Title: Howard Koch Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1937-1976

Creator:

• Koch, Howard, 1902-

Call Number: U.S. Mss 50AN

Quantity: 2.9 c.f. (7 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 Howard Koch, a writer of motion pictures. Included are scripts, revisions, treatments, correspondence, stills, clippings, and explanatory notes for various Warner Brothers releases which Koch wrote including Casablanca (1942), for which he received an Academy Award; In This Our Life (1942); The Letter (1940); Mission to Moscow (1943); Rhapsody in Blue (1945); The Sea Hawk (1941); Sergeant York (1941); and other produced and unproduced motion pictures. Because Mission to Moscow led to Koch's testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947, the notes and correspondence pertaining to the writing of this screenplay are of special interest. Also relating to this subject are a transcript of his testimony to the committee and notes and correspondence relating to his subsequent blacklisting. The collection also includes a file on War of the Worlds which Koch wrote for Mercury Theatre of the Air (CBS) in 1938 and which was largely responsible for launching his career. Included are several script revisions, a letter from Koch describing the documents, a book, and a made-for-TV movie concerning the famous broadcast. Among Koch's prominent correspondents are Ingrid Bergman, Joseph E. Davies, Margaret Sullivan, Jack Warner, and Edward Bennett Williams.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0050an

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Howard Koch, outstanding author of radio scripts, plays, and screen-plays, was born in New York City on December 12, 1902. He received his B.A. from St. Stephen's College in 1922 and an LL.B. degree from Columbia Law School in 1925.

Koch's first major production in the entertainment field was the radio script for the famous 1938 Mercury Theater broadcast of the War of the Worlds. He began writing plays shortly thereafter with The Lonely Man, which was followed by Give Us This Day and In Time to Come. In 1940 he launched his career in Hollywood, collaborating on the screenplay for The Sea Hawk (1940). Screenplays written since then include The Letter (1940), Sergeant York (1941), In This Our Life (1941), Casablanca (1942), Mission to Moscow (1942), Rhapsody in Blue (1943), Three Strangers (1944), No Sad Songs for Me (1948), The Greengage Summer, released in America as Loss of Innocence (1961-1962), The War Lover (1962), and The Fox (1967). He won an Academy Award for collaboration on the best screenplay of 1942 for Casablanca.

In October, 1947, Koch was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communist infiltration into the Hollywood film industry. The Committee's concern with Koch stemmed primarily from his screenplay, Mission to Moscow, and his participation in activities and organizations such as Hollywood Writers Mobilization; National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions; and the Spanish Refugee Committee. His appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee was cancelled by the Committee but, as a result of the publicity, he was blacklisted by the American motion picture and television industries from 1950 to 1958. Most of this time was spent in Europe where Koch wrote screenplays under a nom de plume.

Howard Koch married Anne Green, also a writer; and had three children, Howard Jr., Karye, and Peter.

The Howard Koch Papers are comprised of six main sections: records related to Koch's book The Panic Broadcast; motion picture screenplays; records of the 1938 Mercury Theater radio broadcast War of the Worlds; records of the television movie The Night that Panicked America; theater scripts; and Hollywood blacklist material.

The War of the Worlds section includes a letter from Koch describing the documents, along with some reminiscences; the “final script,” which differs in minor details from the actual broadcast; a working script containing a few pages in Koch's handwriting; and a related story and clippings. Note also that the Archives owns a recording of the original broadcast, catalogued as Disc Recording 47A.

By far the largest part of the collection is an assemblage of screenplays and related files. These are placed in alphabetical order, and the materials relating to each will be found in the following sequence: correspondence, the script for the production itself, photographs, and clippings. Non-general items, such as notes on the sets, are placed immediately after the corresponding manuscripts. Koch's reference notes about work and problems with The Fox are in folder 1 of box 4, and categorize the material for that film. Correspondence in this section includes letters and telegrams from actresses Ingrid Bergman and Margaret Sullivan, and producer Jack Warner. Koch wrote numerous plays for Warner Brothers until Jack Warner repudiated him at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1946, stating that he “believed” Koch was a member of the Communist Party, a statement he later retracted.

A transcript of these hearings, in which several witnesses comment on Koch's film Mission to Moscow, together with other records of Koch's contact with the Hollywood Blacklist, make up the final section of the collection. Correspondence includes letters from former Ambassador to Russia Joseph E. Davies, and civil rights attorney Edward Bennett Williams. Since Koch's problems with the Committee stemmed primarily from Mission to Moscow, attention is called to the correspondence folder for that screenplay, which contains the author's notes on its preparation and his later difficulties with the Committee. Koch's additional notes on these matters are found in a letter filed with the Hollywood Blacklist material. Also in this section is a statement Koch has prepared regarding his past political activities and associations, and clippings.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Howard Koch, Woodstock, New York, 1964, 1968, 1977. Accession Number: MCHC77-86

Processing Information

Processed by MFF, 1965; A. Green, 1969; and Christine Rongone, 1978.

	Series: Book
	The Panic Broadcast (Published by Little, Brown and Company)
Box   5 Folder   1	Typescript Draft and Miscellany, 1913, 1970, undated
	Series: Motion Pictures	⇧
	Casablanca
Box   1	Correspondence, 1942, August 31 - 1944, March 3; with Koch notes on production, [, 1964, Jan.?], undated
Box   1	“Everybody Comes to Rick's” original screenplay by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
Box   1	Script, 1942, May 11
Box   1	Story outline, revised, undated
Box   1	Photographs and clippings
	The Cloud (unproduced)
Box   4 Folder   13	Script Note: Suggested by Washington Irving's “Rip Van Winkle,” contemporary version.
	Conquistador (Production information unknown)
Box   5 Folder   2	Treatment and Correspondence, May, 1943
	Fire from Heaven (Unproduced.)
Box   5 Folder   3	Script, undated Note: Based on material from the novel “The Woman at Otowi Crossing” by Frank Waters.
	The Fox (, 1967) Note Producer: Raymond Stross Director: Mark Rydell Screenplay: Lewis John Carlino, Howard Koch Cast: Anne Heywood, Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea
Box   4 Folder   1	Reference notes by Koch
Box   4 Folder   2	Option agreement, 1966, July 27 (A)
Box   4 Folder   3	Correspondence, 1965, July 13--Nov. 12 (B)
Box   4 Folder   4	Notes by Mark Rydell and response by Koch (C)
Box   4 Folder   5	Script by Lewis John Carlino and comments by Koch (D)
Box   4 Folder   6	Statement of the case before the Screen Writers Guild; brief history of The Fox development to the screen (E)
Box   4 Folder   7	Pauline Kael, New Yorker review, 1968, Feb. 10; response by Koch, , 1968, Feb. 11 (F)
Box   4 Folder   8	Koch's original script (G)
Box   4 Folder   9	Koch's script with revisions (H)
Box   4 Folder   10	Newspaper and magazine articles, reviews and publicity
	The Greengage Summer
Box   1	Correspondence, 1959, December 9 - 1961, April 10; with Koch notes, [, 1964, Jan.?]
Box   1	Script, 1959, April 30
Box   1	Story outline, undated
Box   1	Clippings
	In Our Time
Box   1	Script, 1943, May 29
Box   1	Clippings
	In This Our Life
Box   2	Script, 1941, October 1
	The Letter
Box   2	Correspondence, 1940, February 14
Box   2	Script, 1940, May 15
Box   2	Clippings
	Letter from an Unknown Woman
Box   2	Correspondence, 1948, February 13 - 1948, October 29
Box   2	Script, 1947, July 25
Box   2	Photographs and clippings
	Mission to Moscow
Box   2	Correspondence, 1942, November 13 - 1945, August 31 with Koch notes, [, 1964, Jan.?]
Box   2	Script, 1942
Box   2	Set notes, 1942; suggestions for further cuts, , 1943, January 18
Box   2	Dewey-LaFollette letter, New York Times, 1943, May 9; Koch's reply to Dewey's attack, , 1943
Box   2	Photographs
Box   2	Clippings
	No Sad Songs for Me
Box   2	Correspondence, [ 1948]
Box   2	Script, 1948, April 15
Box   2	Clippings
Box   2	Photographs
	Rhapsody in Blue
Box   3	Correspondence, 1943, February 15; clipping
Box   3	Script, 1943, June 16
	A Ride on the Milky Way (Unproduced)
Box   5 Folder   4	Script, undated
	The Savage (Production information unknown)
Box   5 Folder   5	Treatment, “Fallen Angel,” undated
	The Sea Hawk
Box   3	Script, 1940
Box   3	Story outline, undated
Box   3	Technical notes, undated; song, “Donna Maria's Song,” , undated
Box   3	Photographs and clippings
	Sergeant York
Box   3	Correspondence, 1941, February 21
Box   3	Script, 1941, January 31
Box   3	Photographs
Box   3	Clippings
	The Singing and the Gold (Unproduced)
Box   5 Folder   6	Script, co-authored by Anne Froelick, undated
	The Southern Double Cross (Production information unknown)
Box   5 Folder   7	Script, co-authored by Ann Green, undated
	Summer World (Unproduced)
Box   5 Folder   8	Script, First Draft, January 12, 1961
	Three Strangers
Box   3	Script, 1944, December 12
Box   3	Photographs and clippings
	To the Last Man (Unproduced) Note: Portrays the exploits of a German, Oskar Schindler, who save 1300 Jews from Nazi extermination; based on a series of interviews with Schindler and the surviving Jews.
Box   6 Folder   1-2	Script, “The Story of Oskar Schindler,” undated
	The Travelers (Unproduced)
Box   6 Folder   3	Script, circa 1965
	The War Lover (, 1962) Note Producer: Arthur Hornblow Director: Philip Leacock Screenplay: Howard Koch Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Ann Field, Gary Cockrell
Box   4 Folder   11	Correspondence, 1961, Oct. 5--1962, May 30; stills
Box   4 Folder   12	Script, with revisions
	Series: Radio	⇧
	Orson Welles Mercury Theatre (CBS Radio, October 30, 1938)
	“War of the Worlds”
Box   6 Folder   4	Script, circa October, 1938
Box   1	Correspondence, 1964, Jan. 5 (Koch letter); court opinion, , 1962, Jan. 3; misc. notes, , 1962
Box   1	Final script, 1938, Oct. 30
Box   1	Working script with original script pages, 1938
Box   1	Story, “Invasion from Inner Space,” undated
Box   1	Clippings
	Series: Television	⇧
	The Night that Panicked America (Made-for-TV movie, Paramount Television, October 31, 1975, Original telecast on ABC)
Box   6 Folder   5	Correspondence and Miscellany, March-June, 1975, undated
Box   6 Folder   6	Script, Revised Final, “The Night the Martians Landed” and “Please Stand By,” by Nicholas Meyer from the radio broadcast by Koch, June 13, 1975
	Series: Theater	⇧
	Dead Letters (NY: Lincoln Center Library Theatre)
Box   6 Folder   7	Script, undated
	In Time to Come (NY: Mansfield Theatre, December 28, 1941) Note: A play about the League of Nations which, despite good reviews, was aborted after Pearl Harbor.
Box   6 Folder   8	Script, co-authored by John Huston, circa 1941
	The Lonely Man (Chicago: Blackstone Theatre, 1937) Note: A production done under the sponsorship of the Federal Theatre and in which John Huston had his first important starring role.
Box   7 Folder   1	Script, undated
	Love Is a Four-Letter Word (Unproduced)
Box   7 Folder   2	Script, undated
	Skywarn (Unproduced)
Box   7 Folder   3	Script, undated
	Straight Jacket (San Miguel de Allenele, Mexico: [other production information unknown])
Box   7 Folder   4	Script, “Lovebind,” undated
Box   7 Folder   5	Script, “The Albatross,” undated
	The Trial of Richard Nixon (Unproduced) Note: About a theoretical trial of Richard Nixon after his resignation.
Box   7 Folder   6	Script, 1976
	Series: Hollywood Blacklist	⇧
Box   3	Correspondence, 1947, October 1 - 1964, January 29, including Koch letter
Box   3	Transcript of House Un-American Activities Committee Hearings, 1947, October 21
Box   3	Koch statements, undated
Box   3	Clippings