A Great Lady ─ A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien

Sonya Levien left behind a glittering record of credits and awards that will never be equaled. She possessed a remarkable ability to adapt stories, plays, and novels into entertaining, filmable movie scripts, as well as a willingness to make all script changes that her supervisors directed. These qualities contributed to her rise from an immigrant factory girl on the Lower East Side of New York to one of Hollywood's highest-paid and most respected writers.
Her success came at a price. As her career grew, Levien was forced to jettison the political radicalism of her youth and measure the effect that each step on the professional ladder had on her family. She was forced to maintain a very low political posture in Hollywood, and she carefully refrained from infiltrating politically radical characters into her scripts. She also abandoned her desire for a large nuclear family, although she compensated somewhat by nurturing a loyal group of friends and extended family. In this way, A Great Lady offers readers not only a glimpse into the world of a screenwriter, but a rare look at the experience of being a woman behind the scenes in Hollywood's early days.

Larry Ceplair is Professor of History at Santa Monica College. He is also the interviewer for the UCLA Oral History project on the motion picture blacklist.