John Lawson

September 25, 1894 (age 82)

New York City, New York, United States

Upon the graduation Lawson went overseas as an ambulance driver during World War I. He began writing his first produced play, Roger Bloomer, while in France in 1918; some have speculated that the work was influenced by his brother's suicide. It was performed on Broadway in 1923 and is recognized as the first American expressionist play. His next play, Processional, about a coal miner oppressed by a capitalist figure called "The Man in the Silk Hat, " was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1925. The following year he joined the New Playwrights Theatre, a group of avant-garde writers including John Dos Passos and Mike Gold, which produced Nirvana (1926), a failure after four performances, and The International (1928), an expressionistic musical about a rebellious young man who is a metaphor for world revolution. While acclaimed by those with Marxist sympathies, it ran for only twenty-seven performances. In 1928, Lawson accepted an offer to write dialogue for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which had just converted from silent films to talkies. After writing the talking sequence for Flesh and the Devil (originally released in 1926), and titles for The Pagan (1928), he wrote screenplays for Dynamite (1929), The Ship from Shanghai (1930), Our Blushing Brides (1930), and The Sea Bat (1930). He then returned to New York City to mount Success Story (1932) for the Theatre Guild. He accepted a contract from RKO Radio Pictures to write Bachelor Apartment (1931) in order to support his family. He then returned to MGM where, in 1933, studio head Louis B. Mayer announced a 50-percent cut in pay for all nonunion personnel. Lawson joined with Dudley Nichols, Oliver H. P. Garrett, and Ralph Bloch to revive the old Screen Writers Guild, originally founded in 1921, with the purpose of defending "the economic interests of authors in the film industry. " He was elected its president. Both the chilly reception he received at MGM for his activism and the nonrenewal of his contract may have prompted Lawson's more radical involvement with the Communist party of the United States as he worked full-time at organizing the Guild. After a series of artistic failures in 1934--an unsuccessful film adaptation of Success Story for RKO called Success at Any Price and the simultaneous Broadway openings and closings of The Pure in Heart and The Gentlewoman--Lawson engaged in a public exchange of criticism and insult with the New York critics Percy Hammond, Brooks Atkinson, and Richard Garland, who referred to Lawson as "America's professional promising playwright. " Feeling rejected by the New York establishment and ineffectual as a revolutionary, Lawson volunteered to write for the Daily Worker while in Alabama to research a play on the Tennessee Coal and Iron strike. When his articles about the strike appeared in the New York Post, he was arrested and run out of Alabama with orders not to return. After he wrote Party Wire (1935) for Columbia Pictures, and a treatise on Marxist dramatic theory, Theory and Technique of Play-writing (1936), his strike play Marching Song (1937) was produced by the Theatre Union. While praised in the Daily Worker, it was panned by the Broadway critics and ran for only sixty-one performances. Lawson returned to Hollywood to write Blockade (1938) for the independent producer Walter Wanger and to organize for the Communist party. Additional screenwriting projects during this period were Personal History (later Foreign Correspondent, 1940), They Shall Have Music (1939), Earthbound (1939), Four Sons (1940), and Action in the North Atlantic (1942), which starred Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart. In 1943, Bogart starred in another Lawson-scripted film, Sahara, for Columbia. Lawson's final Hollywood films were also for Columbia, including Women at War (1943), Counter-Attack (1945), and The Jolson Story (1946), from which Lawson had his name removed because of his dissatisfaction with the racist interpretation added to his script. Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947), starring Susan Hayward, was the last film Lawson wrote before being blacklisted from Hollywood. Lawson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee as an unfriendly witness on October 27, 1947. After being refused the opportunity to read a prepared statement, he was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to confirm or deny his membership in the Communist party. Convicted in April 1948 and sentenced to one year in prison, Lawson entered the Ashland, Kentucky, Federal Reformatory on June 9, 1950. He shared a cell with Dalton Trumbo, another member of the "Hollywood Ten, " which also included Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr. , Edward Dmytryk, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman, and Alvah Bessie. After his release, Lawson continued to write under a pseudonym and published several critical works, including Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screen-writing (1949), The Hidden Heritage (1950), Film in the Battle of Ideas (1953), and Film: The Creative Process (1964). He spent the balance of his life working on a massive autobiography, which failed to find a publisher. Lawson died of complications from Parkinson's disease in San Francisco, California.

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The International (a Play)

Theory and Technique of Playwriting: With a New Introduction (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Theory and Technique of Playwriting: With a ...)

Excerpt from Theory and Technique of Playwriting: With a New Introduction This study of dramatic theory and technique was first published in 1936, in the midst of the social and theatrical upheaval that Harold Clurman calls The Fervent Years. Today, the arts display less fervor, and far less interest in social significance. The transition in dramatic thought from Waiting for Lefty to Waiting for Godot is almost as sweeping as the changes that have taken place among the world's peoples and powers. There are those who regard the culture of the thirties as dead and best forgotten. The question need not be debated here except insofar as this book offers testimony to the contrary. My beliefs have not Changed, nor has my fervor abated. I can hope that my understanding has ripened. But I see no need to modify or revise the theory of dramatic art on which this work is based. The theory holds that the dramatic process follows certain general laws, derived from the function of drama and its historical evolution. A play is a mimed fable, an acted and spoken story. The tale is presented because it has meaning to its creator. It embodies a vision, poses an ethical or emotional problem, praises heroes or laughs at fools. The playwright may not be conscious of any purpose beyond the telling of a tale. He may be more interested in box-oﬂice receipts than in social values. Nonetheless, the events taking place on the stage embody a point of View, a judgment of human relationships. Conceptual understanding is the key to mastery of dramatic technique. The structure of a play, the design of each scene and the movement of the action to its climax, are the means by which the concept is communicated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Film in the Battle of Ideas

(Lawson, John Howard)

People's theatre in Amerika

(Book by Karen Malpede Taylor)

John Howard Lawson's LOUD SPEAKER

(Master playwright Lawson's timeless farce about the press...)

The Lost Group Theatre Plays

(For the first time in over 75 years, three of the 'lost' ...)

For the first time in over 75 years, three of the 'lost' plays presented by the famed Group Theatre are now back in print. A huge part of American Theatrical History is now available to the public! The book features '1931-' by Claire and Paul Sifton, and 'Success Story' and 'Gentlewoman' by John Howard Lawson. Foreword by the legendary Estelle Parsons, with additional material by George Bartenieff, Jonathan Chambers, Jeffrey Lawson and Allie Mulholland. ‘1931-' by Claire & Paul Sifton is the story of Adam, who is fired from his warehouse job at the start of the play. Proud and determined, he sets out to find another job, only to find hundreds of other men in the same situation. Without a paycheck, Adam soon realizes how much he has to lose; health, dignity, hope, and possibly even the young shop girl he loves. Alternately, it is the story of all the men, young and old in Adam's situation. These are the men who sleep in the parks, beg for coins and even turn to crime when there seems to be no other option. When their story and Adam's comes to a head at the gripping finale, there is only one way left to turn: revolution. One of the preeminent playwrights of the early 20th century, John Howard Lawson was the first playwright to have 2 plays presented by the Group Theatre. SUCCESS STORY is a classic tale of ambition, the American Dream and what actually constitutes "success." Set in the New York advertising agency, we follow the rise of Sol Ginsburg and his struggles for contentment, before and after, the 1929 stockmarket crash. In 1934, The Group presented Mr. Lawson's GENTLEWOMAN. It is the story of socialite, Mrs. Gwyn Ballantine, who falls for the "inspired Bohemian" Rudy Flannigan. After it is discovered her husband has been committing scandalous business deals, Gwyn is tempted to pursue her passions for the poet Flannigan, despite their conflicting social standing. Can she turn her back on her privileged status and extravagant tastes in the name of love?

SUCCESS STORY

Film: The Creative Process

(Represents the first serious attempt an American author t...)

Processional - a Jazz Symphony of American Life in Four Acts

Sucess Story A Play

John Howard Lawson

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Background

John Howard Lawson was born in New York City, the third child of Simeon Levy (later S. Levy Lawson) and Belle Hart. His father was the general manager in the United States and Canada for Reuters, the British news agency.

Education

In addition to tours of Europe, America, and Canada with a private governess, Lawson was educated at the Halstead School in Yonkers, New York, the Cutler School in New York City, and Williams College, where he determined to become a professional playwright. At Williams he was not permitted to join the staffs of either the school paper or the literary magazine because he was a Jew, even though he was one of the latter's most prolific contributors. He graduated in 1914.

Career

Upon the graduation Lawson went overseas as an ambulance driver during World War I. He began writing his first produced play, Roger Bloomer, while in France in 1918; some have speculated that the work was influenced by his brother's suicide. It was performed on Broadway in 1923 and is recognized as the first American expressionist play. His next play, Processional, about a coal miner oppressed by a capitalist figure called "The Man in the Silk Hat, " was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1925.

The following year he joined the New Playwrights Theatre, a group of avant-garde writers including John Dos Passos and Mike Gold, which produced Nirvana (1926), a failure after four performances, and The International (1928), an expressionistic musical about a rebellious young man who is a metaphor for world revolution. While acclaimed by those with Marxist sympathies, it ran for only twenty-seven performances.

In 1928, Lawson accepted an offer to write dialogue for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which had just converted from silent films to talkies. After writing the talking sequence for Flesh and the Devil (originally released in 1926), and titles for The Pagan (1928), he wrote screenplays for Dynamite (1929), The Ship from Shanghai (1930), Our Blushing Brides (1930), and The Sea Bat (1930).

He then returned to New York City to mount Success Story (1932) for the Theatre Guild.

He accepted a contract from RKO Radio Pictures to write Bachelor Apartment (1931) in order to support his family. He then returned to MGM where, in 1933, studio head Louis B. Mayer announced a 50-percent cut in pay for all nonunion personnel. Lawson joined with Dudley Nichols, Oliver H. P. Garrett, and Ralph Bloch to revive the old Screen Writers Guild, originally founded in 1921, with the purpose of defending "the economic interests of authors in the film industry. " He was elected its president. Both the chilly reception he received at MGM for his activism and the nonrenewal of his contract may have prompted Lawson's more radical involvement with the Communist party of the United States as he worked full-time at organizing the Guild.

After a series of artistic failures in 1934--an unsuccessful film adaptation of Success Story for RKO called Success at Any Price and the simultaneous Broadway openings and closings of The Pure in Heart and The Gentlewoman--Lawson engaged in a public exchange of criticism and insult with the New York critics Percy Hammond, Brooks Atkinson, and Richard Garland, who referred to Lawson as "America's professional promising playwright. " Feeling rejected by the New York establishment and ineffectual as a revolutionary, Lawson volunteered to write for the Daily Worker while in Alabama to research a play on the Tennessee Coal and Iron strike. When his articles about the strike appeared in the New York Post, he was arrested and run out of Alabama with orders not to return. After he wrote Party Wire (1935) for Columbia Pictures, and a treatise on Marxist dramatic theory, Theory and Technique of Play-writing (1936), his strike play Marching Song (1937) was produced by the Theatre Union. While praised in the Daily Worker, it was panned by the Broadway critics and ran for only sixty-one performances.

Lawson returned to Hollywood to write Blockade (1938) for the independent producer Walter Wanger and to organize for the Communist party. Additional screenwriting projects during this period were Personal History (later Foreign Correspondent, 1940), They Shall Have Music (1939), Earthbound (1939), Four Sons (1940), and Action in the North Atlantic (1942), which starred Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart. In 1943, Bogart starred in another Lawson-scripted film, Sahara, for Columbia. Lawson's final Hollywood films were also for Columbia, including Women at War (1943), Counter-Attack (1945), and The Jolson Story (1946), from which Lawson had his name removed because of his dissatisfaction with the racist interpretation added to his script. Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947), starring Susan Hayward, was the last film Lawson wrote before being blacklisted from Hollywood.

Lawson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee as an unfriendly witness on October 27, 1947. After being refused the opportunity to read a prepared statement, he was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to confirm or deny his membership in the Communist party. Convicted in April 1948 and sentenced to one year in prison, Lawson entered the Ashland, Kentucky, Federal Reformatory on June 9, 1950. He shared a cell with Dalton Trumbo, another member of the "Hollywood Ten, " which also included Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr. , Edward Dmytryk, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman, and Alvah Bessie.

After his release, Lawson continued to write under a pseudonym and published several critical works, including Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screen-writing (1949), The Hidden Heritage (1950), Film in the Battle of Ideas (1953), and Film: The Creative Process (1964). He spent the balance of his life working on a massive autobiography, which failed to find a publisher. Lawson died of complications from Parkinson's disease in San Francisco, California.

Achievements

Lawson was the first president of the Screen Writers Guild and the first to sign the Guild's "Code of Working Rules". His early works, such as Roger Bloomer (1923) and Processional (1925), were notable examples of Expressionism. His "Success Story" (1932) was the longest-running play, with 121 performances. It was a play about Jewish middle-class workers struggling between capitalism and radicalism. His most important film was "Blockade" (1938). It was a film on the Spanish Civil War for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story.

Works

The International (a Play) The International (a Play)

Theory and Technique of Playwriting: With a New Introduction (Classic Reprint) Theory and Technique of Playwriting: With a New Introduction (Classic Reprint)

Film in the Battle of Ideas Film in the Battle of Ideas

$People\'s theatre in Amerika People\'s theatre in Amerika$ $John Howard Lawson\'s LOUD SPEAKER John Howard Lawson\'s LOUD SPEAKER$ The Lost Group Theatre Plays The Lost Group Theatre Plays