“Dalton Trumbo: Rare tribute to blacklisted screenwriter”
For those of you in LA, Patrick Goldstein reports on a cinematic tribute to screenwriter Dalton Trumbo:
Dalton Trumbo, who’s one of the most fascinating figures from mid-20th century Hollywood, is getting a new moment in the spotlight, thanks to a three-day tribute from the American Cinematheque that begins Thursday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. A Colorado-born Westerner who got his start in the 1930s as a studio reader and B-movie screenwriter, Trumbo emerged after World World II as an ardent Communist and the highest-paid screenwriter of his day, making $3,000 a week at MGM. A free spender, Trumbo was almost always in debt, so when he was blacklisted as part of the Hollywood Ten, he quickly became adept at writing under-the-table scripts as fast as anyone could read them, often churning out a screenplay every two or three weeks.
Trumbo (pictured) was involved in writing over 60 movies — credited and uncredited — including Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Roman Holiday (1953), The Brave One (1956), and Spartacus (1960).
For more background on Trumbo, you can go here, here, and here.
Here is the trailer for the documentary Trumbo:
And here is a news piece circa 1950 about the Hollywood Ten: