild of America, West is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. The Guild was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, which include the Screen Writers Guild...
after they changed from their name from Screen Writers Guild.
Biography
Lawson was born in New York City, New York on September 25, 1894 to Simeon Levy and Belle Hart Lawson. His father would change their name from Levy to Lawson before Johnathon was born, his reason for which was so that his son could "obtain reservations at expensive resort hotels" When he was five, his mother died. She had named her children after people she admired: John Howard Lawson was named after John HowardJohn Howard (prison reformer)
John Howard was a philanthropist and the first English prison reformer.-Birth and early life:Howard was born in Lower Clapton, London. His father, also John, was a wealthy upholsterer at Smithfield Market in the city...
, his sister Adelaide Jaffery Lawson was named after a friend of hers who was socially active, and Wendell Holmes Lawson was named after Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
Education
After Simeon's wife died, he would take control of the children's education: first to Halstead School in Yonkers, New YorkYonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
and then Cutler School (New York)
Cutler School (New York)
The Cutler School of New York was a primary through college preparatory boy's school in New York established in 1876 by Arthur Cutler. . The school's founder tutored Theodore Roosevelt, who entered Harvard in 1876. The majority of Cutler graduates entered Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and Princeton,...
in New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
. In 1906, Simeon sent the three children on a tour of Europe, and seeing theatre was on the list. John Howard would take notes on the set designs, actors, and plays. In 1909, they were sent on a tour of America and Canada.
At age seven, he attended Elizabeth and Alexis Ferms' "Children's Playhouse" school, an experimental school for children.
After studying at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
(1910–1914) and graduating with a B.A., he became a successful writer with plays such as Standards (1916) and Servant-Master-Lover (1916). While there, his brother was in Germany studying music and art. Works of Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
struck him because of his sense of alienation. He was not only a contributor to The Williams College Monthly, but also an editor of the senior-class book and a member of the varsity debating team. He was known to other students as a good-natured iconoclast
Iconoclast
An iconoclast is someone who engages in iconoclasm—destruction of religious symbols or, by extension, established dogma or conventions.Iconoclast may also refer to:...
and a frequent speaker at undergraduate meetings. After graduating, he would become an editor at Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
from 1914-1915.
Early career
His first piece, A Hindoo Love Drama was written while at Williams. Mary Kirkpatrick, who was the head of the Williams College Drama Club, was impressed by this effort. That confidence inspired him to write three plays in 1915-1916: Standards, The Spice of Life, and Servant-Master-Lover.Standards was bought by George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
and Sam Harris and was given a tryout in Albany and Syracuse in 1915. It never made it to Broadway. Oliver Morosco
Oliver Morosco
Oliver Morosco was an American theatrical producer, director, writerand theater owner.-Biography:Born Oliver Mitchell in Logan, Utah, Morosco was raised in San Francisco, California...
produced Servant-Master-Lover in a run in Los Angeles, but to bad reviews.
World War I
When the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1917, he was opposed to joining. His father helped get a position in the Norton-Harjes Volunteer Ambulance Corps. In June 1917, he left for the war and aboard the ship he met John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
. In November, when Norton-Hayes folded into the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
's Ambulance Service, Dos Passos and Lawson decided to become drivers and the left for Italy. At this time, Dos Passos was working on One Man's Initiation: 1917 and Lawson on Roger Bloomer. While serving, they were outfitted to Paris where Lawson went to the Comédie-Française
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....
and Sergey Diaghilev's ballet troupe. In January 1918, Dos Passos wrote a letter that was critical of the ambulance company, made its way to the Red Cross officials, and he was forced to resign. Lawson was under suspicion, but he managed to stay in Italy and do public-relations work for the Red Cross.
In the spring of 1919, Lawson left Italy for Paris, where he married his first wife, Katharine (Kate) Drain, who was a volunteer nurses aide, and later would be an actress. They would have one child, but divorce by 1923.
Post War
After the war he edited a newspaper in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He then lived in Paris in 1920-1921, which is where he would complete Roger Bloomer. This was Lawson's first show to reach Broadway, which opened on March 1, 1923. It was put on by the Equity Players and ran for fifty performances.
His next show, Processional,opened on Broadway on January 12, 1925 and was put on by the Theatre Guild
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...
. It ran for 96 performances. The production, however, failed financially, and the Theatre Guild told Lawson that they would not stage any more expressionistic plays.It was later revived in 1937 for the Federal Theatre Project
Federal Theatre Project
The Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal project to fund theatre and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression. It was one of five Federal One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration...
to critical and popular acclaim.
His love of theatre was heightened when in 1926 the New York International Theatrical Exposition showcased experimental European cubist, futurist, and constructivist plays. After seeing this, Lawson, Dos Passos, and Michael Gold
Mike Gold
Michael "Mike" Gold is the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic, his semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money from 1930 was a bestseller.- Biography :Gold was born Itzok Isaac Granich on April 12, 1894 on the...
(founder/editor of The New Masses
The New Masses
The "New Masses" was a prominent American Marxist publication edited by Walt Carmon, briefly by Whittaker Chambers, and primarily by Michael Gold, Granville Hicks, and Joseph Freeman....
) formed the Workers Drama League to produce revolutionary plays. Only one production and a few weeks later, the three men disbanded. They then joined Em Jo Basshe and Francis Edward Faragoh
Francis Edward Faragoh
Francis Edward Faragoh was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 20 films between 1929 and 1947. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1931 for Best Writing, Adaptation for Little Caesar...
and formed the New Playwrights Theatre. This lasted until 1929, mostly due to the funding from millionaire Otto Hermann Kahn
Otto Hermann Kahn
Otto Hermann Kahn was an investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.-Life and career:He was born on February 21, 1867, and raised in the city of Mannheim, Germany, to Jewish parents...
.
March 3, 1926 was the premiere of Nirvana at the Greenwich Village Theatre, but only ran for six performances. The play calls for a new religion that can help people survive the swirling cyclone of jazz, new machinery, great buildings, science fiction, tabloids, and radio. The play was only put on for that long because of Lawson's reputation after Processional and the incredible set design by Mordecai Gorelik
Mordecai Gorelik
Mordecai Gorelik was a theatrical designer who also wrote, produced and directed plays. He was a 1920 graduate of the Pratt Institute, and worked principally as a scene designer. However, he also designed costumes, directed lighting and taught theater...
.
In late 1926, along with Dos Passos, Gold, were on the National Executive Committee
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
who attempted to found the Proletarian Artists and Writers League, with backing from a similar Soviet organization. In August 1927, Dos Passos, Gold, and Lawson went to Boston to protest the Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States...
trial. In his diary afterword, Lawson would write that he could "neither ignore the flaws in American politics and economics nor bring himself to become more deeply involved in the struggle".
The first play produced by the New Playwrights Theatre, Loud Speaker
Loud Speaker
Loud Speaker is a play by American playwright John Howard Lawson. It was first produced by the New Playwrights' Theatre at the 52nd Street Theatre in New York, opening on March 2 1927. Harry Wagstaff Gribble directed, Mordecai Gorelik designed the sets, Eugene L. Berton composed its music, and...
opened on March 7, 1927 at the 52nd Street Theatre and ran for forty-two performances. The idea of the play stemmed from the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone at the new Theatre Guild playhouse in 1924, in which Governor Alfred E. Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
and Otto Kahn were both in attendance. Lawson wondered if Kahn would be a more interesting governor than Smith.
Hollywood
While he was in Hollywood, New Playwrights Theatre decided to produce one of his plays, The InternationalThe International (play)
The International is a play by the American playwright John Howard Lawson. It was first produced by the New Playwrights' Theatre in New York, opening on January 12 1928. Lawson directed this production, while John Dos Passos designed the sets, Edward A...
, with the set design by John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
. It opened on January 12, 1928 and ran for twenty-seven performances.
In 1928, Lawson moved to Hollywood where he wrote scripts for films such as The Ship for Shanghai, Bachelor Apartment, and Goodbye Love. In the winter of 1930-1931, it was at this time during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
that Lawson wrote Success Story. The Theatre Guild rejected the script, but Harold Clurman
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman was a visionary American theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United States". He was most notable as one of the three founders of the New York City's Group Theatre...
, a reader for them, had recently just formed the Group Theatre (New York)
Group Theatre
The Group Theatre was a New York City theater collective formed by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg in 1931. It was intended as a base for the kind of theater they and their colleagues believed in — a forceful, naturalistic and highly disciplined artistry...
and needed new scripts. Clurman and Lawson reworked the play during the summer of 1932, and Success Story opened on September 26, 1932 for 121 performances. Lawson would also pen the screenplay based on the play, Success at Any Price in 1934.
In 1933, Lester Cole
Lester Cole
Lester Cole was an American screenwriter.Born in New York City, Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I had a Million." In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America.In 1934, Cole...
, Samuel Ornitz, and Lawson helped to organize and become first presidents of the Screen Writers Guild
Writers Guild of America, west
Writers Guild of America, West is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. The Guild was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, which include the Screen Writers Guild...
. After he was fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, he moved to Washington, D.C to have the group established by National Labor Board
National Labor Board
The National Labor Board was an independent agency of the United States Government established on August 5, 1933 to handle labor disputes arising under the National Industrial Recovery Act .-Establishment, structure and procedures:...
for purposes of bargaining for screenwriters. While in D.C., The Pure in Heart and Gentlewoman were being produced in New York.
Lawson wrote The Pure in Heart while he was working on Success Story. The Theatre Guild
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...
agreed to produce the play, but closed it when the out-of-town tryout in Baltimore failed. After the Group Theatre also rejected the play, it was produced by Richard Aldrich
Richard Aldrich
Richard Aldrich was an American music critic. From 1902–23, he was music critic for The New York Times.Aldrich was born in Providence, Rhode Island and graduated A.B. in 1885 from Harvard College, where he had studied music. He began his journalistic career on the Providence Journal...
and Alfred De Liagre. The Pure in Heart opened on March 20 and had a run of only seven performances.
Gentlewoman, in association with D. A. Doran Jr, was put up by the Group Theatre and opened on March 22, 1934. It ran for twelve performances.
During the 1930s, leftists accused Lawson of having a lack of ideological and political commitment. New Playwrights Theatre associate Mike Gold
Mike Gold
Michael "Mike" Gold is the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic, his semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money from 1930 was a bestseller.- Biography :Gold was born Itzok Isaac Granich on April 12, 1894 on the...
attacked him in The New Masses
The New Masses
The "New Masses" was a prominent American Marxist publication edited by Walt Carmon, briefly by Whittaker Chambers, and primarily by Michael Gold, Granville Hicks, and Joseph Freeman....
on April 10, 1934 , calling him a "A Bourgeois Hamlet of Our Time" who wrote adolescent works that lacked moral fiber or clear ideas. Lawson responded a week later in The New Masses in the article "'Inner Conflict' and Proletarian Art" he cited his middle-class childhood as the reason why he could fully understand the working people. He also recognized that his prosperity and Hollywood connections were suspect in the fight for workers' rights. Due to the criticism, he joined the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
and began a program of educating himself about the proletarian
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
cause. He would soon travel throughout the poverty-stricken South to study bloody labor conflicts in Alabama and Georgia.
While in the South, he would submit articles to the Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
, which got him arrested numerous times. These experiences would inspire his next play, Marching Song. It was put on by the radical Theatre Union and it opened on February 17, 1937 and ran for sixty-one performances.
Lawson, who joined the American Communist Party in 1934, made several films that were political, including Blockade
Blockade (1938 film)
Blockade is a 1938 American drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Madeleine Carroll, Henry Fonda and Leo Carrillo. During the Spanish Civil War a farmer takes up arms to fight for the Republican side.-Cast:* Madeleine Carroll - Norma...
(1938), which starred Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
. It was a film on the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story
Academy Award for Best Story
The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1957, when it was eliminated in favor of the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, which had been introduced in 1940.-1920s:...
. Lawson also wrote Counter-Attack
Counter-Attack
Counter-Attack is a 1945 war film starring Paul Muni and Marguerite Chapman as two Russians trapped in a collapsed building with seven enemy German soldiers during World War II...
(1945), a tribute to the Soviet-USA alliance during the Second World War. He also wrote more innocuous films, such as the critically acclaimed Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938) and the Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
vehicles Sahara and Action in the North Atlantic
Action in the North Atlantic
Action in the North Atlantic is a 1943 war film directed by Lloyd Bacon, featuring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as sailors in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II.-Plot:...
in 1943.
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
After the World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the House Committee on Un-American Activities
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
(HUAC) began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named several individuals whom they accused of holding left-wing views.
Lawson appeared before the HUAC on October 29, 1947, but like Alvah Bessie
Alvah Bessie
Alvah Cecil Bessie was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter who was imprisoned for ten months and blacklisted by the movie studio bosses for being one of the group known as the Hollywood Ten.-Life and career:...
, Herbert Biberman
Herbert Biberman
Herbert J. Biberman , was an American screenwriter and film director. He may be best known for having been one of the Hollywood Ten as well as directing Salt of the Earth, a 1954 film about a zinc miners' strike in Grant County, New Mexico.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and...
, Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz was an American author and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses....
, Adrian Scott
Adrian Scott
Robert Adrian Scott was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.-Biography:...
, Dalton Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...
, Lester Cole
Lester Cole
Lester Cole was an American screenwriter.Born in New York City, Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I had a Million." In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America.In 1934, Cole...
, Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...
, Samuel Ornitz and Ring Lardner Jr, he refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
gave them the right to do this. The HUAC and U.S. appeals courts, however, disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of Congress and Lawson was sentenced to twelve months in Ashland Prison and fined $1,000. In his 1951 HUAC testimony, Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...
testified that Lawson had pressured him to put communist propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
in his films.
Lawson had organized and led the attack on Albert Maltz when Maltz published an article, "What Shall We Ask of Writers", in The New Masses, challenging the didacticism of the American Communist Party's censorship of writers. Surprised by the ferocity of attack from his fellow writers, including Lawson, Howard Fast, Alvah Bessie, Ring Lardner, Jr., Samuel Sillen, and others, Maltz publicly recanted.
Post Blacklist
Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, Lawson moved to MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
where he began writing Marxist interpretations of drama and film-making such as The Hidden Heritage (1950), Film in the Battle of Ideas (1953) and Film: The Creative Process (1964). He also wrote one of the first anti-apartheid movies, Cry, the Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country (1951 film)
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda. Based on the novel of the same name by Alan Paton, it stars Canada Lee and Charles Carson.-Selected cast:*Canada Lee as Stephen Kumalo*Charles Carson as James Jarvis...
(1951) under a pseudonym.
After he was blacklisted, he taught at several universities including: Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
, and Los Angeles University of Judaism.
In his book Film in the Battle of Ideas, Lawson asserted that "the rulers of the United States take the film very seriously as an instrument of propaganda" and that the influence of Hollywood movies is utilized to "poison the minds of U.S. working-class people" and that inaccurately describes the reality of U.S. working-class life. Lawson asserted that Hollywood "falsifies the life of American workers" and its "unwritten law decrees that only the middle and upper classes provide themes suitable for film presentation, and that workers appear on the screen only in subordinate or comic roles." According to Lawson, "workers and their families see films which urge them to despise the values by which they live, and to emulate the corrupt values of their enemies" and "the consistent presentation on the nation's screens of the views that working-class life is to be despised and that workers who seek to protect their class interests are stupid, malicious, or even treasonable" is what Hollywood engages in.
Lawson also argued that Hollywood promoted degrading images of women in the first half of the 20th century. According to Lawson, "Hollywood treats 'glamour' and sex appeal as the sum-total of woman's personality" and "portraits of women in Hollywood films fall into three general categories: the woman as a criminal or the instigator of crime; the woman as man's enemy, fighting and losing - for she must always lose - in the battle of the sexes; the woman as a `primitive' child, fulfilling the male dream of a totally submissive vehicle of physical pleasure." Lawson also argued that in most U.S. movies "when a woman succeeds in the world of competition, Hollywood holds that her success is achieved by trickery, deceit, and the amoral use of sexual appeal."
His unpublished autobiography is at Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a public research university located in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1869, SIUC is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system...
in Carbondale, Illinois
Carbondale, Illinois
Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, in the state of Illinois, within the Southern Illinois region. It is located at the junction of Illinois Route 13 and U.S. Route 51, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Shawnee National Forest...
.
Religion
He was born into a wealthy Jewish family, and this is said to have caused some dilemmas while he was younger. He once went over to a Christian schoolmates house to play, and he accidentally let slip that his fathers real name was Levy. He was not invited to the house again after that.His father also insisted for appearances sake they should join a Christian church. They joined the First Church at 96th Street and Central Park West, but John Howard still maintained strict observation of Jewish dietary laws.
While at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
during his sophomore year, he was denied election to the editorial board of The Williams College Monthly because some students raised questions about his Jewish background. He would later say that is was a good experience because it forced him "to begin his struggle to come to terms with his Jewish identity".
Theatre
- A Hindoo Love Drama (1915)
- The Spice of Life (1915)
- Servant-Master-Lover (1916)
- Standards (1916)
- Roger Bloomer (1923)
- Processional (1925)
- Nirvana (1926)
- Loud SpeakerLoud SpeakerLoud Speaker is a play by American playwright John Howard Lawson. It was first produced by the New Playwrights' Theatre at the 52nd Street Theatre in New York, opening on March 2 1927. Harry Wagstaff Gribble directed, Mordecai Gorelik designed the sets, Eugene L. Berton composed its music, and...
(1927) - The InternationalThe International (play)The International is a play by the American playwright John Howard Lawson. It was first produced by the New Playwrights' Theatre in New York, opening on January 12 1928. Lawson directed this production, while John Dos Passos designed the sets, Edward A...
(1928) - Success Story (1933)
- The Pure in HeartThe Pure in HeartThe Pure in Heart is a novel by Susan Hill. It is the second in a trilogy of crime novels which contains The Various Haunts of Men and The Risk of Darkness....
(1934) - GentlewomanGentlewomanA gentlewoman in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin generosus and generosa...
(1934) - Marching Song (1937)
- Parlor Magic (1963)
Film
- Dream of LoveDream of LoveDream of Love is a 1928 MGM silent film, directed by Fred Niblo, and starring Joan Crawford and Nils Asther. The film is based on the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. In the film, Asther plays Prince Maurice de Saxe and Crawford plays Adrienne Lecouvreur, a Gypsy...
(1928), with Dorothy Farnum, Marion Ainslee, and Ruth Cummings - The Pagan (1929), with Dorothy Farnum
- Dynamite (film)Dynamite (film)Dynamite is a drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It stars Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford and Julia Faye...
(1929), with Jeanie MacPhersonJeanie MacPhersonJeanie MacPherson was a silent film actress from 1908 to 1917 and a film screenwriter through the 1940s.... - The Sea Bat, with Dorothy YostDorothy YostDorothy Yost was an American screenwriter. She wrote for 74 films between 1920 and 1966.She was born in St...
and Bess MeredythBess MeredythBess Meredyth was a film writer and silent film actress. The wife of the Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini and adapted The Unsuspected . She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences... - Our Blushing Brides (1930), with Bess MeredythBess MeredythBess Meredyth was a film writer and silent film actress. The wife of the Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini and adapted The Unsuspected . She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and Helen Mainard - The Ship from Shanghai (1930)
- Bachelor Apartment (1931), with J. Walter Rubin
- Good-bye Love (1933)
- Success at Any Price (1934), with others
- Treasure IslandTreasure Island (1934 film)Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and...
(1934), with John Lee MahinJohn Lee MahinJohn Lee Mahin was a prolific screenwriter and producer. He was the son of John Lee Mahin, Sr. , a Chicago newspaper and advertising man, and Julia Graham Snitzler....
and Leonard Praskins - Party WireParty WireParty Wire is a 1935 drama film starring Jean Arthur and Victor Jory. It was based on the novel of the same name by Bruce Manning. In a small town, an overhead conversation on a telephone party line results in gossip that causes a great deal of trouble for a young woman and a wealthy...
(1935), with Ethel Hill - Adventure in ManhattanAdventure in ManhattanAdventure in Manhattan is a 1936 comedy thriller film made by Columbia Pictures, and was directed by Edward Ludwig. The screenplay was written by Sidney Buchman, Harry Sauber, Jack Kirkland and John Howard Lawson . The story was written by Joseph Krumgold, based on "Purple and Fine Linen"...
(1936), adaption uncredited - Blockade (1938)
- Algiers (film)Algiers (film)Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938), with James M. CainJames M. CainJames Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir... - They Shall Have Music (1939), with Irma von CubeIrma von CubeIrma von Cube was a German-American screenwriter. She began as an actress and a writer for films in Germany in the early 1930s, and continued when she arrived in the United States in 1938....
- Earthbound (1940), with Samuel C. Engel
- Four Sons (1940), with Milton SperlingMilton SperlingMilton Sperling was an American film producer and screenwriter for 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. where he had his own independent production unit United States Pictures.-Biography:...
- Action in the North AtlanticAction in the North AtlanticAction in the North Atlantic is a 1943 war film directed by Lloyd Bacon, featuring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as sailors in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II.-Plot:...
(1943) - Sahara (1943 American film) (1943)
- Counter-AttackCounter-AttackCounter-Attack is a 1945 war film starring Paul Muni and Marguerite Chapman as two Russians trapped in a collapsed building with seven enemy German soldiers during World War II...
(1945) - Smash-Up, the Story of a WomanSmash-Up, the Story of a WomanSmash-Up, the Story of a Woman , also called A Woman Destroyed, is a drama film which tells the story of a nightclub singer who marries a rising singer and falls into alcoholism when she gives up her own career...
(1947) - Cry, the Beloved CountryCry, the Beloved Country (1951 film)Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda. Based on the novel of the same name by Alan Paton, it stars Canada Lee and Charles Carson.-Selected cast:*Canada Lee as Stephen Kumalo*Charles Carson as James Jarvis...
(1952), with Alan PatonAlan PatonAlan Stewart Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.-Family:Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province , the son of a minor civil servant. After attending Maritzburg College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal in his hometown, followed... - The Careless YearsThe Careless YearsThe Careless Years is a 1957 film from United Artists directed by Arthur Hiller and produced by Edward Lewis. The film was the directorial debut for Hiller.-Plot:...
(1957), with Mitch Lindemann
Writings
- Theory and Technique of Playwrighting, Putnam, 1936, enlarged edition published as Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting, Putnam, 1949.
- The Hidden Heritage: A Rediscovery of the Ideas and Forces That Link the Thought of Our Time with the Culture of the Past, Citadel, 1950, 1st revised edition, 1968.
- Film in the Battle of Ideas, Masses & Mainstream, 1953.
- Film, The Creative Process: The Search for an Audio-Visual Language and Structure, Hill and Wang, 1964, 2nd revised edition, 1967.
Introductions
- Ten Days that Shook the WorldTen Days that Shook the WorldTen Days that Shook the World is a book by American journalist and socialist John Reed about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 which Reed experienced firsthand. Reed followed many of the prominent Bolshevik leaders, especially Grigory Zinoviev and Karl Radek, closely during his time in Russia...
by John Reed, New York, International Publishers, 1967. - People's Theatre in Amerika by Karen M. Taylor New York: Drama Books, 1972.
Further reading
Horne, GeraldGerald Horne
Gerald Horne is an African American historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He received his PhD from Columbia University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a frequent...
(2006), The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lawson, John Howard (1949), The Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting, New York: G.P. Putnam’s.
External links
- John Howard Lawson Papers, 1905-1969 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale Special Collections Research Center