Edward Huebsch, AKA "Eddie Huebsch" and "Ed Huebsch," (1914-1982) was a 20th-century American

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

screenwriter whose career was cut short by the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying emplo ...

Background

Edward Huebsch was born on February 20, 1914, in New York City.

Career

In 1942 following the December 1941

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...

, Huebsch volunteered to serve in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. Huebsch moved to Los Angeles in 1946 after receiving his discharge and spending some time with family in New York.

Screenwriter

Huebsch became a screenwriter, whose career took off in the late 1940s. He often adapted books to film, as in ''

Best Man Wins ''Best Man Wins'' is a 1948 American historical drama film directed by John Sturges and starring Edgar Buchanan, Anna Lee and Robert Shayne. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It it based on the story ''The Celebrated Jumping ...

'', adapted from a story by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

. Blacklist scholars Ceplair and Englund grouped Huebsch among those screenwriters who considered movies a "high art." Huebsch joined the

League of American Writers The League of American Writers was an association of American novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, and literary critics launched by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1935. The group included Communist Party members, and so-called " fell ...

, a

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

group organized by the Communist Party in 1935 and disbanded in 1943. (His relative

B.W. Huebsch Benjamin W. Huebsch (March 21, 1876 – August 7, 1964) was an American publisher in New York City in the early 20th century. Background Huebsch was the son of Rabbi Adolphus Huebsch, who had immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1866 ...

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

was also a member.) By 1951, Huebsch went onto the Hollywood Blacklist; his name was omitted from writing credits for ''

The Son of Dr. Jekyll ''The Son of Dr. Jekyll'' is a 1951 American horror film directed by Seymour Friedman and starring Louis Hayward, Jody Lawrance and Alexander Knox. The film is a continuation of Robert Louis Stevenson's original classic 1886 novella ''Strange ...

''.

Hollywood Blacklist

Investigation into Communist infiltration into Hollywood commenced nationally with hearings by the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

(HUAC) in October 1947 that led to indictment of the

Hollywood Ten The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

for

contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...

. On April 17, 1951, Huebsch's name came up during hearings. HUAC investigator William A. Wheeler testified:

The last individual which I wish to bring to the committee's attention is Edward Huebsch. He resides at 11200 La Maida, Los Angeles, Calif. We received this subpena rather late on our first trip to California, and when we received it we accompanied the United States marshal or deputy United States marshal to the home of Mr. Huebsch. The marshal talked to Mrs. Huebsch and was informed that her husband would be home later that same date. We stayed around the place until fairly late at night, and Mr. Huebsch did not return. Inquiries around the neighborhood disclosed that the next day Mrs. Huebsch loaded the station wagon up and left. No one has been there for the last 5 weeks. We contacted the residence again on April 6, and no one was at home.

(The HUAC hearing transcript includes a footnote with corrected address: "Edward Huebsch , 10200 La Nida, North Hollywood.") Wheeler then read aloud for the public a letter from Jakes J. Boyiz, US Marshal for the Southern District of California, that shared "the following named persons be served subpenas commanding their appearance In the District of Columbia: Georgia Backus Alexander, Jack Berry,

Hugo Butler Hugo Dansey Butler (4 May 1914 – 7 January 1968) was a Canadian-born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s. Biography Born on 4 May 1914 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his father, Frank Russel ...

, Leonardo Bercovici, Edward Huebsch, Karen Morley, Fred Rinaldo, Lew Solomon, Michael Uris." Finally, writer-director Frank Wright Tuttle worked through a list of subversive Hollywood people, which included Huebsch:

MR. TUTTLE: ...Mr. Huebsch, H-u-e-b-s-c-h, a writer.
MR. TAVENNER: Do you reca11 his first name?
MR. TUTTLE: I think it was Eddie. I am not sure.
MR. TAVENNER: You say he was a writer?
MrMR. TUTTLE: Yes.
MR. TAVENNER: You are not certain of his first name, can you identify the person to whom you are referring l\Y any other information so that there will be no question about a confusion of names?
MR. TUTTLE: I can't identify him other than the fact his name was Huebsch. He was in one of the groups I was in and he was a writer.

In May 1952, Huebsch joined 14 others (including members of the

) in writing a letter to the Screen Writers Guild that urged the guild to stand up for credits to

Paul Jarrico Paul Jarrico (January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. Biography Early years Paul Jarrico was born in Los ...

as screenwriter for the movie '' The Las Vegas Story''. During testimony by fellow screenwriter Stanley Roberts, Huebsch's name came up again on May 20, 1952. Roberts described himself as a "motion-picture writer" who had worked in that business since 1936 for studios major (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, Universal) and minor (Monogram). Roberts tried to explain to the committee that, "It is very difficult for us to understand, but communism in Hollywood, as I have seen it, is on a purely local level. It doesn't seem to go anywhere." In 1938, Roberts first met

Ben Barzman Ben Barzman (October 12, 1910 – December 15, 1989) was a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, and novelist, blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and best known for his screenplays for the films ''Back to Bataan'' (1945), '' El Cid'' (1961), and ''T ...

's home, where members like

John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. He was the first pres ...

asked him to join. In late April or early May 1945, right after the death of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

("the death of liberalism in America"),

Bernard C. Schoenfeld Bernard Cutner Schoenfeld (August 17, 1907 – April 25, 1990) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for over twenty films and television series including ''Phantom Lady (1944 film), Phantom Lady'' (1944), ''The Dark Corner'' (1946), ''Cag ...

got him to join. Two or three other "delegates" came to visit Roberts after that, one of whom was Edward Huebsch. These delegates, including Huebsch, persuaded him that "The party was merely interested in the things that I was interested in, better conditions in the Screen Writers' Guild, better labor conditions in Hollywood, higher wages, and so forth, and in furthering Roosevelt's policies." Roberts left the Party in 1946, but Huebsch came back to ask him to rejoin and support the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) strike (see "

Hollywood Black Friday Hollywood Black Friday, or Hollywood Bloody Friday, is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six-month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Un ...

").

Roberts then went on the name Huebsch as a member of Communist-dominated groups in Hollywood: * Screen Writers Guild:

, Paul Trivers * Conference of Studio Unions:

Herbert Biberman Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed ''Salt of the Earth (1954 film), Salt of the Earth'' (1954), a film barely released in the United S ...

Edward Biberman Edward Biberman (October 23, 1904 – January 27, 1986) was an American artist active in the mid-twentieth century. His work ranged from stylised portraits to history-inspired murals, and drew on the emerging urban landscapes of southern Californ ...

and wife Sonja Dahl, Michael Uris and wife Dorothy Tree,

and wife

Jean Rouverol Jean Rouverol (July 8, 1916 – March 24, 2017) was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s. Life and career Rouverol was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of pla ...

John Berry (director) John Berry (September 6, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American film director, who went into exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist. Early life Berry was born Jak Szold in The Bronx, New York, the son o ...

, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Irwin Lieberman,

Carl Foreman Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' and '' High Noon'', among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were bla ...

, Alex Greenberg * ''Screen Writers Magazine'':

Lester Cole Lester Cole (June 19, 1904 – August 15, 1985) was an American screenwriter. Cole was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted for their refusal to testify regarding ...

Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), ''Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) ...

, John Howard Lawson,

Gordon Kahn Gordon Kahn (1902–1962) was an American writer and screenwriter who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era; he is the father of broadcaster and author Tony Kahn.and physician Jim Kahn. Background Gordon Jacques Kahn was born on May 1 ...

, Richard Collins On March 23, 1953, Huebsch himself appeared before HUAC, counseled by William B. Esterman. Initially, Huebsch objected to the televising of hearings by Congress, a point to which the committee acceded and rescheduled his hearing. On March 24, 1953, David A. Lang, a fellow screenwriter, named Huebsch as part of a Communist cell whose members also included:

George Bassman George Bassman (February 7, 1914 – June 26, 1997) was an American composer and arranger. Biography Born in New York City to a Ukrainian- and Lithuanian-Jewish émigré couple, Bassman was later raised in Boston and began studying music at the ...

, Nick Bela,

Henry Blankfort Henry Blankfort (December 25, 1902 – June 16, 1993) was an American screenwriter. He wrote the films ''Youth on Parole'', ''Klondike Fury'', '' Rubber Racketeers'', ''Tales of Manhattan'', ''Harrigan's Kid'', ''I Escaped from the Gestapo'', ''S ...

, Laurie Blankfort, William Blowitz,

, Howard Dimsdale, Morton Grant,

Lester Koenig Lester Koenig (December 3, 1917 – November 20, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film producer, and founder of the jazz record label Contemporary Records. Biography Koenig was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Minna (Harli ...

Millard Lampell Millard Lampell (born Milton Lampell, January 23, 1919 – October 3, 1997) was an American movie and television screenwriter who first became publicly known as a member of the Almanac Singers in the 1940s. Early life and career Lampell was bor ...

, Pauline Lagerfin,

Isobel Lennart Isobel Lennart (May 18, 1915 – January 25, 1971) was an award-winning American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical '' Funny Girl'' which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts ...

Al Levitt Alan Levitt (November 11, 1932 – November 28, 1994) was an American jazz drummer. Career Levitt was born in New York City to Ben Levitt (1908-1941) and Florence Cohen Levitt (1912-1950). Early in life he showed an interest in music. In the ea ...

Arnold Manoff Arnold Manoff (April 25, 1914 – February 10, 1965) was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s. As a result of the blacklist he wrote under a pseudonym through the 1960s. Manoff's ...

Mortimer Offner Mortimer Offner (November 3, 1900 – September 1965) was an American photographer, political activist, and screenwriter. He created portraits of leading film stars before successfully moving to screenwriting. His career ended when he was blackli ...

, W.L. River, Bob Robert,

Marguerite Roberts Marguerite Roberts (September 21, 1905 – February 17, 1989) was an American screenwriter, one of the highest paid in the 1930s. After she and her husband John Sanford refused to testify in 1951 before the House Un-American Activities Comm ...

, John Stanford, Wilma Shore, George Sklar,

Bess Taffel Bess Taffel Boyle (December 10, 1913 – July 21, 2000) was an American screenwriter, whose career was effectively ended after she was identified as a member of the Communist Party during the McCarthy period.Seymour Bennett, Eunice Mindlin, and Val Burton. Lang also described a "Writers' Clinic" to which many Hollywood Ten writers belonged. On March 25, 1953, Huebsch returned for testimony, this time counseled not only by Esterman but also Daniel G. Marshall. Huebsch began by correcting the committee, saying he had not asked for no televisions but for a quashing of his subpoena. The committee disregarded his request but assured him he was not being recorded. After a short biography, the committee pressed him to state whether he had ever been a member of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. Huebsch declined to answer, citing the Fifth Amendment. The committee pressed him by demanding he cite which provision of the Fifth Amendment, etc. Huebsch was equally aggressive, calling committee chairman Harold Velde "King Harold Velde" (in reference to

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

). When the committee tried to press Huebsch into strictly "yes" or "no" answers, Huebsch cited a passage in the Fifth Amendment that prohibited the committee from such. Eventually, Huebsch refused to answer by citing the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, Fifth,

Ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

, and Tenth Amendments of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

, at which point the committee dismissed him. The ''New York Times'' noted Huebsch's "verbal jousting" with HUAC and that committee members called him "contemptuous."

Comeback

In 1977, Huebsch tried to make a comeback with ''Twighlight's Last Gleaming'', directed by

Robert Aldrich Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include '' Vera Cruz'' (1954), ''Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955), ''The Big Knife'' (1955), '' Autumn L ...

. ''Variety'' called it "intricate, intriguing and intelligent drama." The ''New York Times'' called the movie a "deadly solemn, gadgety suspense-melodrama about a disgruntled, liberal-thinking United States general, a Vietnam veteran whose out-spoken antiwar views got him railroaded to prison on a trumped-up murder charge." While the newspaper summed it up in 1977 as having "no star," in 2012 a new review said it "epitomized a paranoid, quintessentially ’70s moment in American history and imagination... a nerve-racking procedural." In 1979, Huebsch published the historical fiction novel ''The Last Summer of Mata Hari'', whose review by

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

summarized it as "Noble banalities pulse endlessly from Mata's tear-drenched heartstrings and drown whatever sense of realism this yucky pseudo-historical novel might have had. Bathos supreme."

Death

Huebsch died age 68 on July 7, 1982, in Los Angeles, California.

Legacy

In 1980,

Victor Navasky Victor Saul Navasky (born July 5, 1932) is an American journalist, editor and academic. He is publisher emeritus of ''The Nation'' and George T. Delacorte Professor Emeritus of Professional Practice in Magazine Journalism at Columbia University. H ...

named Huebsch as a communist with the following passage in his book ''Naming Names'' with regard to

, a fellow American screenwriter:

Another party interested in Foreman's testimony was the CP itself. They sent the screenwriter Eddie Huebsch to interview Foreman:
I was assigned by the Party to find out what Foreman's testimony was going to be. I had lunch with him--he was doing ''
High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of ...
'' at the time. I sat for eleven hours with him. We went to Lucy's, the fanciest restaurant in Hollywood--across from
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
. I could not get him to assert that he would take an anti-Communist position. So I reported that he was an informer. Nothing he has said then or since has convinced me I was wrong... The main point is, Carl wouldn't tell the Commies to go fuck themselves... I would have recommended expulsion.

Also in 1980, Ceplair and Englund mentioned Huebsch as one of those dodged subpoenas, recalled in 1999 by fellow screenwriter Bernard Gordon in a specific incident:

An especially odious instance of this kind of hysteria occurred close to home at a meeting of the Screen Writers Guild in Hollywood. A good friend of mine, Edward Huebsch, was ducking a subpoena from HUAC but decided to attend a guild meeting because a discussion of the guild and the blacklist was scheduled. Outside the meeting hall, Eddie spotted the
federal marshal The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforcem ...
who had been trying to serve him. Eddie ducked into the hall and saw the marshal was trying to follow him into the closed meeting. Eddie immediately asked the chair to have the marshal barred, because only member of the guild were permitted. One of the right-wing members raised a point of order and moved the marshal be given temporary membership in the guild and be permitted to enter the hall. This was promptly scheduled; the chair called for a vote... The members voted in favor of the motion. The marshal walked over and served Eddie the subpoena.

Interpreting the meaning of this event, Gordon concluded: "It means that the fear of the consequences were so pervasive for anyone who was seen to opposed the extreme right wing that no one dared to take such a stand openly" and opposed the blacklisting. In 1997, the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Guil ...

included Huebsch among 24 films that used pseudonyms (or "fronts") for true writers. In 2000, the

Writers Guild of America West The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...

issued further corrected blacklist credits that included Huebsch:

''LITTLE GIANTS'' (Producciones Olmeca)
Original Credit: Written for the Screen by Hugo Mozo and Eduardo Bueno. (1958)
Corrected Credit: Written for the Screen by Hugo Butler and Edward Huebsch. (04/01/97)

Works

Screenplays: * ''

Millie's Daughter ''Millie's Daughter'' is a 1947 American drama film directed by Sidney Salkow, from a screenplay by Edward Huebsch, based on the novel of the same name by Donald Henderson Clarke. The film stars Gladys George, Gay Nelson, and Paul Campbell (Ameri ...

'' (1947) * '' Sport of Kings'' (1947) * ''

Black Eagle The black eagle (''Ictinaetus malaiensis'') is a bird of prey. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae, and is the only member of the genus ''Ictinaetus''. They soar over forests in the hilly regions of tropical and subtropical South ...

'' (1948) * ''

The Wreck of the Hesperus "The Wreck of the Hesperus" is a narrative poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in ''Ballads and Other Poems'' in 1842. It is a story that presents the tragic consequences of a skipper's pride. On an ill-fated voyag ...

'' (1948) * ''

Your Show Time ''Your Show Time'' is an American anthology drama series that debuted on NBC Television on the East Coast in September 1948 and then on both the East and the West Coast, as a network show, on January 21, 1949. The show was produced by Marshall Gr ...

'' ("A Lodging for the Night") (1949) * ''

'' (1951) * ''

Lux Video Theatre ''Lux Video Theatre'' is an American television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1957. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays. Overview The ''Lux Vid ...

'' ("Millie's Daughter") (1956) * ''Little Giants'' (as "Eduardo Bueno") with Hugo Butler (as "Hugo Mozo") (1958) ** ''Los pequeños gigantes'' (as "Eduardo Bueno") with Hugo Butler (as "Hugo Mozo") (1960) * ''

Twilight's Last Gleaming ''Twilight's Last Gleaming'' is a 1977 thriller film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark. The film was a West German/American co-production, shot mainly at the Bavaria Studios. Loosely based on a 1971 nov ...

'' (1977) Stories for Scripts: * ''

Cigarette Girl In Europe and the United States, a cigarette girl is a person who sells or provides cigarettes from a tray held by a neck strap. They may also carry cigars and other items like candy, snacks, and chewing gum on their trays. Uniform The most ...

'' (1947) Books: * ''The Last Summer of Mata Hari'' (1979)

References

External links

British Film Institute

Swedish Film Database

Son of Dr. Jekyll
National Library Board of Singapore
Twilight's Last Gleaming

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Huebsch, Edward 1914 births 1982 deaths Writers from New York City Jewish American novelists 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American communists American historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age 20th-century American male writers