Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The 'Eastern' Writer in Hollywood

1971; University of Texas Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1225347

1527-2087

John Schultheiss,

Digital Games and Media

There have been at least two significant periods in American film history when the Hollywood studios actively recruited the services of so-called writers-those who had established, or were in the embryonic stages of establishing, a literary reputation either as novelists, dramatists, poets, or critics.* The initial period (circa 1919-1922) coincided with the studios' efforts to shift the thrust of silent screen artistry from the movie personality to the well-written story. The second and more famous era of the Eastern writer in Hollywood (roughly the thirties and early forties) occurred because of the desperate need for snappy dialogue and story elements which would take advantage of the motion picture's new dimension of sound. During this latter time almost every noteworthy literary figure came West to write for films. They never succeeded in turning Hollywood into a moder Parnassus, but theirs was an invigorating and exciting presence during one of filmdom's most colorful and flamboyant periods. The first indication of Hollywood's generally heightened appreciation of the writer's importance in the production of motion pictures was evidenced in the formation by Samuel Goldwyn in June, 1919, of an organizational unit within his studio-The Eminent Authors-for which, he said, I must claim the virtue of absolute novelty.l Goldwyn's move was in partial response to the success of the Jesse Lasky Famous Players' emphasis on the star performer, and he sought some competing feature. He also intended to alter the focus of screen creativity by elevating the importance of the story and dramatic structure in the artistic pattern: