The screen writer (June 1947-Mar 1948)

THE SCREEN WRITER heavy-handed satire directed at management . . . and too little to the writing and making of motion pictures." "Before changing the format, we should change the editorial board." "Magazine should be more like Authors' League Bulletin." "Magazine has little influence in Hollywood. This influence is prerequisite to influence elsewhere. "Magazine fluctuates between fawning on producers and being belligerent toward them." "For more humor, just publish minutes of our meetings." "Fewer words from on high advising the lowly on matters personal, political, biological and colonic. Eighty per cent of material published is highly valuable. Why don't you make it 100 per cent?" "The editorial committee is just a bunch of reds. They should resign." SWG membership comments in praise of the magazine outnumbered by about 10 to 1 the doubtful and caustic comments. Here are a few quotes from questionnaires returned by Guild members: "A helluva swell magazine. Who's complaining?" "The only thing wrong with The Screen Writer is that there isn't more of it." "The best ivritten professional magazine in the world." "Congratulations to the editorial committee for a really swell job." (This was repeated many times.) "The one really good magazine about the motion picture medium." "Magazine has lived up to its best prospects." "The Screen Writer has been the greatest of all boons to creative workers in the industry. It has now outlived its rather restricted house-organ character. It can be, potentially, a boon to the nation." "A good magazine. . . . Keep it strictly house-organ. Don't louse it up with any fancy-pants or corny stuff." "It's a great publication, inherently so — as well as splendid showcase for SWG and the industry as a whole. But I hate to see the format changed." "Sure, change the format. Content is the important thing — and the content is GREAT." "By all means let's have advertising. That seems to me the next logical step in the development of a great magazine. Any self-respecting publication should be able to support itself." "A fine magazine . . . but avoid advertising, the most corrupting of all influences." "Our magazine has done more than anything else to attract attention to the writer's role in motion pictures. Committee has done a wonderful job. It's the most constructive move SWG ever made." "The Screen Writer is the most exciting trade magazine I ever read." "Give us more of the same." "Thanks for a wonderful job. That article by Willie Wyler was worth the price of the magazine for the next 10 years." "Magazine can serve as forum for whole motion picture industry. It can and should be the sounding board for all phases of picture making." "The magazine is entirely absorbing. I have no negative criticism." "It's so good that tens of thousands of people in and out of the industry should be getting it. We should put them on the free list." "The Screen Writer deserves to become the world's leading magazine on all screen matters." "I am grateful to the editorial committee and the executive board for their excellent job of furthering the cause of writers in particular and the position of motion pictures in general." "I doubt if the industry knows as yet what a gold mine of good will reposes in the pages of The Screen Writer. It should give the magazine all sorts of help in spreading the good word throughout the world." "Your AAA fight is great. That special supplement was a honey — a wonderful service to the profession of writing." "Don't see how it can be improved. But if you can do it — great! My thanks to executive board, editorial committee and staff." "Magazine suffers only because it isn't bigger. I find it extremely interesting, and always wish there were more to read." "Magazine is swell and a great credit to the Guild." "My copies of the magazine are read by myself, my family, my house guests, my friends, a large percentage of which are just plain old General Public. Discussion of magazine's contents are lively and interesting." "So good it should be made more generally available to the public." "My congratulations to the SWG editors and board for their excellent job in furthering the cause of writers in particular and motion pictures in general." "The magazine is a superior job of editing. Don't pay too much attention to No's unless backed by specific charges. The Hollywood atmosphere is so poisonous that some writers consider it corny to say anything good about anything — except, of course, their own great scripts. The question is not do they like it, but do they read it." "Magazine has been doing one hell of a good job." 32