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PEOPLE & ARTSFriday 6 November 2015
‘Trumbo’ resurrects Hollywood’s darkest chapter
JAKE COYLE In this Oct. 28, 1947 file photo, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, left, and his wife, Cleo, listen from the of Hollywood,” says direc-
AP Film Writer audience as the chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) announces a tor Jay Roach (“Meet the
NEW YORK (AP) — The sub- contempt citation against Trumbo at a hearing in Washington, D.C. The new film “Trumbo,” star- Parents,” ‘’Recall”). “It’s
poena came like a death ring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, resurrects the era of the blacklist, one of Hollywood’s most almost like it’s so ugly the
sentence. shameful chapters. way it went down, people
Dalton Trumbo, the famed might in a way prefer not
Hollywood screenwriter, Associated Press to be reminded. It’s not a
knew what it meant when story that gets told a lot
he was officially sum- Hollywood Ten — those important story Hollywood including “Thirty Seconds around here.”
moned to appear before who, like Trumbo, refused has to tell about itself,” he Over Tokyo” and “Five “Trumbo” recreates a
the House Un-American to cooperate with the says. Came Back.” In the lean 1950s Hollywood of color-
Activities Committee in HUAC, which was acting in McNamara’s first encoun- years he was blacklisted, ful characters with Helen
1947. He knew they would the grip of Cold War para- ter with the blacklist was Trumbo secretly wrote Mirren as gossip columnist
pry into his political beliefs noia. decades ago as a student under pseudonyms and Hedda Hopper, Michael
and slander him as a Soviet The period — “a time of at New York University. fronts. Stuhlbarg as Edward G.
operative. evil,” Trumbo called it — When he told screenwrit- Both his “Roman Holiday” Robinson, David James El-
has occasionally been the er professor Ian McLellan and “The Brave One” won liot as John Wayne and
And he knew that he backdrop for movies, most Hunter that he liked his 1953 Oscars without his name Dean O’Gorman as Doug-
would refuse their invasion, notably Sydney Pollack’s romantic comedy “Roman on it.The blacklist began to las.
protest their witch hunt “The Way We Were” and Holiday,” Hunter respond- break when director Otto But none was more of an
and be jailed for doing so. Martin Ritt’s “The Front.” But ed: “I didn’t write that mov- Preminger announced he iconoclast than Trumbo,
After the subpoena, came “Trumbo,” which opens Fri- ie. My friend Dalton Trumbo would credit Trumbo for a loquacious, cigarette-
a race to prepare for the day, is the first major release did.” 1960’s “Exodus.” Kirk Doug- smoking scribe who of-
coming storm: sell his fam- to tell the story through its Trumbo, who also wrote las did the same for that ten typed in the bathtub.
ily’s house, finish what work actual people. the novel “Johnny Got year’s “Spartacus,” which Daughter Nikola Trumbo,
he could and, as he said, Screenwriter John McNa- His Gun,” was one of Hol- President John F. Kennedy 76, recalls life around him
“get ready to be a no- mara believes it’s long lywood’s top screenwrit- crossed picket lines to see. as in “technicolor.” Stub-
body.” overdue. “This is the only ers for years, with credits “It’s a repressed memory bornly principled, Trumbo’s
Once erased from movies, immaculate speech could
Trumbo’s name is back in be biting.
theaters — and this time, “He could destroy some-
it’s not below the title but one in 12 words,” says Mitzi
right in it. “Trumbo,” star- Trumbo.
ring Bryan Cranston, resur- McNamara relished dig-
rects the darkest chapter ging through Trumbo’s writ-
in Hollywood history — the ing and correspondence.
blacklist — and celebrates ‘There’s a letter he writes to
one of the men the movie his contractor and the first
industry once tragically line is ‘Dear burglars,’” says
shunned. McNamara. “He made dis-
“To watch it turn around, obedience an art form.”
to watch him go from vil- Snappy and chatty, “Trum-
lain to hero, is fascinat- bo” owes much of its tone
ing,” says Mitzi Trumbo, the to its main character, who
70-year-old daughter of died in 1976.
the screenwriter. “He’s very serious and
During the decade-long sometimes almost zealous
blacklist, studios refused to or strident,” says Roach. q
hire any of the so-called
NBC’s Al Roker embarking
on 50-state marathon
In this Jan. 11, 2015 file photo, Al Roker arrives at the 16th an- ality, a year after complet- thing,” he said. He’ll be delivering forecasts
nual InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty in Bev- ing a marathon 34-hour Roker takes care of the big throughout his travels, ei-
erly Hills, Calif. weather forecast, plans travel issues first, starting Fri- ther on “Today,” local NBC
to give reports from all 50 day in Honolulu before fly- affiliates, cable networks
Associated Press states within a week start- ing to Anchorage, Alaska, like CNBC, MSNBC or The
ing Friday. If successful, on Saturday. Weather Channel and on-
DAVID BAUDER again — and this time he’s he’ll try to have it certified Then the real fun begins. line. Planes, trains and au-
AP Television Writer picking up some frequent as a Guinness World Re- Starting in Spokane, Wash- tomobiles will shuttle him
NEW YORK (AP) — Al Ro- flier miles. cord, not that anyone has ington, on Sunday, Roker across the country, and Ro-
ker is testing his endurance The “Today” show person- done it before him. travels through the North- ker is packing a few books
Last year’s stunt raised west that day. He cheats a and a supply of movies on
$70,000 for the USO. This little on Monday, visiting the his tablet.
year, Roker’s trip is benefit- Four Corners, enabling him Johnny Cash’s travelogue
ing Feeding America. to cross off Arizona, Utah, song “I’ve Been Every-
“If we can shine a light on New Mexico and Colorado where” has been refer-
something that’s a prob- at one stop, and gradually enced. Roker promises not
lem, I’m willing to do any- makes his way East. to sing it.q
