Finding Aid for the Writers' Congress records, 1943-1945
Processed by Heather Lowe in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser,
August 2011; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
© 2011
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Writers' Congress records
Date (inclusive): 1943-1945
Collection number: 141
Creator:
Writer's Congress (1943 : University of California at Los Angeles)
Extent:
3 boxes (1.5 linear ft.)
Abstract: The Writers' Congress was an initiative to bring together various people within the entertainment profession to discuss how
film, radio, music, and the press could support war efforts. The Congress was held at the University of California, Los Angeles
in October 1943. The collection consists of manuscript drafts and notes for the published proceedings as well as ephemera
from the conference.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Processing Note
Processed by Heather Lowe in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser,
August 2011.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Writers' Congress records (Collection 141). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
The Hollywood Writers Mobilization was founded on December 14, 1941 just a few days after the United States declared war on
Japan. The purpose of the group was to promote dialogue among the various types of writers and producers working in the media
and to harness their talents to serve the country in the war effort. Out of a growing partnership with scholars, the idea
to hold a Writers' Congress at the University of California, Los Angeles was born. The congress's aim was to clarify what
the role of writers and the media should be during war time. The Congress was held on the University of California, Los Angeles
campus from October 1-3, 1943. There were approximately 1,500 attendees encompassing a range of people including military
officers, script writers, publicists, cartoonists, scholars, and actors. The proceedings of the congress were published the
following year in 1944.
Scope and Content
The collection consists predominantly of lecture drafts and proofs for the proceedings of the Writer's Congress in 1943. Also
included in the materials are ephemera from the congress, press releases, memos, and resolutions.
Organization and Arrangement
The conference proceeding notes are filed in the order in which they occurred. Proofs and other ephemera are located after
the drafts and notes.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Writers' Congress (1943 : University of California at Los Angeles)
Congresses and conventions --California --Los Angeles --Archival resources.
Genres and Forms of Material
Proceedings.
Related Material
Writers' Congress. Writer's congress; the proceedings of the conference held in October 1943 under the sponsorship of the
Hollywood writers' mobilization and the University of California. Berkeley, Los Angeles : University of California Press,
1944.
Box 1, Folder 1
Preface and opening session,
1943 October.
Box 1, Folder 2
Motion picture seminar - feature film,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Responsibility of the Industry" by Darryl F. Zanuck, "Trends and Perspectives" by William Dozier, "The
Director's Point of View" by Edward Dmytryk, "A Critic's Report" by Philip K. Scheuer, "Hollywood and South America" by Jorge
Delano, "A Survey of Writing Problems" by Talbot Jennings, and "An Approach to Character" by Robert Rossen as well as notes
on the session.
Box 1, Folder 3
Motion picture seminar - documentary film,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "Documentary Film and the Box Office" by Arthur L. Mayer, "The Documentary Film and Morale" by Joris Ivens,
"The Documentary Film in Great Britain" by Thomas Baird, "Ambassadors of Good Will" by Kenneth MacGowan, "The Documentary
Film and Hollywood Techniques" by James Wong Howe, "The Writer's Function in Documentary Films" by Ben Maddow, and session
notes.
Box 1, Folder 4
Motion picture seminar - animated cartoon,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Writer and the Cartoon" by Sergeant John Hubley, "The Animated Cartoon Goes to War" by Karl Van Leuven,
and "New Technologies and Uses" by Phil Eastman.
Box 1, Folder 5
Motion picture seminar - indoctrination and training film,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes long excerpts from the discussion with statements from various attendees, as well as "The cartoon and Training"
by Sergeant Franklin Thomas.
Box 1, Folder 6
Radio seminar - creative radio,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "Commercial Radio Writing in Wartime" by Hector Chevigny, "Remarks" by Norman Corwin, "The Function of the
Radio Dramatist" (The Future of Creative Radio) by Arch Oboler, "The New and Vital Field in Radio" by Jack Runyon, and notes
on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 7
Radio seminar - radio shortwave and television,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "Radio for the Army" by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. A. Lewis, "Shortwave Broadcasting in the Pacific Basin"
by Buck Harris, "Bridge of Words" by Larry Rhine, and "Shortwave Radio and the Post War World" by John Burton.
Box 1, Folder 8
Radio seminar - radio news and analysis,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Radio Feature Story" by Nelson Pringle, "News and Morale at Home" by Chet Huntley, "Should Commentators
Comment?" by Harry Flannery, "Winning the Peace" by J. E. Wallace Sterling, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 9
Other media seminar - humor and the war,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Allocation Plan" by Cornwell Jackson, "The Radio Comedy in Wartime" by A. S. Burrows, Carroll Carroll,
Sam Moore, and Don Quinn, "Screen Humor" by Harry Kunitz, "The Wartime in Print" by a committee chaired by Leonard Levinson.
Box 1, Folder 10
Other media seminar - music and the war,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Obligation of Music" by Sol Kaplan, "Collaboration Between Screen Writer and Composer" by Adolph Deutsch,
" Humor in Music" by David Raskin, "Music in the Documentary Film" by Private Gail Kubik, "Prejudices and New Musical Material"
by Hanns Eisler, "Music in Contemporary Theater" by Lou Cooper, "Music in French Films" by Darius Milhaud, "The Negro and
His Music in Films" by William Grant Still, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 11
Other media seminar - song writing and the war,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "Report of the American Theatre Wing Music War Committee" by Oscar Hammerstein II, "War Songs of America"
by Earl Robinson, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 12
Other media seminar - labor press,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Press Associations" by Hobart Montee, "The Role of the Labor Press" by Morris Watson, and session notes.
Box 1, Folder 13
Other media seminar - publicity and the war,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Publicist in the War Effort" by Cecil E. Carle, "The Publicity for Victory Council of the Screen Publicists"
by Tom Alfred, " Hollywood's Unpublicized War Efforts" by Lesley Mason, "Creative Possibilities" by Louis Harris.
Box 1, Folder 14
Writers in Exile,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes "The Writer in the Struggle against Fascism" by Paul Perigord, "America: A Present Refuge and a Hope for the
Future" by Alexis Minotis, "The Exiled Writer's Relation to His Homeland" by Thomas Mann, "The Working Problems of the Writer
in Exile" by Lion Feuchtwanger, "The Cultural Contribution of Exiled Intellectuals to America and the World" by Gustave O.
Arlt.
Box 1, Folder 15
Panels - propaganda analysis,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes forward, "Propaganda Trends in Relation to the War Effort" by Charles A. Siepmann, "Measuring Propaganda's
Muscles" by W. M. Spackman, "Propaganda Trends in Radio" by Frances Wilder, "Propaganda Trends in the Motion Picture" by Ben
F. Barzman, and notes on discussion.
Box 1, Folder 16
Panels - nature of the enemy,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes foreword, "Motion Picture Survey" by Virginia Wright and David Hanna, "The Writer's Approach to the Problem
- Japan" by Emmet Lavery, "The Writer's Approach to the Problem - Germany" by Dudley Nichols, "On the Character of the Germans
and the Nazis" by Lion Feuchtwanger, "The Record of Barbarism and Destruction" by Mikhail Kalatosov and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 17
Panels - problems of the peace,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes foreword, "Soviet Arts and the War" by Alexander Kaun, "Cultural Changes in Great Britain" by Phyllis Bentley,
"Design for a Novel" by Vladimir Pozner, "Cultural Changes in America" by Mikhail Kalatosov, "The Writers-Builders of China"
by Yu Shan Han, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 18
Panels - minority groups,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes foreword, "Statement of the Problem" by Harry Hoijer, "Minority Groups and American Culture" by Carey McWilliams,
"Minorities and the Screen" by Dalton Trumbo, "The American Indian" by John Collier, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 19
Panels - the American scene,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes foreword, "The Interpretive Process" by Franklin Fearing, " Radio on the Home Front" by Nat Wolff, "Are the
Muses Mute?" by Milton Merlin, "The Writer in War and Peace" by Howard Estabrook, "Radio Accepts a Challenge" by Carlton E.
Morse, and discussion notes.
Box 1, Folder 20
Panels - Pan-American affairs,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes foreword, "The Cultural Pattern" by Jose Antonio Ramos, "Hemispheric Solidarity" by Hubert Herring, "The Film
as an Instrument of Good Will" by Dr. Hernane Tavares De Sa, "Writers of the Americas" by Sergio Bagu, "Prospects for Cooperation"
by Ralph L. Beals, and notes on the discussion.
Box 1, Folder 21
Concluding session,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes various speeches and reports given during the closing session as well as notes about discussion.
Box 1, Folder 22
Appendix materials,
1943 October.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes the program for the congress, a final report on resolutions, committee lists, and screen writers' credits.
Box 2, Folder 1
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 1-58),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 2
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 59-91),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 3
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 92-270),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 4
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 271-569),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 5
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 570-784),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 6
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 785-964),
1943.
Box 2, Folder 7
Preliminary draft for proceedings book (pages 965-1052),
1943.
Box 3, Folder 1
Preliminary draft of proceedings book (appendix),
1943.
Box 3, Folder 2
Retyped or deleted portions of the draft,
1943.
Box 3, Folder 3
Various documents,
1943-1944.
Scope and Content Note
Folder includes memo about creating the Hollywood Quarterly, programs from other conferences, resolutions presented to the
members of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization, a report of resolutions committee from the congress, and press releases.
Box 3, Folder 4
Ephemera,
1943-1944.
Scope and Content Note
Bulletins, flyers, and pamphlets from the Writers' Congress, the Hollywood Writers Mobilization and other similar organizations.
Box 3, Folder 5
Correspondence,
1944-1945.
Scope and Content Note
Most correspondence regards an event sponsored by the Hollywood Writers Mobilization, Tomorrow the World.
Box 3, Folder 6
Returning Servicemen,
1944.
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence and drafts of papers on difficulties of servicemen returning to civilian life.
Box 4, Folder 1
First proof of the congress's proceedings,
1944.
Physical Description: Oversize long format proofs.
Box 4, Folder 2
Second proof of the congress's proceedings,
1944.
Physical Description: Oversize long format proofs.
