Biography
Alvah Bessie, a screenwriter and novelist who had volunteered with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War was one of the “Hollywood Ten,” the screenwriters, directors and producers who in October 1947 were subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee at the outset of its investigation into alleged Communist influence in the motion-picture industry. All ten refused to answer the committee’s central question — “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” — arguing that the inquiry violated their First Amendment rights of belief and association. On November 24, 1947 the House cited them for contempt of Congress; they were convicted the following year, and after John Howard Lawson’s and Trumbo’s appeals failed as test cases and the Supreme Court declined to hear them in 1950, all ten served federal prison terms. Every one of them was blacklisted by the studios under the “Waldorf Statement.” Blacklisted for the rest of his Hollywood career, he later worked as a stagehand and wrote “Inquisition in Eden,” a memoir of the ordeal.
The Militant, March 25, 1977, page 23: Bessie signed the open letter published in the Los Angeles Times March 2, 1977 condemning persecution of Charter 77 advocates in Czechoslovakia. Interviewed by Harry Ring, he connected his civil-liberties position with his own earlier imprisonment. This documents later political activity and retrospective testimony, without supplying another arrest or jail interval. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1977/4111/MIL4111.pdf#page=23
The dictionary names him Alvah Cecil Bessie and records a BA from Columbia. Before his later film career, he worked as a writer, book and drama editor, and translator in Brooklyn, including work with the Daily Eagle.
Jacob Rader Marcus, editor, and Judith M. Daniels, associate editor, The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography, printed page 53 (PDF page 59); SHA256 bd387e6e61df8c078e5bb346575f565127c3519959ef5fcee3ad44d57b2ef146.
