Howard E. Koch (December 12, 1901 – August 17, 1995) was an American playwright and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
who was
blacklisted
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...
by the
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...
bosses in the 1950s.
Background
Born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in New York City, Koch grew up in
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...
, and was a graduate of St. Stephen's College (1922, later renamed
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
) and
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
(1925).
Career
While practicing law in
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of New York City.
History
Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Greenb ...
, he began to write plays. ''Great Scott'' (1929), ''Give Us This Day'' (1933), and ''In Time to Come'' (1941) were produced on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
.
Koch's began playwriting in the late 1920s, before he started working on radio scripts.
His radio work in the 1930s as a writer for the CBS Mercury Theater of the Air included the
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 ...
radio drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
''
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 ...
'' (1938), which allegedly caused nationwide panic among some listeners for its documentary-like portrayal of an invasion of spaceships from Mars.
Koch later wrote a play about the panic, ''Invasion from Mars'', which was later adapted into the 1975 TV movie, ''
The Night That Panicked America
'' The Night That Panicked America'' is an American television film, made-for-television drama (film and television), drama film that was originally broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network on October 31, 1975. The telefilm dram ...
'', in which actor Joshua Bryant plays Koch.
In the 1940s, Koch began writing for Hollywood studios. His first accepted works were screenplays for
Michael Curtiz's ''
The Sea Hawk
''The Sea Hawk'' is a 1915 novel by Rafael Sabatini. The story is set over the years 1588–1593 and concerns a retired Cornish seafaring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous half-brother. After being ...
,''
William Wyler's ''
The Letter.''
Koch contributed to the popular film ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
'' with
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
, which he co-scripted with writers
Julius
The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
and
Philip Epstein in 1942, and for which he received an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
in 1943. He also wrote ''
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. ...
'' (1941)
and ''
Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (1948),
his favorite screenplay.
In 1943, at the request of
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
of
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. Di ...
, Koch wrote the screenplay for ''
Mission to Moscow
''Mission to Moscow'' is a 1943 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the 1941 book by the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies.
The movie chronicles the experiences of the second American ambassador to the Soviet ...
'' (1943). The movie subsequently spawned controversy because of its positive portrayal of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. After the war, Koch was dismissed after he was denounced as a
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 ...
. He was then criticized 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) for his outspoken leftist political views. Koch was
blacklisted by Hollywood in 1951.
After being blacklisted, Koch moved with his wife Anne (an accomplished writer in her own right) and their family to Europe and eventually took up residence in the United Kingdom
with other blacklisted writers, where they wrote for five years for film and television (British television series ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood
''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de H ...
'' among them) under the pseudonyms "Peter Howard"
and "Anne Rodney". In 1956, they returned to the United States and settled in
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...
. Koch sought help from high-profile lawyer
Ed Williams in order to clear his name from Hollywood's blacklist. Koch was promptly removed from the blacklist,
and he resumed his name and continued to write plays and books and remained actively committed to progressive political and social justice causes. His last Hollywood screenplay was for ''
The Fox'' in 1968.
Death
Koch died age 94 in 1995 in
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...
.
Works
;Plays
* ''Invasion from Mars'', (with Orson Welles) (pl) CBS, October 30, 1938.
;Books
* ''Invasion from Mars'', ed. Orson Welles, Dell 1949.
* ''The Panic Broadcast'', Little, Brown and Company 1970, Avon Books 1971.
* ''Casablanca: Script and Legend'', Overlook Press 1973.
* ''As Time Goes By: Memoirs of a Writer'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1979.
;Short stories
* "Invasion from Inner Space", in ''Star Science Fiction Stories #6'', ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine 1959.
;Anthologies
*''
Invaders of Earth'', ed.
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...
, Vanguard 1952, Pocket 1955, Tempo 1962.
*''The Treasury of Science Fiction Classics'', ed. Harold W. Kuebler, Hanover House 1954.
*''The Armchair Science Reader'', ed. Isabel S. Gordon & Sophie Sorkin, Simon & Schuster 1959.
*''
Enemies in Space'', ed. Groff Conklin, Digit 1962.
*''Contact'', ed. Noel Keyes, Paperback Library 1963.
*''Speculations'', ed. Thomas E. Sanders, Glencoe Press 1973.
*''Bug-Eyed Monsters'', ed. Anthony Cheetham, Panther 1974.
References
External links
*
*
*
Howard Kochat Bard Archives.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Howard
1901 births
1995 deaths
American radio writers
American male screenwriters
Columbia Law School alumni
Jewish American screenwriters
Hollywood blacklist
Writers from New York City
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
People from Kingston, New York
People from Woodstock, New York
People from Hartsdale, New York
Bard College alumni
Screenwriters from New York (state)
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American Jews