Anne Froelick Taylor (December 8, 1913 – January 26, 2010) was an American screenwriter from 1941 to 1950, and later a playwright and novelist. Her screenwriting career ended when she was identified as a communist by two witnesses at a hearing before the HUAC.

Biography

Anne Froelick was born in

Hinsdale, Massachusetts Hinsdale is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Metropolitan Statistical Area of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The population was 1,919 at the 2020 census. History Originally part of Northern Berkshire Towns ...

, but her family moved to

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

when she was a child. She briefly attended Smith College before moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at the age of 19 to try to start an acting career. Beginning in her career in 1938, Taylor was onetime

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

in New York City, Taylor began her writing career while serving as secretary to Howard Koch, then a writer for

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

' ''

The Mercury Theatre on the Air ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with mus ...

''. Taylor assisted Koch on his adaptation of H.G. Wells' ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'' which made radio history when it was broadcast that same year. When Koch went to work as a writer at

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, he wanted the studio to hire Taylor as a writer. After helping Koch on the psychological themes and rewriting some of the scenes for his screenplay for '' The Letter'', Warner Bros. signed Taylor to a writing contract. Her first screen credit was the 1941 drama ''

Shining Victory ''Shining Victory'' is a 1941 American drama film based on the 1940 play '' Jupiter Laughs,'' by A. J. Cronin. It stars James Stephenson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, and Barbara O'Neil. It is the first film directed by Irving Rapper. ...

'', which she co-wrote with Koch. Her screenwriting credits followed: ''The Master Race'', ''

Miss Susie Slagle's ''Miss Susie Slagle's'' is a 1946 American drama film directed by John Berry. It was based on the popular novel by Augusta Tucker. The film was Berry's directorial debut and first starring role for Joan Caulfield. Plot summary A nursing studen ...

'', '' Easy Come, Easy Go'', and ''

Harriet Craig ''Harriet Craig'' is a 1950 American drama film starring Joan Crawford. The screenplay by Anne Froelick and James Gunn was based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1925 play '' Craig's Wife'', by George Kelly. The film was directed by Vincent She ...

''. Taylor was involved in causes such as fighting

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and promoting unions and

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

, which reportedly had led her to join the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. In 1951, Taylor's party membership caused her husband, Philip Taylor, to lose his job as a manufacturing planner at Lockheed. She continued to try to make a living as a writer using her married name. She wrote four plays that were produced locally, including ''Storm in the Sun''. Along with that, she co-wrote a comic novel, ''Press on Regardless'', with Fern Mosk, which was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

in 1956. Anne Froelick Taylor died of natural causes on January 26, 2010, aged 96, in a nursing home in Los Angeles.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Froelick, Anne 1913 births 2010 deaths 20th-century American novelists Screenwriters from New York (state) American women novelists Hollywood blacklist People from Princeton, New Jersey Writers from New York City Smith College alumni American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights People from Hinsdale, Massachusetts Novelists from New York (state) Screenwriters from Massachusetts Screenwriters from New Jersey 21st-century American women