BLACKLISTED HOLLYWEIRD RED DIES: Maurice Rapf, 88, Screenwriter and Film Professor, is dead

NY TIMES ^ | 4/20/03 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Liz]

HANOVER, N.H., April 17 — Maurice Rapf, a screenwriter, a founder of the Writers Guild of America and a professor emeritus of the film studies department at Dartmouth, died on Tuesday. He was 88.

Mr. Rapf was the son of Harry Rapf, a pioneering executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and he recalled having a brief career as a child actor, portraying orphans, street urchins and assorted brats.

"Making movies was the family business, and with parental help it became mine as well," he wrote in 1990 for the Dartmouth alumni magazine.

After graduating from Dartmouth in 1935 he returned to Hollywood and worked as a screenwriter at several major studios and helped found the Screenwriters Guild, later renamed the Writers Guild of America.

His film credits include "Song of the South" (1946), "Winter Carnival" (1939) and "So Dear to My Heart" (1949). He also wrote "All About the Movies: A Handbook for the Moving-Loving Layman" and "Back Lot: Growing Up With the Movies," an autobiography.

Blacklisted in 1947 because of his support for the Communist Party and his union work, Mr. Rapf moved East with his family, settled in Norwich, Vt., and helped establish the Dartmouth Film Society.

He later worked in New York as a writer, director and producer of more than 60 commercial and industrial films and reviewed films for Life and Family Circle magazines.

He returned to Dartmouth in 1967 and began a long career as a film professor there.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Louise Seidel Rapf; his brother, Matthew; two daughters, Joanna Rapf and Geraldine Van Dusen; a son, William Rapf; and four grandchildren.

[Liz]

For a blacklisted Commie, Rapf had quite a distinguished career. From the relentless propaganda Hollywarped puts out, you'd think these self-made "victims" languished in no-man's land after they were outed for their anti-American activities.

[Hildy]

My cousin, the famous radio writer Norman Corwin, was blacklisted for many years. He overcame that and still leads a very successful life and career. He turns 100 this year. NORMAN CORWIN

[Bonaparte]

Hollywood commies take care of their own. But they also love to promote the myth of every blacklisted writer starving to death in some cold water tenement. Most of them made the same or better money writing under pseudonyms.

[yankeedame]

My cousin, the famous radio writer Norman Corwin, was blacklisted for many years. He overcame that and still leads a very successful life and career. He turns 100 this year

Wow! The stories he could tell! Wish him a Happy Birthday from the Freeper gang.

[ricpic]

Hope they did right, er left by him, and buried him face down, direction Moskva.

[Wormwood]

And he has now become, finally, a Good Communist.

[L.N. Smithee]

His film credits include "Song of the South" (1946),

He wrote Song of The South, with all that "tar baby" stuff? For the sake of his lasting memory, it's a good thing for him he was blacklisted, or else the politically correct would be popping corks that a guy who could write such allegedly racist stuff died.

[Joe 6-pack]

Flush...

[Willie Green]

He wrote Song of The South, with all that "tar baby" stuff?
... the politically correct would be popping corks that a guy who could write such allegedly racist stuff died.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I've never reviewed those stories as an adult.
But what I vaguely recall from my childhood is that those are simply harmless children's stories.
There's no doubt that, considering when they were written, they must've reflected some of the stereotypes of the times. But I don't recall anything that was mean-spirited or malicious. Have these works been wrongly demonized? Or should I re-examine them now that I'm an adult with more awareness of what is offensive?

[cgbg]

it's a good thing for him he was blacklisted, or else the politically correct would be popping corks that a guy who could write such allegedly racist stuff died

Actually, political correctness is a product of a Marxist heresy developed by Herbert Marcuse.

Marcuse used (true Marxist believers would say abused) Marxist theory to take the Marxist critique of capitalism and apply it to sexual equality, sexual orientation, and the relationship between white folks and various ethnic and racial groups.

In each case the Marcusian argues that White Men exploit X.

Marx, of course, believed that it was capitalists who did the exploiting and Marx hated all capitalists whether they were male or female, white or black or brown, or heterosexual or homosexual.

Both Marx and Marcuse were crackpots who would have best served society by weaving baskets in an insane asylum.

The fact that their followers have dominated Hollywood for generations will be a source of wry amusement for historians looking back at this period in our cultural development.

[TommyDale]

He may have written a screenplay, "Song of the South", but don't give him credit for the basis of the movie, which was built around the characters from Joel Chandler Harris works, including "Uncle Remus". I remember listening to the "Uncle Remus" stories on radio as a child. The Disney people made a movie from those characters.

[weegee]

The left's primary argument over Song Of The South has to do with the portrayl of "happy and singing" slaves.

As someone else has posted, those stories were transcribed by someone else.

The plantation where they were transcribed (from the stories the slaves told) is in southern Louisiana. It is called "Laura Plantation" and has more of a Carrabian culture.

[Bullish]

Aw, shucks!

[weegee]

The Hollywood Blacklist continues for those who cross picket lines (or work on non-union productions).

It also is applied to conservatives:

Jerry Doyle (Garabaldi from Babylon 5) talking on Michael Savage about being BLACKBALLED

[faithincowboys]

a timely,useful death for the left-- will enable them to bring this up and the rantings of Robbins and compare this era to the bad old days of Joe Mc. (again!!)

[Liz]

I'm all broken up about it, myself. LOL.

[weegee]

McCarthy was right, the KGB files supported this. He couldn't hold to a number; these days when a politician (or journalist) speaks in hyperbole there is no critique. "I can balance the budget in 5 years, 10 years, 8 years..."

The Communists in America loved Uncle Joe Stalin. They never apologized when it was revealed that he killed more people than Hitler. Saddam's historical mentor was Stalin (he idolized the guy). The left was wrong this time too.

The left would be best served to avoid the whole "McCarthy" thing at this time.