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Novelist and screenwriter, whose works
are deeply rooted in the great humanistic and social tradition of
American literature. Budd Schulberg won an Oscar for his screenplay of
On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan. In
the story a former prize fighter, who has fought all his life for money
and lost, eventually fights for the other waterfront workers against
corruption-ridden union. The film was partly based on Schulberg's
research on the life of longshoremen in Hoboken, and the struggle
within their union. "... I saw that his interest was not a tactic of
the trade but passionate and true," wrote his friend Elia Kazan in his
book of memoir, "and that he saw the grim tragedies and grotesque
humour of that place as great stories as seen, with compassion for
victims and devotion to the just."
"Along with the chicken pox, German measles and scarlet fever, I came
down with another childhood affliction - poetry. I no longer recall the
exact moment of infection when I first began to crawl as far back as I
could under the piano, to put my thoughts into rhyme. As the
self-appointed, mother-encouraged poet laureate of Lorraine Boulevard,
I composed couplets appropriate to various holidays. For Mother's Day I
withdrew into the darkest corner under the Steinway for longer than
usual: I wanted to make this my masterpiece." (from Moving Pictures:
Memories of a Hollywood Prince, 1981)
Budd Schulberg was born in New York
City in 1914 but raised in Hollywood. His father, B.P. Schulberg, was
"a political liberal in the reactionary world of Mayer and Hearst"
(from Moving Pictures). He was one of the motion pictures pioneers, one
of the very first screen writers, and Paramount's head of production in
the late 1920s. As a child Schulberg suffered from fainting fits and
speech impediment; he stammered his way from therapist to therapist. In
compensation became a good listener and started to write poems and
stories at an early age. In this he was greatly encouraged by his
mother, Adela Schulberg. When she visited the Soviet Union in the early
1930s, she brought him from Moscow Short Stories out of Soviet Russia.
Gorky was already familiar name to Schulberg, but Isaac Babel was new -
"Far into the night I kept the light on in my Pullman berth, reading
and dreaming of the day when I could be included in such an anthology."
Later Adela became a successful agent.
Schulberg was educated at Los Angeles High School (1928-31), where he
edited the daily magazine. After studies at Deerfeld Academy, where he
entered Dartmouth College, Hannover, New Hampshire, receiving his A.B.
(cum laude) in 1936. In the same year he married Virginia Ray; they
divorced in 1942. At Deerfield and at Dartmouth Schulberg continued to
write and published short stories in little magazines.
At the age of seventeen Schulberg worked as a publicist at Paramount,
writing stories about the ambitions of the stars before they had become
famous. In 1936 he became a screenwriter. During this period he joined
the Communist Party. His short stories appeared in Liberty, Colliers
and The Saturday Evening Post. In WINTER CARNIVAL (1939) Schulberg
cooperated with F. Scott Fitzgerald. "I thought he was dead," said
Schulberg when he heard that he would work with the legendary writer.
"If he is," cracked the producer, "he must be the first ghost who ever
got $1,500 a week. The romantic comedy dealing with collage romances
failed at the box-office. When the German director Leni Riefenstahl, a
friend of Hitler, visited Hollywood with her film Olympia (1938), about
the 1936 Munich Olympics, Schulberg participated in protests against
her. Later in 1946 he wrote an article for The Saturday Evening Post,
in which he labelled Riefenstahl a "Nazi Pinup Girl".
After losing his job in Paramount in 1939 Schulberg left Hollywood. He
lived at Connecticut River, and at Norwich, Vermont, where he completed
his first novel, WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? (1941). It gained a commercial
success and was the National Critics' Choice as Best First Novel of the
Year. In the satirical story of corruption an office boy, Sammy Glick,
who rises to head of a major motion picture studio. Schulberg then
spent some time in Mexico, and wrote screenplays. In 1943 he married
Victoria Anderson; they divorced in 1964. In 1964 Schulberg married the
actress Geraldine Brooks.
During World War II Schulberg served in the United States Navy, rising
to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. He was a member of John Ford's
documentary unit, and wrote new narration with James Kevin McGuinness
to Ford's picture December 7th, which won an Oscar in 1944 for best
documentary short subject. The film dealt with intelligence failures
preceding the bombing of Pearl Harbor but mostly attempted to uplift
patriotic mood. Schulberg also made some rewrites in the film THEY WERE
EXPENDABLE (1945) - the screenplay was written by Frank Wead and based
on a book by William L. White. After the war Schulberg was in charge of
photographic evidence for the Nuremberg Trials. With George Stevens he
assembled from captured German newsreel and propaganda footage The Nazi
Plan.
"I often think of film-making as a horse race in which teams of three
or four or five horses must run together. If they run at all it is
rather remarkable. If they run as well as they can, manage not to trip
each other up, and cross the finish line together, it is a not-so-small
miracle. This may explain why the most gifted of film-makers, Ford,
Stevens, Huston, Kazan, may achieve only three or four truly memorable
films in a lifetime of hard work." (Budd Schulberg in Writing in
America, ed. by John Fischer and Robert B. Silvers, 1962)
THE DISENCHANTED (1950) was loosely based on his screenwriting
experiences in Hollywood. Its protagonist, Manley Halliday, a famous
novelist sunk at the bottom of his career, was modelled after F. Scott
Fitzgerald. His fate is seen through the eyes of Shep, a young,
politically active man. Anthony Burgess proclaimed: "Halliday is a
three-dimensional creation who will haunt the imagination of all who
have the good fortune to be coming, for the first time, to this
remarkable novel." The book was later adapted into a Broadway play by
the author and Harvey Breit. In 1947 the House of Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) started its investigations in the Hollywood
Motion Picture Industry. A screenwriter named Schulberg as a former
member of the Communist Party - he had left the party about in 1940.
"My opposition to communists and Soviet dictatorship is a matter of
record," Schulberg wrote in his telegram to HUAC. Like Elia Kazan,
Schulberg testified as a friendly witness before the committee. As a
result of his cooperation, some of his close friends, with whom he had
shared similar ideals, cut all contacts to him.
"There was a time when I was young when I sang the "International". Who
would have guessed that the "International" would result in the two
largest countries in the world, both "Socialist", brandishing lethal
weapons at each other? As long as we can wonder and remember, speculate
and (perhaps vainly) hope, we are not dead. The non- or anti-communist
humanist writer of novels may be slightly out of style, but there are
miles and decades and many books to go before he sleeps." (Budd
Schulberg in Contemporary Novelists, ed. by James Vinson, 1972)
In 1958 he became president of Schulberg Productions and in 1965
President of Douglass House Foundation. WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES
(1958), produced by his own company, led to a disagreement between the
director Nicholas Ray and Schulberg who wrote the screenplay. When Ray
was absent for the final one or two weeks, Schulberg and Charles
Maguire shot the last scenes. Ray wanted his name removed from the film
because he did not accept Burl Ives's acting in the death scene.
SANCTUARY V (1971) portrayed a revolutionary leader, Angel Bello, who
resembled much Fidel Castro. Several of Schulberg's books have dealt
with the world of boxing - he also once owned a piece of fighter and
was the boxing editor of the Sports Illustrated in 1954. THE HARDER
THEY FALL (1947), Schulberg's second novel, was about racketeering in
professional boxing. It was filmed in 1956, starring Humphrey Bogart in
his last role as a cynical out-of-work sportswriter, Eddy, who promotes
a huge heavyweight named Toro. He doesn't know that his opponents take
dives. Nick (Rod Steiger), Eddy's boss, arranges a fight against much
superior champ, Baer. Toro with his "powder-puff punch and a glass jaw"
is sadistically beaten by him. Eventually Eddy, who has succumbed to
corruption, restores his integrity. The remarkable boxing scenes were
photographed by Burnett Guffey. The Harder They Fall includes an
interview with real-life, punch-drunk ex-boxer. Schulberg took the
title of the book from the famous saying, "the bigger they are, the
harder they fall," commonly attributed to the boxer Robert Fitzsimmons.
LOSER AND STILL CHAMPION (1972) was a biography of Muhammad Ali.
Schulberg also wrote the script for the documentary film JOE LOUIS: FOR
ALL TIME (1984).
In the late 1960s Schulberg helped found the Douglass House Watts
Writers Workshop in Los Angeles and in 1971 New York's Frederick
Douglass Creative Arts Center. Schulberg went to Watts while "buildings
were still smoking" and produced with young writers a book, FROM THE
ASHES (1967). THE FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS (1972) examined six American
novelists, Sinclair Lewis, Scott Fitzgerald, William Saroyan, Nathanael
West, Thomas Heggen, and John Steinbeck, and their relationship to
success and failure. During his long career as a writer Schulberg also
taught writing at Columbia University, New York; Phoenixville Veterans
Hospital; and University of the Streets, New York. Among his several
awards are American Literary Association Award, New York Critics Award,
Foreign Correspondents Award, Screen Writers Guild Award, Academy Award
for screenplay, Humanitarian Award from B'nai Brith, Bahai, German Film
Critics Award, and Emmy Award.
Schulberg's memoir of his childhood as a "Hollywood prince," MOVING
PICTURES, appeared in 1981. A number of famous names appear on its
pages - Marlene Dietrich who was the first woman whom Schulberg saw
wearing pants, Elizabeth Taylor who tells him on a beach horror stories
of childhood stardom, and the writer Ben Hecht, who advised him to get
a summer job on a newspaper: "On a newspaper you get kicked around. You
learn the hard way. You gotta sit down and write it, ready or not." The
author Irwin Shaw praised the book as "a fascinating account of a
fascinating part of our recent history," and the director John Huston
said: "Budd Schulberg is uniquely equipped to tell about Hollywood. He
sprang from its loins, so to speak; nurtured in its bosom as its son,
laboured in its vineyards." In 2001 Schulberg ran as candidate for WGAE
(Writers Guild of America, East), saying in his web site: "After almost
a year out with physical tsuris, I'm back in fighting shape again and
ready to join my Council mates in facing all the new challenges that
lie ahead. While our Guild has made miraculous improvements in our
welfare since I first entered the fray in the mid-30's, the technology
revolution has created new writing fields as unorganized as
screenwriting was in the early 1930's."
Terry (Marlon Brando): It was you, Charley. You was my brother. You
should have looked out me instead of making me take them dives for the
short end money.
Charley (Rod Steiger): I always had a bet down for you. You saw some money.
Terry: See! You don't understand! I could've been a contender. I
could've been class and been somebody. Real class. Instead of a bum. It
was you, Charley.
(from On the Waterfront, 1954)
Schulberg's famous work, On the Waterfront, was originally titled The
Bottom of the River. He had written articles of waterfront's work gangs
for Commonwealth, the liberal Catholic magazine, and knew Father John
Corridan, who tried to reform their corrupt union. Among Schulberg's
other sources were newspaper articles by Malcolm Johnson, but he also
spent much time with the longshoreman. "Budd could stand up to a bar
and match Hoboken's finest, drink for drink, all night," remembers
Kazan. The screenplay attracted the director who wanted to show his old
'comrades' that he had not backed away from his convictions, and
respond to the attacks on newspapers. All major studios turned down the
script. Finally the independent producer Sam Spiegel, known for his
chicanery and trickery, arranged a deal with Columbia. When he offered
Marlon Brando the role of Terry, the actor first refused to work with
Kazan because of his testimony to HUAC. In the film Malloy testifies
before the Crime Commission, and is ostracized by his friends. Frank
Sinatra, who thought he had got the role, sued Spiegel for breach of
contract. Most of the key roles were based on real-life persons - Karl
Malden's on waterfront priest John Corridan, Brando's on
whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony De Vincenzo and Arthur Brown,
'Brownie,' who was a defiant of the 'mob,' and Lee J. Cobb's on mobster
Albert Anastasia. The film won eight Academy Awards: for best picture,
Brando as best actor, Eva Marie Saint as best supporting actress, Boris
Kaufman's (Dzinga Vertov's brother) cinematography, Kazan's direction,
Schulberg's screenplay, among others.
For further reading: 'The Writer and Hollywood' by Budd Schulberg in
Writing in America, ed. by John Fischer and Robert B. Silvers (1962);
Contemporary Novelists, ed. by James Vinson (1972); Contemporary
Authors New Revision Series 19 (1987); A Life by Elia Kazan (1988);
World Authors 1900-1950, vol. 3, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew
C. Kimmens (1996) - For further information: Budd Schulberg - Budd
Schulberg: Author of What Makes Sammy Run? - Schulberg's lecture shares
screenwriting experience
Selected works and film adaptations:
screenplay; WINTER CARNIVAL, 1939 (with F. Scott Fitzgerald; film 1939,
dir. by Charles Riesner, starring Ann Sheridan, Richard Carlson, Helen
Parrish)
'Passport to Nowhere', 1940 (in Story)
WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN?, 1941 - (film adaptation in ?, dir. by Ben
Stiller, narrated by Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Tony Curtis,
starring Ben Stiller)
'The Real Viennese Schmalz', 1941 (in Esquire)
Weekend for Three, 1941 (film dir. by Irving Reis, screenplay Dorothy
Parker, Alan Campbell, story by Budd Schulberg, strarring Dennis
O'Keefe, Jane Wyatt, Philip Reed)
Cinco fueron escogidos, 1942 (film dir. by Herbert Kline, story by Budd Schulberg)
City Without Men, 1943 (film dir. Sidney Salkow, story by Budd
Schulberg, starring Linda Darnell, Michael Duane, Sara Allgood)
Government Girl, 1943 (film directed by Dudley Nichols, based on the
story by Adela Rogers St. Johns and Budd Schulberg, starring Olivia de
Havilland, Sonny Tufts, Anne Shirley)
THE HARDER THEY FALL, 1947 (film 1956, dir. by Mark Robson, screenplay
by Philip Yordan, starring Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling)
THE DISENCHANTED, 1950
SOME FACES IN THE CROWD, 1953
screenplay: ON THE WATERFRONT, 1954 (film 1954. dir. by Elia Kazan,
starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Karl
Malden)
WATERFRONT, 1956
A FACE IN THE CROWD: A PLAY FOR THE SCREEN, 1957 (film 1957, dir. by
Elia Kazan, story 'Your Arkansas Traveller' by Budd Schulberg, starring
Andy Griffith, Lee Remick, Walter Matthau and Patricia Neal.) "If Kazan
and Schulberg had been content to make their case by implication, it
might have been a completely sophisticated piece of movie-making.
Instead, everything is elaborately spelled out, and the film
degenerates into preposterous liberal propaganda." (Andrew Sarris)
screenplay: A FACE IN THE CROWD, 1958 (with an introduction by Elia Kazan)
'The Barracudas', 1958 (in Playboy)
ACROSS THE EVERGLADES: A PLAY FOR THE SCREEN, 1958
screenplay: WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, 1958 ( film 1958, dir. by
Nicholas Ray, starring Christopher Plummer, Burl Ives, Gypsy Rose Lee)
THE DISENCHANTED, 1959 (play, with Harvey Breit, prod. in New York, 1958)
'A Second Father', 1961 (in Playboy)
WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN?, 1964 (musical libretto with Stuart Schulberg,
music by Ervin Drake, prod. in New York)
'Say Goodnight to Owl', 1966 (in Cosmopolitan)
ed.: FROM THE ASHES: THE VOICES OF WATTS, 1967
SANCTUARY V, 1971
LOSER AND STILL CHAMPION: MUHAMMAD ALI, 1972
THE FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS, 1972
SWAN WATCH, 1975 (with Geraldine Brooks)
EVERYTHING THAT MOVES, 1980
screenplay: ON THE WATERFRONT: ORIGINAL STORY AND SCREENPLAY, 1980
MOVING PICTURES: MEMOIRS OF A HOLLYWOOD PRINCE, 1981
documentary: JOE LOUIS: FOR ALL TIME, 1984 (script)
LOVE, ACTION, LAUGHTER, AND OTHER SAD TALES, 1989
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