Title: Gordon Kahn Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1944-1950

Creator:

• Kahn, Gordon, 1902-1962

Call Number: U.S. Mss 118AN

Quantity: 1.1 c.f. (3 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder)

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 a journalist and screenwriter blacklisted for his support of the Hollywood Ten in his book Hollywood on Trial (1948). Included are general correspondence, research files on the Ten, papers relating to the Screen Writers' Guild, and copies of several articles.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0118an

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Writer Gordon Kahn was born on May 11, 1902 in Szigedt, Hungary. When he was still a young child his parents immigrated to the United States and young Gordon grew up on New York's lower East Side. After graduating from Townsend Harris High School in New York City in 1918, he attended Yale University for a year. At this time he also started his journalistic career as a cub reporter for Connecticut's Bridgeport Star.

In 1919 Kahn moved back to New York and entered the School of Journalism at Columbia University. He was more concerned with gaining a practical rather than a formal education, however, and he first took a job with the New York Herald and then with Zitt's Theatrical Weekly. For Zitt's he wrote a Broadway column in the style of Samuel Pepys.

In 1922 he shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with artist Al Hirschfeld, and they collaborated on a book about New York speakeasies, Manhattan Oases. Hirschfeld did the illustrations for the book.

During much of the 1920s Kahn wrote for the New York Daily Mirror and there he was associated with Samuel Marx, who later became head of the scenario department at MGM in Hollywood. In 1930 Marx wrote to Kahn, asking him to come to the West Coast and join the studio. That was the beginning of a new career for the young writer.

Kahn remained in Hollywood for the next two decades, writing primarily for Republic and MGM. He also worked for Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers. Among his screenplays were The Sheik Steps Out (1937), Buy Me That Town (1941), A Yank on the Burma Road (1942), Two O'Clock Courage (1945), Ruthless (1948), and Whiplash (1948). Altogether Kahn was credited with nearly thirty screenplays.

Always interested in liberal causes, Kahn was active in the Screen Writers Guild and served first as managing editor and then as editor of its journal, The Screen Writer. It was this activity that led to his subpoena in 1947 as an “unfriendly witness” by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communist influence in Hollywood. Kahn was not called to testify so he did not become a member of the Hollywood Ten. In 1948, however, he wrote a book, Hollywood on Trial, about the injustice of the proceedings, and the book put an immediate and permanent end to his employment by Hollywood studios. Kahn was effectively blacklisted for the rest of his life.

From 1950 to 1956 Kahn and his family chose to live in Mexico; there Kahn worked on a novel. In 1956 they moved to Manchester, New Hampshire where Kahn lived for the remaining six years of his life. During that time he wrote magazine articles, primarily for Holiday and The Atlantic Monthly; all of the articles were written under pseudonym.

Gordon Kahn died on December 31, 1962, and was survived by his wife, Barbara Brodie Kahn, and two sons.

The Gordon Kahn Papers are organized into three series--CORRESPONDENCE, RESEARCH FILES, WRITINGS--and deal primarily with the Hollywood Ten, those prominent screenwriters summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. HUAC was investigating communism in Hollywood and the Ten were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer the Committee's questions. Most of them were subsequently blacklisted by the movie industry.

CORRESPONDENCE is of a general nature and covers the years 1946 to 1948.

Kahn's RESEARCH FILES deal with the background work for his book, Hollywood on Trial, the story of the Hollywood Ten which was written with their collaboration. Here are notes on the hearings, legal documents, clippings, articles from The Screen Writer, and papers from the Screen Writers Guild.

WRITINGS contains a manuscript and reviews of Hollywood on Trial and two articles that Kahn wrote for Script Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly.

Acquisition Information

Placed on deposit by Mrs. Gordon Kahn, Manchester, New Hampshire. Accession Number: MCHC63-5

Processing Information

Processed by Mary Ourada, September, 1972.

Box   1 Folder   1	Series: Correspondence, 1946 August 2-1948 April 5
	Series: Research Files	⇧
	Hollywood Ten Materials
Box   1 Folder   2	Notes on HUAC Hearings, 1947 October
	Legal Documents
Box   1 Folder   3	U.S. District court cases
Box   1 Folder   4	U.S. vs. Albert Maltz
Box   1 Folder   5	U.S. vs. Lester Cole, John Howard Lawson, Dalton Trumbo
Box   1 Folder   6	Supreme Court Appeals, 1948 October-1949 October
	Clippings
Box   1 Folder   7	1946 October-1947 August
Box   1 Folder   8-9	1947 October
Oversize Folder   1	Reprint from editorial page of the Herald-Tribune, 1947 Oct. 22, titled “Who's Un-American”
Box   2 Folder   1	1947 October - 1950, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	From Hollywood Reporter, Variety, 1947 September 10-1948 May 18
Box   2 Folder   3	Miscellany
	Screen Writers' Guild
Box   2 Folder   4	The Screen Writer, 1945 June-1947 December
Box   2 Folder   4	Miscellaneous, 1944-1948 May
Box   2 Folder   5	Miscellaneous clippings and printed materials, 1936, 1941, 1947-1949
	Series: Writings	⇧
	Hollywood on Trial
Box   2 Folder   6	pp. 1-155
Box   2 Folder   7	pp. 156-238
Box   2 Folder   8	Notes
Box   3 Folder   1	Reviews, 1948 April-May 3
Box   3 Folder   2	“Two Gentlemen from Paris,” Script Magazine, 1947 July
Box   3 Folder   2	“How to Stuff a Shirt,” The Atlantic Monthly, undated