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ABRAHAM LINCOLN POLONSKY -The Long Road Back FRIENDLY ENCOUNTER - Director-writer, Abraham Polonsky and his star, Katharine Ross, relax between takes on “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, ” in release by Universal Studios. by Barney Geoff A fter more than 20 years of forced exile from Hollywood and major motion picture production, Abraham Lincoln Polonsky is on a studio lot once more in a neat office building at Universal where he recently finished last minute touches on “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here,” with Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross. Polonsky is an American tragedy. Born in New York, he became an English literature teacher and later a lawyer, but giving these up, he turned to writing. In the so called “Golden Era” of radio, Polonsky wrote for Orson Welles’ “Mercury Players” and “Columbia Workshop” which earned him a great reputation among his peers. During the war he served with distinction as a secret agent who sent confusing messages to the Germans, causing turmoil among the civilian population and assisting in the invasion of France. After the war he was given a position at Paramount Studios writing a screenplay for “Golden Earrings.” This was followed by the critically acclaimed “Body and Soul” with John Garfield. But the McCarthy era in Washington had dawned and a wave of terror spread across the nation as the Senator from Wisconsin went on a witch hunt for communists. Eventually the fear of his investigations became so intense, high government officials joined in the wierd drama of seeking people with communist influence. When Hollywood came under the probing eye of the Senator hundreds of innocent people were put on secret “blacklists” and fired from their jobs without explanation. Polonsky found himself under a shadow of suspicion which resulted in the cancellation of his contract with Paramount and virtual exile in his own country. When confronted, studio bosses and others in positions of power refused to admit a blacklist existed, yet, those known to be under a cloud of doubt could find no work. Doors were closed to them and even when Polonsky decided to return to his interupted teaching career, he found this was also impossible, as suspected communists weren’t allowed to teach in public schools. Up to this point, no charges had been brought against him that would have held up in a court of law, but the damage was done, and his promising career was finished. His enforced oblivion from the work he loved by a headline hungry politician was shared by nearly 400 other artists who found themselves branded without a trail as traitors and enemies of the United States. It seems impossible now, but what amounted to a police state attitude operated in the major studios of Hollywood. Polonsky continued to write but from abroad and under pseudonyms for television and motion pictures. Even after the sudden death of Senator McCarthy, Polonsky found work under his own name almost non-existant. Finally when production started on Universal’s “Madigan” th,e writer-director returned to 4A