Title: Samuel Ornitz Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1919-1957

Creator:

• Ornitz, Samuel, 1890-1957

Call Number: U.S. Mss 48AN

Quantity: 2.4 c.f. (6 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society Archives / Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Contact Information

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of an author, screenwriter, and member of the Hollywood Ten who was imprisoned in 1950 after refusing to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The collection includes correspondence, writings, and other files. Present are manuscripts for two major novels, Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl (1923) and Bride of the Sabbath (1951), scripts for several stage plays and only a few screenplays and outlines. Annotated research files, clippings, and notes on Judaism and psychiatry illuminate the socio-political themes which were prominent in Ornitz's work. Also of interest are files which demonstrate his method of character development. Other files relate to Theodore Dreiser's investigation of the labor conditions in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931, and to the Hollywood Ten trial. The correspondence contains numerous exchanges with publishers such as Rinehart & Co., some references to Ornitz's experience as a screenwriter during the 1930's, and personal correspondence from the period of his imprisonment. Correspondents of note include Brooks Atkinson, Herbert Biberman, Vera Caspary, Harry Golden, Matthew Josephson, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lewis Mumford, and Art Young.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0048an

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Samuel Ornitz, author, screenwriter, and one of the Hollywood Ten, is a prominent figure in American letters. A native of New York City, born in 1890, he attended the City College of New York for two years, and subsequently attended New York University.

Ornitz spent twelve years in his first career as a social worker in New York City. First employed by the Prison Association of New York City in the years 1909-1914 performing penal research, probation, and parole work, he then became assistant superintendent of the Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a post he held until 1920.

Throughout the early and middle twenties, Ornitz for the first time began to write, while associated with the MacCauly and McFadden Publishing companies. In 1923 he published his first novel, Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl, which became a best seller, receiving both critical acclaim and wide public attention. Two years later, Ornitz followed this success with Round the World with Jocko the Great, a book for children, and, again, after a two year interim, A Yankee Passional, another novel.

The turning point in Ornitz' creative work came in 1928, when he moved to Hollywood and devoted his energies completely to writing for the screen. He produced himself, or collaborated on, a number of screenplays, of which this collection includes only Caucasus and Passover Story. Others were The Case of Lena Smity, Chinatown Nights, Follow Your Heart, Hell's Highway, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head, Mark of the Vampire, Men of America, One Man's Journey, Portia on Trial, The Richest Man in the World, Secrets of the French Police, and Three Kids and a Queen. Ornitz also wrote a number of plays, many of which were never produced. This collection includes The Bronx Story, Mythical Kingdom, a stage adaptation of Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl, and others.

Throughout his life, Ornitz was vitally interested in human rights. An early play, Deficit (1919), illustrates Ornitz' interest in the problems of large city tenement dwellers. In 1931, Ornitz again attracted attention by traveling to Harlan County, Kentucky, with the committee headed by Theodore Dreiser to investigate the injustices inflicted upon the coal miners of the area by unscrupulous mine owners.

The supreme test of Ornitz' personal convictions came sixteen years later when, together with nine other famous Hollywood screen writers, he was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in October, 1947, and he refused to admit to membership either in the Screen Writers' Guild or the Communist Party. Ornitz was cited for contempt of Congress, and, although ill, he served nine months of a one-year term in 1950-1951 at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri.

Ironically, Ornitz had ceased screenwriting several years earlier, his last known work of this genre being an adaptation for the picture Circumstantial Evidence, which had been written for 20th Century Fox in 1944. Following this, Ornitz had devoted himself to research for a new novel, and while incarcerated he put the finishing touches on Bride of the Sabbath, his first book-length work in twenty-five years. Published a few months after his release in 1951, the book became an immediate best seller and was hailed as a sequel to Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl. Ornitz had originally planned to make Books I and II of Bride of the Sabbath part of a trilogy, but the third volume never appeared.

Other demonstrations of Ornitz' loyalties were evinced by his membership in the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, the International Labor Defense Committee, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, and the Motion Picture Artists Committee.

In 1914, Ornitz married Sadie F. Lesser, by whom he had two sons, Arthur J., and Donald R. Ornitz. He died in March, 1957, at the age of 66.

The collection is organized into five major categories: WRITINGS, RESEARCH CLIPPINGS AND NOTES, CHARACTER FILES, SUBJECT FILES, and PERSONAL FILES AND CORRESPONDENCE.

Manuscripts for Ornitz' two major books are included with the WRITINGS. Also included are typescripts for several plays, although these are largely for unproduced works. The collection includes manuscripts for only four screenplays. In 1964 Mrs. Ornitz informed WCFTR that her husband's screenplays had been turned over to Robert W. Kenny as part of the Hollywood Ten legal defense effort. Unfortunately, these scripts were not received by the Archives as part of the Kenny-Walker Papers.

In the RESEARCH CLIPPINGS are Xeroxed copies of clippings on subjects relevant to Ornitz' writing and his socio-political views. For example, a number of folders relate to Judaism, psychoanalysis, and similar topics. These clippings have been extensively weeded, and only those which have been annotated by Ornitz to suggest the reason for his interest have been retained.

The CHARACTER FILES are arranged alphabetically by character names, for in many cases the work in which a specific character appeared could not be readily determined. These files suggest the method by which Ornitz developed his characters, as well as the general themes enunciated in his works.

The SUBJECT FILES document various social and political concerns with which Ornitz was involved at some time during his career. In 1992 the files relating to the Hollywood Ten were compared to material in other WCFTR holdings about the Ten, and only material that related specifically to Ornitz was retained, while other material was shifted to more appropriate WCFTR collections. Most useful now is the file of his public statements including the statement Ornitz tried in vain to read when he testified before the committee. (Correspondence and some legal material relating to the Hollywood Ten defense are filed in the CORRESPONDENCE series.) Also in the SUBJECT FILES are Dreiser Committee correspondence, notes, and testimony relating to the Harlan County Coal Miner's Strike of 1931. These files document the conditions under which the miners labored, the mine owners' response to the workers' unionizing attempts, and some of the activities of the Writers Committee. An additional folder contains several press releases issued in support of the Scottsboro murder defendants. Ornitz' involvement with this incident, however, is not documented in the papers.

The CORRESPONDENCE AND PERSONAL MATERIAL consist of personal and professional correspondence, memorabilia, biographical information, and a Xeroxed copy of a biographical scrapbook. The biographical information includes a three-page autobiography prepared for Bride of the Sabbath, two dust jackets, prison miscellany, and a broadside and program for The People's Playhouse at which the Ornitz' play “The Deficit” was produced in 1919. A few photographs of Ornitz received with the papers have been separated to the WCFTR name file.

The correspondence filed here is incomplete, primarily covering the periods 1923 to 1936 and 1947 to 1952. A large part of the correspondence consists of exchanges with publishers Horace Liveright regarding Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl and Rinehart & Co. for Bride of the Sabbath. The 1950-1952 correspondence with Richard Bransten of Rinehart & Co. is particularly extensive and in addition to documenting the details of bringing a manuscript to print it also contains insights into the way in which Ornitz' status as a jailed member of the Hollywood Ten affected this process. There is also ample correspondence here from general readers and friends about both of these works. Unfortunately there is virtually no correspondence in the papers which relates to Ornitz' career and activities as a screenwriter during the 1930's and early 1940's. Most interesting in this regard is a 1935 letter which relates his attempts to market his “American Agent/Diamonds” script to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and other studios, a letter to collaborator Don Davis regarding Edward G. Robinson (1932) and a few items concerning the Screen Writers' Guild and the problems of Hollywood writers of that period.

Correspondence from the Hollywood Ten era consists of a mix of personal and professional items. There are copies of exchanges with his wife and his agent, as well as some correspondence regarding parole. The post-imprisonment files include a letter from Harry Golden and a letter of condolence from Ring Lardner, Jr.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Arthur J. Ornitz, New York, New York, and Donald R. Ornitz, Los Angeles, California, 1963-1964.

Processing Information

Processed by WHB, 1964; reappraised and reboxed by Carolyn J. Mattern, 1992.

U.S. Mss 48AN	Series: Writings
	Books
	Bride of the Sabbath, 1951
Box   1 Folder   1-4	Book I, The Epikaros, copies 1-2
	Book II, The Protestant
Box   1 Folder   5-8	Copies 1-2
Box   2 Folder   1-4	Copies 3-4
Box   2 Folder   5	Book reviews and publicity
Box   2 Folder   6-7	“The Flesh and Adam,” undated
	Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl, 1923
Box   3 Folder   1-2	Annotated draft, undated
Box   3 Folder   3	Book reviews, 1924-1925
	Outlines
Box   3 Folder   4	“Children of the Night,” (and photographs), 1919
	Plays
	The Bronx Story
Box   3 Folder   5	Typed draft (anno.), January 6, 1945
Box   3 Folder   6	Typed draft (anno.), undated
Box   3 Folder   7	Deficit
	Typed script (anno.), May 1919
Box   3 Folder   8	In New Kentucky
	Published version, April 3, 1934
Box   3 Folder   9	Haunch, Pauch, and Jowl
	Typed script by Donald Davis and Samuel Ornitz, undated
Box   3 Folder   10-12	Mythical Kingdom
	Three typed drafts (anno.), undated
Box   4 Folder   1	“Semper Fidelis,”
	Typed script (anno.), by Samuel Ornitz, undated
Box   4 Folder   2	“A Soldier Comes Home,”
	Typed script (anno.), by Samuel Ornitz, undated
Box   4 Folder   3	“Without Difference”
	Typed script, undated
	Screenplays
Box   4 Folder   4	“Caucasus”
	Mimeo script adapted by Samuel Ornitz, undated
Box   4 Folder   5	“Diamonds” or “American Agent”
	Typed treatment by Samuel Ornitz, undated
Box   4 Folder   6	“Hatikva”
	Typed treatment by Samuel Ornitz, January 9, 1947
Box   4 Folder   7	“Passover Story”
	Typed script by Samuel Ornitz, undated
	Stories
Box   4 Folder   8	“Lester Loven Jumps Both Ways”
	Published excerpt, 1941
Box   4 Folder   9	“Loot” by Art and Sam Ornitz, undated
Box   4 Folder   10	“Miss Merrill's Singing Class,” undated
	Series: Research Clippings	⇧
Box   4 Folder   11	Antisemitism in Christian churches
Box   4 Folder   12	Antisemitism lecture
Box   4 Folder   13	Brandeis, Louis
Box   4 Folder   14	Children
Box   4 Folder   15	Christmas
Box   4 Folder   16	Definitions, expressions, and slang
Box   4 Folder   17	Disraeli, Heinie, and Spinoza
Box   4 Folder   18	Freud
Box   4 Folder   19	Herzl, Theodore
Box   4 Folder   20	Homosexuality
Box   4 Folder   21	Jesus and Judism
Box   4 Folder   22	Jewish communities
Box   4 Folder   23-24	Jewish oppression by Nazis
Box   4 Folder   25	Jews in the news
Box   5 Folder   1	Juvenile delinquency
Box   5 Folder   2	Negro discrimination
Box   5 Folder   3	Pacifism
Box   5 Folder   4	Peeksville, N.Y. (Paul Robeson concert, 1949)
Box   5 Folder   5	Psychiatry
Box   5 Folder   6	Psychoanalysis
Box   5 Folder   7	Renan, Ernest (The Life of Jesus)
Box   5 Folder   8	St. Paul
Box   5 Folder   9	Self-hatred
Box   5 Folder   10	World War II
Box   5 Folder   11	Yiddish theatre
Box   5 Folder   12	Yom Kippur
	Series: Character Files	⇧
Box   5 Folder   13	Baum, Rabbi
Box   5 Folder   14	Cramer, Saal
Box   5 Folder   15	Dyke, Willa
Box   5 Folder   16	Eli, Pauline, and Leon Ayeroft
Box   5 Folder   17	Eros, Johnny
Box   5 Folder   18	Law, Benedict
Box   5 Folder   19	Malklin, Ted and Ransom, Thad
Box   5 Folder   20	Uncle Mendel
Box   5 Folder   21	Rosenberg, Becky
Box   5 Folder   22	Stokley, Maude
Box   5 Folder   23	Wallace, Sidney
	Series: Subject File	⇧
	Harlan County, Kentucky, coal miners strike, 1931
Box   5 Folder   24	Correspondence
Box   5 Folder   25	Notes and Dreiser Committee testimony
	Hollywood Ten
Box   5 Folder   26	Pamphlets, broadsides, and petitions
Box   5 Folder   27	Clippings
Box   5 Folder   28	Ornitz statements, 1947-1950, undated
Box   6 Folder   1	Scottsboro murder case, Press releases, 1933
	Series: Correspondence and Personal Material	⇧
Box   6 Folder   2	Biographical material, memorabilia, prison records, 1919-1951
Box   6 Folder   3	Scrapbook, 1919-1951
Box   6 Folder   4-10	Correspondence, 1923-1957, undated
WCFTR Name File	Photographs of Ornitz