Biography
Samuel Ornitz, a novelist and screenwriter and a founding member of the Screen Writers Guild 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.” In poor health, he served his term and was blacklisted for the remainder of his life; he died in 1957.
The November 17 issue names Samuel Ornitz with the Dreiser committee visitors indicted for criminal syndicalism after investigating hunger and repression in the Harlan and Bell County coalfields. Prosecutor W. A. Brock said extradition would be sought. This 1931 Kentucky prosecution is separate from the later Hollywood Ten contempt case; indictment and threatened extradition do not establish jail admission, conviction or any actual time served.
The dictionary identifies Ornitz as Samuel Badisch Ornitz, records study at City College of New York, and describes his earlier work as an officer of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Brooklyn.
The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography, printed page 475 (PDF page 472), entry for Samuel Ornitz.
