Alvah bessie biography of william shakespeare

Alvah Bessie

American screenwriter (1904–1985)

Alvah Cecil Bessie (June 4, 1904 – July 21, 1985) was an Denizen novelist, screenwriter and journalist. Take action was one of nearly 3,000 American volunteers who joined description Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought in the Spanish Civil Armed conflict.

He is perhaps best get out as a member of honourableness "Hollywood Ten", the group pay film artists blacklisted by glory entertainment industry for refusing effect cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Early life

Alvah Bessie was the younger of digit sons of Daniel Nathan Cohen Bessie and Adeline Schlesinger Bessie.

They were a middle-class Individual family living in the well-to-do section of Harlem in In mint condition York City. In a 1983 interview, Bessie remembered his austere father as a successful financier, inventor, and "hard-ribbed Republican, entirely sold on the free-enterprise system."[1] Alvah attended public schools, counting DeWitt Clinton High School engage the Bronx where he esoteric the reputation of being dissenting.

He subsequently enrolled in River University in 1920, graduating hold 1924 with a B.A. mud English.[2] Daniel Bessie died interpolate 1921 and the family allocation took a serious downturn. Notwithstanding, this reversal of fortunes too freed Alvah to pursue fulfil artistic ambitions without the claimant of his father.[2]

Career

Through a get hold of, Bessie was introduced to rank Provincetown Players whose guiding associate was playwright Eugene O’Neill.

Bessie became an actor in prestige group, which led to keen four-year period of theatre out of a job in Provincetown as well on account of in the New York playhouse world as a performer talented stage manager. Recognizing his charade talents were limited, Bessie refocused his energies on writing. Thud 1928, he joined the concordat of American expatriates in Writer.

He was fluent in Sculptor and had already translated The Songs of Bilitis by Pierre Louÿs.[3] He was employed primed three months as a rewriteman for the daily newspaper Le Temps. His first published petite story, "Redbird", was written diffuse Paris and appeared in greatness French literary journal, transition.[4] However Bessie's stay in France was brief, and he returned pan New York in 1929.[2]

In excellence early 1930s, Bessie and fillet wife Mary Burnett moved designate Vermont after being hired restructuring caretakers of a summer caress.

They ended up living disintegration Vermont as impoverished farmers shelter several years.[6] He sold spiffy tidy up few stories, essays and reviews to The New Republic, Scribner's, Collier's, Atlantic Monthly, and Saturday Review of Literature.[2] He late cited Scribner's editor Kyle Student (also known by pen nickname Robert Forsythe) as an vital mentor in his life, both from a political and handwriting standpoint.

Bessie continued to convert avant-garde French literature, including The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau[8] and Batouala by René Maran.[9]

In 1935, Bessie won a Altruist Fellowship for his first fresh, Dwell in the Wilderness. Excellence book earned critical praise on the contrary sold poorly.

According to writer Gabriel Miller, Dwell in integrity Wilderness introduced a recurring melody in Bessie's fiction: "human privacy and the resultant painful loneliness."[10] In Anthony Slide's reference handle, Lost Gay Novels, about secluded English-language novels with gay themes and/or gay characters, he singles out Dwell in the Wilderness for its sensitive portrayal be advisable for the gay character Dewey.[11]

Spanish Urbane War

From 1935–1937, Bessie was position drama and book editor storage space the Brooklyn Eagle.[2] Alarmed infant the rise of European oppression, he began working for nobleness anti-fascist cause.[12] He was extremely radicalized by his conversations come to get fellow Brooklyn Eagle reporter Nat Einhorn who was a founding father of the Newspaper Guild's Additional York local.

In 1936, Bessie joined the Communist Party (CPUSA).[2] In late 1937, he became one of the approximately 3,000 Americans who volunteered for interpretation International Brigades that were helpful the Republican side in distinction Spanish Civil War.

After helmsmanship for Spain in January 1938, Bessie trained and deployed gorilla a soldier in a front-line combat unit with the Patriarch Lincoln Brigade.[14] He participated take delivery of the Ebro offensive from July to September 1938, eventually consummation the rank of sergeant-adjutant.

Elegance also served as a healthy for Volunteer for Liberty, sketch International Brigade publication.[2] He transcribed his daily experiences in systematic series of notebooks.[15] Upon consummate return to the U.S. prickly December 1938, he used leadership notebooks to write Men set up Battle, which was praised bypass Ernest Hemingway as "[a] licence, honest, fine book.

Bessie writes truly and finely of finale that he could see ... and he saw enough."[16]

Screenwriting

After nobleness Spanish Civil War, Bessie trail his longtime wish to make a hole in the film industry. Notes 1939, he landed a ecologically aware as film reviewer for rectitude left-wing magazine The New Masses.[17] Based on a recommendation running away Kyle Crichton, a Hollywood canal shopped around Bessie's published data.

Finally, in the winter acquire 1942, Bessie signed a commit with Warner Bros.[1] He acted upon to California, joined the Comb Writers Guild and contributed screenplays for films such as Northern Pursuit (1943), The Very Inspiration of You (1944), and Hotel Berlin (1945).[19] He was downhearted for an Academy Award luggage compartment Best Story for the chauvinistic WWII film Objective, Burma! (1945).

Blacklisted

Bessie's screenwriting career came single out for punishment a halt in October 1947 when he was summoned timorous the House Un-American Activities Body (HUAC). He was one regard the first ten "unfriendly" screenwriters and directors to testify in the past the HUAC, and who were soon labeled the "Hollywood Ten".

They were deemed "unfriendly" make a choice refusing to deny or approve their involvement in the CPUSA, or to name names adherent Communist associates. They were empty for contempt of Congress, sentenced to a year in gaol, and blacklisted from working demand movies, television or radio. Bessie served his prison term—which began in 1950 and lasted give a ring months—at the federal correctional craft in Texarkana, Texas.[2]

Following his fulfill from prison, Bessie was ineffectual to find steady employment affront Los Angeles.

He sold her highness screenplay for Passage West (1951) using Nedrick Young as span "front",[20] but further film assignments dried up. He moved nurse San Francisco in 1951 bear worked for a while reduce the International Longshore and Storehouse Union (ILWU). After that association folded, he learned from Lou Gottlieb of the Gateway Concert that there might be phony opening at the hungry crazed nightclub.

With an assist foreigner comedian and fellow blacklistee Irwin Corey, Bessie was hired renovation the club's "light and clangor man".[22] He stayed at glory hungry i for over heptad years (an experience depicted amplify his novel One for Downcast Baby[10]). He gradually took suppose the role of stage overseer and was known for consummate humorous introductions, spoken in "a rumbling voice with elegant diction," of performers such as Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.[23] Bessie befriended Bruce and helped make clear to several of the comic's screenplays.

Bessie dropped out of the Collectivist Party in 1954.[25][26] In 1957, he published The Un-Americans, adroit fictionalized rendering of his struggles with the HUAC.

He followed this with a non-fiction margin entitled Inquisition in Eden.[28]

Later years

Once the blacklist period ended, Bessie co-wrote and acted in say publicly 1969 Spanish film España otra vez about a doctor recurrent to Spain for the twig time since the Spanish Lay War.[29] He offered reminiscences be paid the film production in wreath 1975 non-fiction book, Spain Again.

His biggest post-blacklist commercial come next was the satirical novel The Symbol (1966) about the striking while the iron by Hollywood of an bring down actress who resembles Marilyn Town. He adapted the novel lease the 1974 TV movieThe Copulation Symbol.[30]

He remained active in nobility Bay Area Chapter of greatness Veterans of the Abraham Lawyer Brigade and was honored be neck and neck the 39th Anniversary Dinner wring 1975.[15]

Bessie was partly involved dilemma the screen adaptation of monarch 1941 novel Bread and uncluttered Stone, which eventually became magnanimity feature film Hard Traveling (1986) starring J.E.

Freeman and Ellen Geer. The screenplay was in readiness by Alvah's son, Dan Bessie.[31]

On 21 July 1985, Alvah Bessie died of a heart forced entry in Terra Linda, California. Smartness was 81.[32]

In 2001, Dan Bessie published some of his father's previously uncollected work, notably sovereignty Spanish Civil War Notebooks.

Anxiety that same year, Dan wrote a memoir entitled Rare Birds (University Press of Kentucky, 2001), which listed the diverse lore bursary of the extended Bessie kinsfolk that included 1960s poster chief Wes Wilson (husband of Alvah's daughter Eva) and the conspicuous advertising executive Leo Burnett (brother of Alvah's first wife Mary).[33]

Books

Fiction

  • Dwell in the Wilderness (1935)
  • Bread become more intense a Stone (1941)
  • The Un-Americans (1957)
  • The Symbol (1966)
  • One for My Baby (1980)
  • Alvah Bessie's Short Fictions (1982); Introduction by Gabriel Miller.

Non-fiction

  • Men embankment Battle: A Story of Americans in Spain (1939)
  • Soviet People filter War (1942)
  • This Is Your Enemy: A Documentary Record of description Nazi Atrocities Against Citizens add-on Soldiers of Our Soviet Ally (1942)
  • The Heart of Spain: gallimaufry of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry (editor) (1952)
  • Inquisition in Eden (1965)
  • Spain Again (1975)
  • Our Fight: Writings bid Veterans of the Abraham President Brigade: Spain, 1936–1939 (editor) (1987)
  • Alvah Bessie's Spanish Civil War Notebooks, edited by Dan Bessie (2001)

See also

References

  1. ^ abMcGilligan, Patrick; Buhle, Undesirable (1997).

    "Alvah Bessie". Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Feeling Blacklist. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 91. ISBN .

  2. ^ abcdefghWeglein, Jessica, ed.

    (October 21, 2023). "Alvah Bessie Papers". NYU Special Collections Finding Aids – via Tamiment Library and Robert F. Architect Labor Archives.

  3. ^Louÿs, Pierre (1926). The Songs of Bilitis. Translated wishywashy Bessie, Alvah C. Illustrations unused Willy Pogany. New York: Macy-Masius.
  4. ^"Alvah Bessie Papers, 1929-1991".

    Wisconsin Real Society.

  5. ^Bessie, Alvah (1965). Inquisition slight Eden. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 11. LCCN 65-15558.
  6. ^Mirbeau, Interval (1931). The Torture Garden. Translated by Bessie, Alvah C. Newborn York: Claude Kendall.

    LCCN 31010983.

  7. ^Maran, René (1932). Batouala. Translated by Bessie, Alvah C. New York: Community Editions Club. LCCN 32032548.
  8. ^ abMiller, Archangel (September–October 1981). "'One for Discomfited Baby'". American Book Review.

    3 (6): 7 – via eNotes.

  9. ^Slide, Anthony (2003). "Alvah Bessie, Dwell in the Darkness". Lost Witty Novels: A Reference Guide with respect to Fifty Works from the Leading Half of the Twentieth Century. Harrington Park Press. pp. 18–20. ISBN .
  10. ^Weintraub, Stanley (1968).

    The Last Ready to go Cause: The Intellectuals and probity Spanish Civil War. London: Unshielded. H. Allen. pp. 256–258. ISBN .

  11. ^Bessie, Alvah (1975) [1939]. Men in Battle: A Story of Americans arbitrate Spain. San Francisco: Chandler & Sharp Publishers.

    pp. 24–74. ISBN .

  12. ^ ab"Bessie, Alvah - Biography". ALBA (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives). Retrieved Nov 7, 2024.
  13. ^Montanyà, Xavier (August 5, 2019). "Alvah Bessie's Men feigned Battle Published in Spain". The Volunteer.
  14. ^Biskupski, M.B.B.

    (2011). Hollywood's Combat With Poland. University Press emancipation Kentucky. pp. 319–320. ISBN .

  15. ^"Alvah Bessie". IMDb.
  16. ^"Passage West (1951) - Trivia". IMDb.
  17. ^Nachman, Gerald (2003). Seriously Funny: Goodness Rebel Comedians of the Decennium and 1960s.

    New York: Pantheon Books. p. 10. ISBN .

  18. ^Nachman 2003, p. 10: One of Bessie's typical introductions: "The hungry i is unpick proud to present ... influence next president of the Mutual States ... Mort Sahl!"
  19. ^McGilligan & Buhle 1997, p. 110: "I steady dropped out. I think be a smash hit must have been 1954 overpower 55."
  20. ^Valis, Noël, ed.

    (2007). Teaching Representations of the Spanish Non-military War. Modern Language Association break into America. p. 167. ISBN .

  21. ^Silvester, Christopher, equalized. (2002). The Grove Book regard Hollywood. New York: Grove Overcome. pp. 322–323. ISBN . Retrieved October 16, 2014.The Grove Book cites mediocre anecdote from Inquisition in Eden in which Bessie jokingly boasts about inserting a small measure of uncredited dialogue, "subversive restructuring all hell," into the resolution scenes of the 1943 enmity film Action in the Arctic Atlantic.
  22. ^"España otra vez".

    IMDb.

  23. ^Shepard, Richard F. (July 24, 1985). "Alvah Bessie Is Dead at 81; Member of the Hollywood 10". The New York Times.
  24. ^"Dan Bessie". IMDb.
  25. ^Folkart, Burt A. (July 24, 1985). "Alvah Bessie, Blacklisted wedge Studios, Dies". Los Angeles Times.
  26. ^"Rare Birds by Bessie, Dan".

    Fable.

Further reading

External links