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John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. [1]
John Howard Lawson was a U.S. playwright, screenwriter, and member of the “Hollywood Ten,” who was jailed (1948–49) and blacklisted for his refusal to tell the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his political allegiances.
Apr 13, 2023 · ‘More Completely Blacklisted’: Remembering John Howard Lawson. Seventy-five years after the Hollywood Blacklist, the ‘Hollywood Ten’ screenwriter’s legacy gets its due.
Playwright and screenwriter John Howard Lawson, the president and organizing force of the Screen Writers’ Guild and acknowledged leader of the Communist Party in Hollywood in the late 1930s, became the first “unfriendly” witness subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on October 27, 1947.
First president and co-founder of the Screen Writers Guild, John Howard Lawson was one of the first screenwriters to write for talkies. He was active from 1928 until 1947, when he became one of the blacklisted “Hollywood Ten,” indicted for contempt of Congress, found guilty, and jailed for one year.
John Howard Lawson’s father, Simeon Levy, was the son of Jewish immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1840s from Poland, driven by an outburst of anti-Semitism. The family settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Levy was born in 1852.
Aug 14, 1977 · John Howard Lawson, the screen writer and one of the “Hollywood Ten” who was blacklisted by the motion‐picture industry and jailed for refusing in 1947 to tell a Congressional committee whether...
