Alfred Lewis Levitt (June 3, 1916 – November 16, 2002) was an American film and television

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. He attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, and served in a camera unit of the United States Air Force during the Second World War. Following the war, Levitt was the screenwriter for such films as '' The Boy with Green Hair'' (1948), '' Mrs. Mike'' (1950), and ''

The Barefoot Mailman ''The Barefoot Mailman'' is a 1951 American historical comedy adventure film directed by Earl McEvoy and starring Robert Cummings, Terry Moore and Jerome Courtland. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film was based on the 1943 novel ...

'' (1951). In 1951 he was called before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC) for his

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

involvements, and was entered on the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was the mid-20th century banning of suspected Communists from working in the United States entertainment industry. The blacklisting, blacklist began at the onset of the Cold War and Red Scare#Second Red Scare (1947–1957 ...

. Following a screenwriting credit for '' Dream Wife'' (1953), he was unemployed as a screenwriter for about five years. Levitt and Pearl Helen Slote (December 6, 1916 - April 3, 1993) were married in 1938; they had two children. Helen Slote Levitt, as Slote was called after her marriage, was also blacklisted in 1951. After more than five years, the Levitts were employed again as screenwriters. They were credited as "Tom and Helen August". Their credits included many episodes of television shows such as ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typi ...

'' and ''

The Bionic Woman ''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction film, science fiction Action-adventure fiction, action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson (producer), Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel Cyborg (novel), ''Cyborg'' by ...

'' and also the feature films '' The Misadventures of Merlin Jones'' (1964) and '' The Monkey's Uncle'' (1965). In 1971 they were nominated for a

Writers Guild Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility The ...

for an episode of the television program, ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...

''. Their last credit was for a 1979 episode of the program ''

Diff'rent Strokes ''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which originally aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and ...

''. The Levitts' experiences as

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

screenwriters have been described in several books about the Hollywood blacklist. Transcript of a 7.30-hour interview archived at the UCLA Center for Oral History Research. Transcript of a 10.65-hour interview archived at the UCLA Center for Oral History Research. Among the Levitts' activities during the early years of their blacklisting, and corresponding unemployment, was to participate in publishing the journal '' Hollywood Review''. ''Hollywood Review'' has been characterized by Ceplair and Englund as, "...a critical review focusing on American films --more specifically on the increasing violence, sadism, hatred, bigotry, and glorification of brutality perpetrated on audiences by the entertainment industry."Ceplair, Larry and Englund, Steven (2003). ''The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-60'' (Univ. of Illinois Press). . p. 413. Nine issues of the journal were published between 1953 and 1956. In 1978, Levitt rejoined the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...

. Starting in 1988, Levitt led an effort through the Writers' Guild to correct film credits from the blacklist era, in which it became common for the work of blacklisted writers to be uncredited, or credited using pseudonyms. The Writers' Guild maintains a listing of 24 films with revised writing credits on its website. In 1995, Alfred and Helen Levitt were honored with the Morgan Cox Award of the Writers Guild of America.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levitt, Alfred Lewis American male screenwriters Hollywood blacklist 1916 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters

References

Further reading

External links