Samuel
Ornitz, the son of a prosperous
New York dry-goods merchant, was born
on 15th November, 1890. By the age of 12 Ornitz was a committed socialist
and used to give speech on politics in Lower East Side streets. Unlike
his brothers, he rejected the business world and was employed as a
social worker by the New York Prison Association (1908-14) and the
Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1914-20).
Ornitz began writing and his first play, The
Sock, was performed in 1918.
His next work, Deficit, was performed
by the People's Playhouse in New York in 1919. Ornitz obtained national
success with the publication of his novel, Haunch
Paunch, a witty memoir of Jewish immigrant life, in 1923.
Ornitz moved to Hollywood in 1928 and over the next few years wrote
The Case of Lena Smith (1929),
Chinatown Nights (1929), Hell's
Highway (1932), Imitation of Life
(1934), Mark of the Vampire (1935),
Follow Your Heart (1936), Army
Girl (1938), Little Orphan Annie
(1938), They Live in Fear (1944)
and Circumstantial Evidence (1945).
Along with Lester Cole and John
Howard Lawson, Ornitz helped to establish the Screen Actors Guild.
A supporter of the communist government in the Soviet
Union, Ornitz was one of the most outspoken political figures
in Hollywood.
After the Second World War the House
of Un-American Activities Committee began an investigation into
the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC
interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people
attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses".
During their interviews they named several people who they accused
of holding left-wing views.
Ornitz appeared before the HUAC on 29th October, 1947, but like Alvah
Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Albert
Maltz, Adrian Scott, Dalton
Trumbo, Lester Cole, Edward
Dmytryk, John Howard Lawson and
Ring Lardner Jr, he refused to answer
any questions. Known as the Hollywood
Ten, they claimed that the
