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This profile was originally created for Plotpoints Podcasts 2020.06.19 (Here)
Born in 1884, Oscar Micheaux’s success as author, filmmaker, playright, and activist was unprecedented.
African Americans were just a few decades removed from slavery; the 15th Amendment which guaranteed the right of Blacks to vote was passed just 14 years before. Lynchings and race-driven murders were still all too common in many parts of America.
Micheaux’s father, himself a former slave, sired 13 children on a farm in Illinois. A middle child, Micheaux rebelled against everything and become somewhat of a problem. Eventually moving to Chicago to live with his brother, he tried many jobs that were never very satisfying but led to him saving some money and making some solid connections in the white community that helped his future plans.
After bouncing around, Micheaux eventually became a homesteader in South Dakota. While there, some articles he had written made their way to The Chicago Defender to be published. His experiences as a sharecropper and homesteader informed much of his early literary work and led to a long career as a writer in many genres but focusing on the social issues of the times.
In 1913 Micheaux’s first book The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer was published.
A connection to the Lincoln Motion Picture Company upon the publishing of his second novel seemed promising but ultimately fruitless. Micheaux wanted control over the film adaptation of his novel and the owner of the production company flatly refused.
Micheaux promptly founded his own company, The Micheaux Film & Book Company of Sioux City (in Chicago) and wrote, directed, and produced the film The Homesteader based on his book about his experiences in South Dakota.
Forty more films followed. The movies were raw, in your face features that pulled no punches about race relations and societal issues of the times.
Quote: "It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures, in the light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights.” End Quote
Besides being the first African America to produce a film in 1919, in 1924 Micheaux introduced the moviegoing world to the astounding Paul Robeson in his film, Body and Soul. He attacked the racism in D.W. Grifiths’ film Birth of a Nation in his own film Within Our Gates.
Micheaux never shrunk from a fight and many of his movies, books, and just his attitude in general created enemies not happy with this man of modest means taking the white community to task in the cinema and newspapers.
From Wikipedia:
“Micheaux's films were made during a time of great change in the African-American community. His films featured contemporary black life. He dealt with racial relationships between blacks and whites, and the challenges for blacks when trying to achieve success in the larger society. His films were used to oppose and discuss the racial injustice that African Americans received. Topics such as lynching, job discrimination, rape, mob violence, and economic exploitation were depicted in his films. These films also reflect his ideologies and autobiographical experiences.”
The Producers Guild said he was: “The most prolific black – if not most prolific independent filmmaker in American cinema.”
Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one a national bestseller.
Oscar Micheaux, born to ex-slaves, defied all odds to become a successful film producer, scriptwriter, playright, author, and entrepreneur.
He died in 1951. He is buried in Charlotte NC.
His gravestone reads: A Man Ahead of His Time.
Many of his films are available on streaming services like Amazon Prime.
This profile was originally created for Plotpoints Podcasts 2020.06.19 (Here)
c exploitation were depicted in his films. These films also reflect his ideologies and autobiographical experiences.”
The Producers Guild said he was: “The most prolific black – if not most prolific independent filmmaker in American cinema.”
Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one a national bestseller.
Oscar Micheaux, born to ex-slaves, defied all odds to become a successful film producer, scriptwriter, playright, author, and entrepreneur.
He died in 1951. He is buried in Charlotte NC.
His gravestone reads: A Man Ahead of His Time.
Many of his films are available on streaming services like Amazon Prime.
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This profile was originally part of Plotpoints Podcast
Irwin Allen might seem an odd choice to profile for this podcast. There are hundreds, thousands of writers who would be potentially more appropriate for this show including Aaron Sorkin, William Goldman, Rod Serling, Richard Matheson, etc. And I have profiled them here.
But Allen was a true innovator. In the same way that many golden age scifi writers cut their teeth on b-movies in the 50's and 60's Allen was that writer for B-television.
Born to poor Russia immigrants in 1916, Allen attended Columbia University majoring in journalism and advertising before being forced to drop out because of the Great Depression of the 30's.
Moving to California, Allen found work in radio in Los Angeles at legendary station KLAC. In fact, KLAC which is AM 570 is now a great sports radio outlet. This radio gig in the late 40's led to other opportunities in print and movies.
“Where Danger Lives” starring Robert Mitchum was Allen’s first film at RKO. His documentary “The Sea Around Us” won an Oscar in 1953 and despite this success, Allen went from RKO to Warner Brothers and made movies with such luminaries as Peter Lorre, Victor Mature, the Marx Brothers, Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, and Dennis Hopper.
In the early 60's, three films by Allen, “The Lost World,” from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” and “Five Weeks in a Balloon” became the basis of some of Allen’s TV successes.
In the mid-60s Allen focused almost exclusively on television with 20th Century Fox Television Studio.
His shows won Emmys for special effects and actually featured music by Oscar and Emmy winning composer John Williams.
“Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” based on Allen’s earlier film ran from 1964 to1968 and made both Allen and Fox Studios a success. By the way, VTBS, filmed during the height of the Cold War, took place in the near future world of...1972.
To save money on production, Allen used stock footage from other movies as he did with his low-budget films. That technique would serve him well in “Lost In Space” which was basically the Swiss Family Robinson in outer space. The comedic robot said things like “Danger, danger, Will Robinson” and was a precursor for other funny robots like C3PO in Star Wars.
The “Irwin Rock N Roll” is a techniques used in many, many TV shows including “Star Trek.” The camera is moved from side to side while the cast runs from one side of the set to the other to simulate a ship being rocked out of control.
“The Time Tunnel” was brilliant in that it allowed hundreds of different times and places to be used as storylines. If you’ve perhaps seen the TV series “Quantum Leap” you know “The Time Tunnel.” The concept, of course, was originally explored by Jules Verne in “The Time Machine” and reprised in modern series like “Timeless” and “Travelers” - and seems to show up regularly on many production slates.
“Land of the Giants” another TV hit for Allen featured composer John Williams’ music. This show, another castaway show like “Lost In Space” began the slide away from Allen’s early successes in TV.
Allen re-invented himself back in movies with hits like “The Poseiden Adventure” “The Towering Inferno” and was given the sobriquet “The Master of Disaster.” Sounds like a great WWE character and I guess there were actually several.
In all, Allen had 21 writer credits, 39 producer credits, and 16 credits as a director.
Beside his Oscar win for his documentary in 1953, Allen’s “The Towering Inferno” film was nominated for Best Picture in 1975.
He was also given a Razzie Award for Worst Career Achievement Award.
Just goes to show that “nobody knows anything,” as William Goldman once stated.
Allen died in 1991 of a heart attack leaving a solid legacy of some of the movies and shows that continue to shape our entertainment world today.
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If you don’t know writer/producer Eric Roth you do know his films.
Notables such as: A Star Is Born (the latest one), Ali, Forest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Good Shepard, Munich, The Horse Whisperer, The Postman (costner), Suspect (Cher) and early, uncredited movies like Wolfen, The Drowning Pool, and The Onion Field.
Born in 1945 in the Bedford Sty area of New York, his mother and father were producers and writers giving him what was certainly a good head start on his career.
He’s quoted as saying that the boxing he learned as a young man helped his later career by teaching him discipline. Certainly an unusual path to becoming one of Hollywood’s finest writers.
Roth went to college in California and then film school at UCLA with Jim Morrison. They were good friends until Morrison’s death in 1971.
There’s not a lot of background on how Roth became Hollywood’s A-lister of note but he did pay his dues writing or working on a dozen films before he saw major success in 1994's Forest Gump.
Six films of Roths’ were nominated for the 'Best Picture' Academy Awards: Forrest Gump (1994), The Insider (1999), Munich (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) and A Star Is Born (2018).
"Forrest Gump" won 'Best Picture' and earned him the 'Best Adapted Screenplay' Academy Award.
In 2001 Roth handed in the sequel for Forest Gump but because of the tragic circumstances of 9/11 that next day and some of the material in the script, it was decided not to pursue production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb_AWaYyt5g
Beside features, Roth was also producer on Netflix’s first original series “House of Cards” staring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright which has won 35 awards among 133 nominations.
Also, Exec Producer on The Alienist.
One factoid in particular stands out - he was financially devastated by the Bernie Maddof ponzi scheme. He said he lost his retirement which might have been a blessing for us since it forced him to continue writing.
Roth’s daughter, Vanessa, is also a well-regarded producer and director.
Seems great film work runs in the family.
Roth currently has several projects in various stages of production including co-writer on the new version of the amazing scifi book Dune scheduled for December 2020 release.
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RICHARD MATHESON
This profile first appeared in Plotpoints Podcast #175, April 10, 2020
Although there had been quite a few post-apocalyptic tales before "I Am Legend," Richard Matheson’s take is probably the most copied and most produced. It has led to many awards and much acclaim from everywhere in the world.
And it all started humbly enough in Allendale, New Jersey.
Richard Burton Matheson was the son of Norwegian immigrants. He published his first story at the age of 8 in the newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle in New York where he had moved with his then-divorced mother.
In 1949 he migrated to California after college and a stint in the Army. There he discovered even more outlets for his genius.
“Born Of Man and Woman” a horrifying tale about a gigantic child chained in a basement was published in the legendary The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1950. This garnered him a following and the attention led to other stories being published in Galaxy Science Fiction.
Matheson was quickly gaining a rep as a horror/scifi writer to be noticed. He was invited to become a member of the Southern California Sorcerers which included Ray Bradbury. I mean what wasn’t Ray Bradbury involved in back then?
Matheson’s style was hard-hitting and spare. He told his tales straight ahead with a sucker punch you didn’t see coming. Almost perfect for film and TV right out of the box.
After writing a Studio 57 script in 1955, in 1957 “The Incredible Shrinking Man” was filmed from Matheson’s screenplay based on his book.
Matheson seesawed between screenwriting and novels writing his amazing tales and also doing some at-the-time traditional television including “Combat!” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and more.
He also dabbled in other genres like Westerns, and his World War II tale “The Beardless Warriors” which was made into a movie called “The Young Warriors.”
A perfect marriage of concept and writer came together on Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” which featured Matheson’s penchant for shock endings. Some of his 16 episodes, more than anyone except Serling and Charles Beaumont, included the horror/scifi classic “The Invaders” starring Agnes Moorhead, and are considered the best of that breakthrough TV series.
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is perhaps the most well-known Twilight Zone episode, where a young William Shatner sees a horrifying gremlin on the wing of an airplane - but can’t convince anyone that this creature exists and is trying to crash the plane.
Mattheson’s fame would only grow with “The Last Man On Earth” starring Vincent Price and written by Matheson and William Leicester. It was based in Matheson’s “I Am Legend” novel and was an instant hit. Although the 2002 film “28 Days Later” showed post-apocalyptic, viral-infected beings quick enough to chase you down and eat your brains, Matheson had already done this in his 1962 book. The film adaptation “The Last Man On Earth” went back to the lumbering, slow paradigm that was popular at the time but Matheson showed again that his ideas were already far ahead of the curve.
In the 60's and 70's Matheson was definitely a hot commodity and did a ton of prose and film, and TV work.
According to Wikipedia, QUOTE: He adapted five works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman's Poe series, including House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Raven (1963). ENDQUOTE.
His “Trilogy Of Terror” with the demonic tiki doll that scared the living shit out of my sister, was one of three of his shorts stories put into that anthology movie.
In the 70's Matheson novels were continually turned into films including “Bid Time Return” which became “Somewhere in Time”, and “Hell House” which became the movie “The Legend of Hell House.”
In 1973 he won an Edgar Award for his TV movie “The Night Stalker” which was then adapted to the TV series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.” He continued to work with director Dan Curtis, a legend in his own right, for many other horror productions.
It seems now as if Richard Matheson’s work touched many legends of Hollywood including Steven Spielberg whose first feature “Duel” in 1971 was a Matheson screenplay.
Matheson had tremendous range. From the inspirational “What Dreams May Come” staring Robin Williams to the horrifying“A Stir of Echoes” starring Kevin Bacon nothing seemed beyond his scope. War stories, westerns, horror, scifi he transversed it all including in 1999, a non-fiction book “The Path” inspired by his research in psychic phenomena.
"The Last Man on Earth," "The Omega Man," and the recently produced "I Am Legend" in 2007 starring Will Smith - and countless knockoffs from Matheson’s original novel in 1954, continue to carry on the quiet and unassuming man from New Jersey’s legacy.
“I Am Legend” was chosen by The Horror Writers Association as the vampire novel of the century.
Matheson, a legend himself, had 88 film credits, 100's of novels and short stories including in multiple dozens of collections, and millions and millions of admirers.
Richard Matheson died of natural causes at the age of 87. But his groundbreaking writing continues to inspire new generations of writers and filmmakers.
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This post was originally part of Plotpoints Podcast. www.plotpoints.com
Harriet Frank Jr, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, was born Harriet Goldstein in Portland, Oregon. Her mother, Harriet also, changed their family name to Frank, becoming Harriet Frank Sr.
I’ve never heard of a female Sr/Jr but according the interwebs there is actually no gender assigned to either it or using 1 or 2. It’s just been that traditionally that men have named their children after them.
Frank started her career under MGM’s Young Writer Program soon after WWII. She met her husband there, with whom she would collaborate on many projects - but not initially, writing several films and teleplays on her own from 1946 until 1957.
The husband and wife team had their first collaboration in the 1958's “The Long Hot Summer” staring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt. This was actually an adaptation of a William Faulker novel called “The Hamlet.” Harriet said it was mostly original material so she didn’t consider it a true adaptation.
This collaboration both of husband and wife and with director Ritt would prove to be fruitful for all, leading to another seven films most of which were terrific commercial successes at the time, and some of which have become film classics.
Said Ritt a hugely successful director who was also a blacklisted filmmaker for his alleged communist sympathies: “I don’t know of any better screenwriters in America.”
Eight movies in all were made by Frank, her husband Irving Rav-etch, and Martin Ritt including “Hud” starring Paul Newman which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including adapted screenplay which at the time was called Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium.
Frank and her husband were nominated and won numerous other awards.
Golden Globes, Edgar Awards, New York Film Critic Awards, Western Heritage Awards, and five Writers Guild nods winning with “Hud” which was adapted from Larry McMurtry’s “Horseman, Pass By.”
The 1979's Norma Rae was based on the life of union organizer Crystal Lee Jordan. It starred Sally Field and was another Oscar nod for Frank and her husband. It was nominated in total for four Oscars including Best Picture and script, and won Field an Oscar for Best Actress.
It was also nominated and/or won numerous other accolades including at the Canne Film Festival, being awarded the Prix d'interprétation féminine (meaning best actress)
Frank’s screenplays, 26 in all, are a list of classic movies that made stars of the actors, actresses, and directors involved.
1958 The Long, Hot Summer
1959 The Sound and the Fury
1960 Home from the Hill
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
1963 Hud
Baby Makes Three (Television movie)
1967 Hombre
1968 House of Cards Credited as James P. Bonner
1969 The Reivers
1972 The Cowboys
The Carey Treatment Credited as James P. Bonner
1974 Conrack Producer
The Spikes Gang
1979 Norma Rae
1985 Murphy's Romance
and
1990 Stanley & Iris which was the last thing Frank was credited with.
There is no doubt that Frank and her husband were true innovators.
According to the L.A. Times quote:
Although they sometimes adapted a story as written, they just as often used it as a starting point for a far different story — villains would be recast as heroes, minor characters reshaped as the script’s protagonist, multiple characters melted carefully into one complexity.
End quote.
A true groundbreaker, a Norma Rae who wouldn’t accept no for an answer, Harriet Franks, Jr.’s incredible career spanned 43 years of success after success at a time when doors were either never opened or were closing for female writers.
She died recently in L.A. at the age of 93.
This post was originally part of Plotpoints Podcast. www.plotpoints.com
Harriet Frank Jr, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, was born Harriet Goldstein in Portland, Oregon. Her mother, Harriet also, changed their family name to Frank, becoming Harriet Frank Sr.
I’ve never heard of a female Sr/Jr but according the interwebs there is actually no gender assigned to either it or using 1 or 2. It’s just been that traditionally that men have named their children after them.
Frank started her career under MGM’s Young Writer Program soon after WWII. She met her husband there, with whom she would collaborate on many projects - but not initially, writing several films and teleplays on her own from 1946 until 1957.
The husband and wife team had their first collaboration in the 1958's “The Long Hot Summer” staring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt. This was actually an adaptation of a William Faulker novel called “The Hamlet.” Harriet said it was mostly original material so she didn’t consider it a true adaptation.
This collaboration both of husband and wife and with director Ritt would prove to be fruitful for all, leading to another seven films most of which were terrific commercial successes at the time, and some of which have become film classics.
Said Ritt a hugely successful director who was also a blacklisted filmmaker for his alleged communist sympathies: “I don’t know of any better screenwriters in America.”
Eight movies in all were made by Frank, her husband Irving Rav-etch, and Martin Ritt including “Hud” starring Paul Newman which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including adapted screenplay which at the time was called Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium.
Frank and her husband were nominated and won numerous other awards.
Golden Globes, Edgar Awards, New York Film Critic Awards, Western Heritage Awards, and five Writers Guild nods winning with “Hud” which was adapted from Larry McMurtry’s “Horseman, Pass By.”
The 1979's Norma Rae was based on the life of union organizer Crystal Lee Jordan. It starred Sally Field and was another Oscar nod for Frank and her husband. It was nominated in total for four Oscars including Best Picture and script, and won Field an Oscar for Best Actress.
It was also nominated and/or won numerous other accolades including at the Canne Film Festival, being awarded the Prix d'interprétation féminine (meaning best actress)
Frank’s screenplays, 26 in all, are a list of classic movies that made stars of the actors, actresses, and directors involved.
1958 The Long, Hot Summer
1959 The Sound and the Fury
1960 Home from the Hill
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
1963 Hud
Baby Makes Three (Television movie)
1967 Hombre
1968 House of Cards Credited as James P. Bonner
1969 The Reivers
1972 The Cowboys
The Carey Treatment Credited as James P. Bonner
1974 Conrack Producer
The Spikes Gang
1979 Norma Rae
1985 Murphy's Romance
and
1990 Stanley & Iris which was the last thing Frank was credited with.
There is no doubt that Frank and her husband were true innovators.
According to the L.A. Times quote:
Although they sometimes adapted a story as written, they just as often used it as a starting point for a far different story — villains would be recast as heroes, minor characters reshaped as the script’s protagonist, multiple characters melted carefully into one complexity.
End quote.
A true groundbreaker, a Norma Rae who wouldn’t accept no for an answer, Harriet Franks, Jr.’s incredible career spanned 43 years of success after success at a time when doors were either never opened or were closing for female writers.
She died recently in L.A. at the age of 93.