Tom Benedek: “Life Imitates Art — Close To Home”
Screenwriter (Cocoon), colleague and long-time friend Tom Benedek sent this along.
LIFE IMITATES ART — CLOSE TO HOME
This is a little story from the black list. Not the list that recognizes some of the best scripts of the year. The other black list. The one that pushed some of the best writers in Hollywood out of the business for nearly a decade — because of their politics, or what was alleged about them. We have to do many things to get a script sold these days, but fortunately, signing a loyalty oath is not one of them.
My novel, Peloponnesia, is about a producer with dementia who believes he is the main character in a script he has owned for a long time. Cleon, the protagonist from the script, is a prominent Greek general from the Peloponnesian Wars. My fictional producer, Harley Grace, walks around Los Angeles, thinking he is Cleon most of the time.
Now, right in my neighborhood, I just heard about a real life actor who has declared himself to be the character he once played in a movie long ago. Neighbor Joan Lewis, is the daughter of amazing Hollywood producers, Mildred and Edward Lewis. Among their credits: Spartacus, Lonely are the Brave, Missing, Harold and Maude, Seven Days in May, The Gypsy Moths, The River, many more.
Kirk Douglas, 95 years old, just wrote a book about the ending of the 1950s black list. The title:”I AM SPARTACUS!” There is no dispute about one thing: On screen, Kirk Douglas did play Spartacus. However, Douglas has chosen to rewrite history quite a bit. In the book, and in interviews, Douglas claims sole credit for breaking the Hollywood blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay for Spartacus.
Edward Lewis was, in fact, the producer of Spartacus and has been acknowledged by Dalton Trumbo as the individual who gave him back his name. Unfortunately, Kirk Douglas’ new book and in press interviews, Douglas equates himself with the actual Spartacus, and, simultaneously, rewrites history, by erasing Edward Lewis from this story. Edward Lewis, in fact, was instrumental in helping to end the blacklist.
Kirk Douglas did not produce Spartacus. Edward Lewis received sole producing credit on the film. Kirk Douglas was an executive producer. Edward Lewis brought the project to Dalton Trumbo. Howard Fast had been engaged to write the script but when that did not work out, Lewis offered the project to Dalton Trumbo.
Edward Lewis: “I gave Trumbo the book with a disclaimer: he might not want to work on it because the author, Howard Fast, had cooperated with the House Un-American Affairs Committee, and named names. Dalton’s response was, ‘If I turned the assignment down because I didn’t like his politics, I’d be guilty of the same blacklisting I’m fighting. It’s a short novel. I’m a fast reader.’ When the screenplay was finished, Dalton asked me to ‘front’ for him. My name was on the script as sole author when it was submitted to Universal. I went to London as writer/producer, met with Olivier, Laughton, Ustinov, and secured their commitment to star. When financing and distribution were locked, I insisted that my name be removed from the screenplay, an action that set in motion a sequence of events that led to Dalton Trumbo getting screen credit. Trumbo himself orchestrated much of what occurred. There were many people who helped break the black list. I was one of them.”
Dalton gave Eddie Lewis a copy of his novel, “Johnny Got His Gun,” with this inscription:
To Edward Lewis
Who risked his name to help a man who’d lost his name.
Words simply cannot say it, and I shan’t try to force them.
But you understand.
As does Your friend
Dalton Trumbo
Los Angeles
June 2, 1959
“I Am Spartacus!”, the book, does not tell the whole story. Robert Cortes, former producing partner of Edward Lewis, observed that 95 year old Kirk Douglas apparently forgot the message of the movie that Dalton Trumbo so beautifully illustrated in the scene where all the surviving slaves are rounded up and the Romans demand the identity of Spartacus. All the slaves proclaim themselves Spartacus. It was the collective action of the slaves that was needed in the effort to right a wrong. Collectively they demanded freedom much as during the McCarthy period it was many who demanded, and made changes to end the tyranny of the blacklist.
Kirk Douglas is a bit old to play Cleon if Peloponnesia ever gets made into a movie. He does understand the part, though.
The Hollywood blacklist was a shameful chapter in the history of American filmmaking affecting hundreds of peoples who worked in the business and their families including nine screenwriters who were sent to prison for a year using their Constitutional rights granted in the 5th Amendment in refusing to testify at the HUAC hearings. After many were forced to move outside the United States to Mexico, England, France and elsewhere in order to work as film writers. When they did write for the studios, they used pseudonyms or ‘fronts,’ other writers who received credit in name only. When you watch the movie Sparacus through the lens of the blacklist, it takes on a whole new meaning, especially when its screenwriter Trumbo was one of those who suffered because of the blacklist.
Thanks, Tom, for taking the time to write this post. And I’m excited to say that Tom will be contributing posts here: Tuesdays With Tom when his schedule allows it.
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