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, ...

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) * Hollywoo ...

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 productio ...

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 city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the Unite ...

, and was a graduate of St. Stephen's College (1922, later renamed

Bard College Bard College is a private 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 District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...

) 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 Green ...

, he began to write plays. ''Great Scott'' (1929), ''Give Us This Day'' (1933), and ''In Time to Come'' (1941) were produced on Broadway. 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 t ...

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'', 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 ''Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (german: Brief einer Unbekannten) is a novella by Stefan Zweig. Published in 1922, it tells the story of an author who, while reading a letter written by a woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life ...

'' (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., Koch wrote the screenplay for '' Mission to Moscow'' (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 Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

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 nationa ...

. 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, ...

. 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 United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...

(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 d ...

'' among them) under the pseudonyms "Peter Howard" and "Anne Rodney". In 1956, they returned to the United States and settled in Woodstock, New York. 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

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, 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 Koch
at 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