One-to-One Words of a Blacklistee (Dalton Trumbo–New Off-Broadway play)

[kskiska]

Even beyond the sonorous trochees that make it stick in the mind like a musical phrase, Dalton Trumbo is a memorable name in Hollywood. You can still see it on the screen a lot. Trumbo, who died in 1976, was a prolific screenwriter whose 50 or so film credits included "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," "Lonely Are the Brave," "Spartacus," "Exodus," "Papillon," "The Fixer," "The Sandpiper," "Hawaii" and "Johnny Got His Gun," which he adapted and directed from his own antiwar novel. And of course he was a leading member of the Hollywood 10, a group of writers, producers and directors who, after appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington in 1947, were branded as Communist sympathizers and blacklisted by the studios.

These are among the celebrated highlights of Trumbo's résumé. He wasn't known for his letters until now, but in a new theater piece cobbled from them by his son, Christopher, the case is made that he was something of an epistolary genius. The show, called simply "Trumbo," opened Off Broadway at the Westside Theater last night with Nathan Lane in the title role. (He and his co-star, Gordon MacDonald, will be in it through Sept. 21; the cast will then revolve through the open-ended run.) And though "Trumbo" is less a full-fledged play than an enhanced reading (both Mr. Lane and Mr. MacDonald, who plays Christopher and functions as a narrator, are holding their scripts), the text, especially of the letters themselves, is a joy to hear read.

(snip)

To the headmistress of the school where his young daughter, Mitzi, was ostracized and ridiculed because of her father's reputation, he wrote: "This slow murder of the mind and heart and spirit of a young child is the proud outcome of those patriotic meetings held by a few parents, under the sponsorship of the P.T.A. and the Bluebirds. It is a living test of the high principles of both organizations — principles noble in word, ignoble and savage in application. The principles are what they say: Mitzi is what they do. I should like you to watch how decently and bravely our daughter tries to suppress her bewilderment at her first encounter with barbarism parading as American virtue. Barbarism which began at your school among adult persons."

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/09/05/arts/theater/05TRUM.html

[Cha]

1. Good I 'm glad this is goin' on Broadway!

Bring it way out in the open!

The goons would like to have it happen all over again but they ain't gonna get away with it no mo'!

[kskiska]

2. I just read an interesting book

by Betsy Blair, Gene Kelly's first wife (starred in "Marty"), who was blacklisted for her leftist activities, while Gene, whose politics were exactly the same, though quieter, was unscathed. Her crimes were small donations to leftist theatre groups, etc., and hanging out with the wrong people. She eventually left Kelly (not for that reason) and moved to France where she could be herself and fraternize with like-minded people. The book is "The Memory of All That."

[bemildred]

3. "Additional Dialog" -- Dalton Trumbo

Some of the funniest letters I've ever read.
Comparable to Twain at his best.