Herbert Biberman
Herbert Biberman | |
---|---|
Born | Herbert Joseph Biberman March 4, 1900 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,U.S. |
Died | June 30, 1971 New York City,New York,U.S. | (aged 71)
Other names | Herbert J. Biberman |
Occupation(s) | Screenwriter and film director |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Edward Biberman(brother) |
Herbert J. Biberman(March 4, 1900[1]– June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of theHollywood Tenand directedSalt of the Earth(1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' strike inGrant County, New Mexico.His membership in theDirectors Guild of Americawas posthumously restored in 1997; he had been expelled in 1950.
Biberman was born inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania,to Joseph and Eva Biberman and was the brother of American artist,Edward Biberman.[2]Biberman's pre-blacklist career included writing such films asKing of Chinatown(1939),When Tomorrow Comes(1939),Action in Arabia(1944),The Master Race(1944), which he also directed, andNew Orleans(1947), as well as directing such films asOne Way Ticket(1935) andMeet Nero Wolfe(1936). He married actressGale Sondergaardin 1930; the marriage lasted for the rest of Biberman's life. Biberman died frombone cancerin 1971 inNew York City.
HUAC
[edit]Though he would become firmly pro-war afterGermanyinvaded theSoviet Union,during theMolotov–Ribbentrop pact,his outspoken opposition to U.S.Lend-Leaseto theUnited Kingdomwas so intense, the FBI suspected Biberman (who was actually Jewish) of being aNazi.[3]In 1947, the CongressionalHouse Committee on Un-American Activitiesbegan its investigation into the film industry, and Biberman became one of ten Hollywood writers and directors cited forcontempt of Congresswhen they refused to answer questions about theirAmerican Communist Partyaffiliation. Evidence presented in the hearing showed that Biberman had been a member of the communist party since at least 1944.[4]Biberman and the others were imprisoned for their contempt convictions, Biberman for six months. Edward Dmytryk ultimately cooperated with the House committee, but Biberman and the others wereblacklistedby theHollywood studios.
Biberman worked independently after his release from jail. The result wasSalt of the Earth(1954), a fictionalized account of the Grant County miners' strike. The screenplay was byMichael Wilsonand it was produced byPaul Jarrico,neither members of the Ten but they were both also blacklisted.Salt of the Earthhas been deemed "culturally significant" by the United StatesLibrary of Congressand selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry.
Legacy
[edit]One of the Hollywood Ten,a 2000 film chronicling his blacklisting and the making ofSalt of the Earthfrom Biberman's point of view, starredJeff Goldblumas Biberman andGreta Scacchias his wife, the actressGale Sondergaard.The film'sclosing creditsnoted Biberman had never been removed from the old blacklist formally, and that Sondergaard had not found work in Hollywood until shortly before her husband's death. Biberman's membership in the Directors Guild of America, which was stripped in 1950, was restored in 1997.
Filmography
[edit]Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1935 | Eight Bells | dialogue director | |
One-Way Ticket | Director | (as Herbert Biberman) | |
1936 | Meet Nero Wolfe | Director | |
1939 | King of Chinatown | Writer(story) | |
When Tomorrow Comes | Writer | (uncredited) | |
1944 | Action in Arabia | Writer(original screenplay) | (as Herbert Biberman) |
The Master Race | Writer(screenplay) (story),Director | ||
Together Again | Writer(story) | (as Herbert Biberman) | |
1946 | Abilene Town | associate producer | |
1947 | New Orleans | Writer(story), associate producer | |
1950 | The Hollywood Ten | Himself | (uncredited) |
1954 | Salt of the Earth | Director | |
1969 | Slaves | Writer,Director |
References
[edit]- ^1921 US Passport Application
- ^"Brush With Life: The Art Of Being Edward Biberman - Documentary Film Description".www.organa.com.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-10-06.Retrieved2017-10-06.
His brother, Herbert Biberman, was the screenwriter and director known for having been one of the Hollywood Ten.
- ^Welky, David (2008).The Moguls and the Dictators: Hollywood and the Coming of World War II.JHU Press. p. 238.ISBN978-0801890444.RetrievedOctober 16,2014.
- ^Ryskind, Alan H., "Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters, Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler", Regnery History, Washington, DC, 2015, page 426,ISBN978-1-62157-206-0
Further reading
[edit]- Caballero, Raymond.McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
External links
[edit]- Herbert BibermanatIMDb
- Herbert Bibermanat theInternet Broadway Database
- Herbert Bibermanat theInternet Off-Broadway Database
- Review in TV Guide of biopic,"One of the Hollywood Ten."
- 1900 births
- 1971 deaths
- Film directors from Pennsylvania
- American male screenwriters
- Hollywood Ten
- Jewish American screenwriters
- Screenwriters from Philadelphia
- Deaths from bone cancer in the United States
- Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American screenwriters
- 20th-century American Jews
- Members of the Communist Party USA