California State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Northridge
April 24, 1996
Contact: Stacy Peterson,
Ast. to the Director of News and Information,
(818) 885-2130
But within 10 years, Polonsky was a much sought after screenwriter whose skill with words was so valued that the United States government asked him to take on the crucial job of undermining the enemy's morale during World War II by working for the infamous "Black Radio."
But when the war ended, the political climate quickly changed and Polonsky found himself blacklisted by the U.S. House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee. The man once hailed by the government and Hollywood for his writing talent, couldn't find a job anywhere.
Some 40 years have passed and Polonsky has now found a home where his work and experience are treasured - - at Cal State Northridge where he is an adjunct professor.
"He has set as example for future artists to follow. He has spent his career in filmmaking asking questions and forever challenging the answers," says Professor John Schultheiss of the Radio-Television-Film Department at Cal State Northridge.
"His life has been interwoven with the events of his times as his art helped illuminate them." After graduating from CCNY, Polonsky's pharmacist father, weary of a career in writing, urged him to pursue another career.
"My father said if you want to be in America, you'd better have an independent source of income (other than writing). My father expected me to go to medical school. Everyone in our family went to medical school," Polonsky, 86, now jokes.
Polonsky and his father reached a compromise - the writer would attend law school at Columbia University Law School. There he studied under American philosopher John Dewey while teaching English Literature and Composition at CCNY.
"He was a sweet, old man," Polonsky says of Dewey.
After passing the bar, and keeping his promise to his father, he left for Hollywood to practice law. Hollywood of the 1930s was a whirlwind political energy supporting unions, civil liberties and the Spanish Civil War.
Among Polonsky's friends were Ernest Hemingway, writer Ben Blu and screenwriter Gypsie Rosalies. Due in part to their influence, Polonsky decided to give up law and pursue his dreams to be a writer.
His first job was for radio. He soon published several stories and a short novel called Enemy Sea, which caught the eye of Paramount Studios. The studio offered him a screenwriting job.
Then World War II began. Polonsky signed up to fight, but because he has poor vision, his offer was rejected. However, he was welcome as a volunteer in the Office of Strategic Services (predesser of the CIA), where he participated in "Black Radio," utilizing his knowledge of political movements.
"We were in a war - a nasty thing. There was murder, bombings, killings and I'm writing junk and destroying morale within their own lines," Polonsky said. "We broke into German codes. We would pretend to be German stations and sign on just as they were signing off. It was a psychological institution."
Ironically, the same knowledge of the radical left that made Polonsky valuable to the government during the war would later be held against him by that same government's Un-American Activities Committee.
After the war, Polonsky returned to Hollywood and Paramount Studios. But one day in 1946 he received a call from Enterprise Productions. Polonsky recalls the day with modest memories.
"A friend of mine at Enterprise said the executives were looking for a boxing movie and they wanted me to write it," he said.
The two studios, Enterprise and Paramount, were within walking distance of each other. Polonsky made up the story on the way over.
"I had about an hour until I met with them. I had some time. I held them, enthralled them and they were in business," he jokes
Polonsky received $2,000 a week for the picture.
"It was a lot back then. But now what do they get? Twenty million?"
That boxing movie was the critically acclaimed Body and Soul. It asserted Polonsky's often repeated theme of the self-destructiveness caused by blind capitalistic ambition. The main character sacrifices all his relationships for the success of boxing.
His next film was darker than Body and Soul and received immediate acclaim by the British Film Industry and as being a masterpiece of American cinema. Forces of Evil was a model of poetic drama, which depicts a lawyer sacrificing his ideals in order to achieve success in the number racket.
"It was the most celebrated. I directed and learned where all the fun is. I paid attention. I was on the set day and night and in the editing room. You can't know a medium unless you see all aspects of it," he says.
But as Polonsky's career began to take off, the investigation of Hollywood by the HUAC was getting underway. Hundreds of people sacrificed their careers and happiness in the first trials of the 1940s and the following hearings of the 1950s. Polonsky was one of them.
"My friends went to jail. I was in France at the time writing a novel when I realized my name was being talked about in Washington. I received a phone call that they were talking about subpoenaing me," Polonsky said.
With the support of his wife, Polonsky returned to Hollywood and got a job writing and directing for Columbia Pictures. He was left alone until the media started asking why a select few, inside and outside the industry, (including teachers and lawyers) had not been asked to testify. It soon became Polonsky's turn.
Polonsky appeared before Congress on April 25, 1951. He stood by his Fifth Amendment Rights and was soon blacklisted from the Hollywood film industry.
"It was bad enough for politicians and the industry to go with it (blacklisting). But it was even worse when the studios cooperated," said Schultheiss. "His career as a director was wiped out ... It was a major loss to the industry."
He returned to his native New York and began working under a pseudonym.
"A lot of people knew, but New York didn't care about Hollywood," Polonsky said.
He also worked in Canada with Tyrone Guthrie and the Canadian Shakespeare Company. Polonsky even wrote and directed the television series You Are There on CBS.
The episodes which Polonsky wrote for in the series included such topics as Galileo, John Milton, the Scopes Trial, the Magna Carta and Sigmund Freud - all reflecting the most redolent sub-texts of political, intellectual and religious freedom.
"They represented perhaps the most dramatic challenges to the McCarthy era of repression in a major communication medium," says Schultheiss.
Other films by Polonsky include Odds Against Tomorrow, Madigan, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and Guilty By Suspicion, all which follow in the theme of social consciousness.
Polonsky is currently an adjunct professor in CSUN's Art Department and has endowed the departments with three critical writing and screenwriting scholarships.
His advise to his students?
"Be faithful to your artform. Don't let anyone push you aside. A good character is not as important as a real character. It might get you into heaven, but not into the box office," Polonsky advises.
Schultheiss, co-author of "To Illuminate Our Time; The Blacklisted Teleplays of Abraham Polonsky," is also helping Polonsky to get the Screenwriters Guild to change work done under Polonsky's pseudonym to his name.
Many Academy Awards during the 1940s through the 1960s went to people who were blacklisted, hence awards with names on them who had nothing or little to do with the picture.
"We need to recognize Abraham and these writers who did wonderful pieces of work with the long overdue respect in which they deserve," Schultheiss said.