Herbert Biberman and Gale Sondergaard papers, 1908-1981

Author / Creator

Biberman, H. J. (Herbert J.)

Available as

Physical

Summary

Papers of H.J. Biberman, a stage and screen producer-director-writer, and Gale Sondergaard, Academy Award-winning actress. The collection concerns the couple's professional careers as well as the a...

Papers of H.J. Biberman, a stage and screen producer-director-writer, and Gale Sondergaard, Academy Award-winning actress. The collection concerns the couple's professional careers as well as the anti-trust litigation which resulted from Biberman's attempt to mitigate the blacklisting he experienced as one of the Hollywood Ten (Independent Production Company v. Loews et al.). Documentation about the Hollywood Ten is limited, although there are autobiographical references to this period, some records of the Committee to Free the Hollywood Ten, the film The Hollywood Ten, and personal letters written by Biberman while he was imprisoned for contempt of Congress.

Scripts for plays and motion pictures produced, directed, or written by Biberman or acted in by Sondergaard comprise fifteen boxes. Among the most prominent of the productions documented in his files are Green Grow the Lilacs, The Master Race, New Orleans, Roar China, Salt of the Earth, and Slaves. Sondergaard's files also include playbills, stills, and microfilmed scrapbooks. For her early career there is documentation concerning work with Melvyn Douglas as a member of the Bonstelle Company. Biberman's files also include extensive unproduced and unpublished writings including scripts, speeches, nonfiction, and several complete drafts of the autobiography eventually published as Salt of the Earth as well as some recollections of his theatrical experiences in Moscow. For Sondergaard there are autobiographical fragments.

Thirty-three boxes contain legal papers presented by Arthur Galligan and Ben Margolis, attorneys for the unsuccessful suit against the production companies, distributors, and the theatrical union that blocked American release of Salt of the Earth, the film about the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers that Biberman directed with Paul Jarrico and Simon Lazarus. Along with correspondence, depositions, transcribed proceedings (available only on microfilm), research material, and exhibits, there are files on other blacklisting suits brought by Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson, Nedrick Young, the Screen Writers Guild, and others. Other individuals represented within the legal material gathered here are Oscar Hammerstein II, Edgar Y. Harburg, Kim Hunter, Richard Rodgers, Dore Schary, as well as Roy Brewer and Richard Walsh of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and representatives of the American Legion, the Motion Picture Industry Council, and the Association of Motion Pictures Producers. Research material gathered for the suit includes scripts and financial and production records for Salt of the Earth; information on Howard Hughes; autobiographical statements of blacklisted individuals in the motion picture industry; and correspondence of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, and other organizations investigated by HUAC.

Prominent correspondents include George P. Baker, Ring Lardner Jr., Corliss Lamont, Sinclair Lewis, Albert Maltz, Carl Sandburg, and Dalton Trumbo.

The processed portion of this collection is described above, dates 1908-1981, and is described in the register. Additional accessions date 1953-1956, are described below, and consist of F.B.I. files obtained by James J. Lorence under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) while researching his book, "The Suppression of 'Salt of the Earth': How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America."

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