Martin Field Collection

Title: Martin Field Collection

Dates: 1936-1973 [bulk 1940s]

Collection Number: WGF-MS-145

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 1 linear foot, 1 box

Repository: Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Abstract: The Martin Field Collection contains creative writing, correspondence, journal and magazine publications, and a newspaper clipping scrapbook covering the author’s work as a writer and screenwriter.

Language of Material: English

Open for research, by appointment only.

The responsibility to secure copyright and publication permission rests with the researcher.

[Identification of item]. Martin Field Collection. Collection Number: WGF-MS-145. Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Donated by daughter Mona Field on 5/16/2023.

Martin Field was born on December 19, 1914 in Newark, New Jersey. He worked as a playwright for the Federal Theatre Project under the WPA during the Depression, before moving to Los Angeles in 1945 to become a screenwriter. Along with co-writer Aubrey Wisberg, Field wrote the 1955 noir film Murder Is My Beat. He also wrote for publications including Variety, the Jewish Advocate, and B’nai B’rith Messenger, running a column called “Movie Score.” As a longtime member of the Screen Writers’ Guild, he served on the editorial board for their publication The Screen Writer. Field died on September 5, 2001 and was survived by ex-wife Helen Colton and children Mona and Corey.

The Martin Field Collection, 1936-1973, contains creative writing, correspondence, journal and magazine publications, and a newspaper clipping scrapbook. Creative works written or co-written by Field consist of short stories, novellas, screenplays, plays and treatments. Some are written with Aubrey Wisberg. Of note, there is a musical play by Field and H. J. Lengsfelder (aka Harry Lenk) entitled “Connie’s Inn” about the New York City nightclub owned by Conrad Immerman. Included with the script are contracts from 1943 and 1944 between Field, Lengsfelder, and Immerman regarding life rights and the distribution of revenue should the project come to fruition. Other papers consist of both personal and professional correspondence. The bulk comes from the early 1940s, when Field was sending scripts to various producers and studios at the start of his film career. There are letters to and from executives Dore Schary and William James Fadiman. There is personal correspondence from Field’s “Murder Is My Beat” co-writer Aubrey Wisberg. There are other letters, play/script coverage and rejections and play reviews. Some letters relate to Field's submissions to the Federal Theatre Project in 1937. A few contracts are included, such as an agreement between Field and Frank Scully and Ed Morrell regarding adapting Morrell’s autobiography “The 25th Man” into a film. There is a patent filed in 1973 for a matchbox holder. Publications with contributions from Field span 1938-1949 and consist of issues of the SWG journal The Screen Writer and issues of Cinema (published by Avant), the Writer, the Penguin Film Review, and the New Theatre League’s First Printed Collection of Skits and Sketches. There is also a newspaper scrapbook, which contains clippings of “Movie Score” and other articles by Field.