The screen writer (June 1946-May 1947)

THE SCREEN WRITER can be shown in France, as explained in Jeanson’s article. Press reports have been — perhaps in¬ tentionally — confusing, but the request for action sent by the French trade unions is clear. On the basis of the foregoing docu¬ ments and other sources, a complete analysis of the French film situation was made at the SWG Executive Board meeting of July 8, and referred to the membership meeting, July 29, for further action. ★ C a M M U X M iss Patricia Tucker, of the staff of Associated Magazine Contributors, Inc., has sent us the following analysis of the aims and functioning of that organization, which it is felt should be of interest to creative writers every¬ where: For the first time, America’s leading artists, writers and photographers are pooling their talent and their cash to publish a magazine exemplifying their own ideas of what a general, mass-circu¬ lation periodical should be and how it should operate. The basic idea is simple enough. People read magazines, it is reasoned, because of their creative content. The artist, then, whether he works with a typewriter, a camera or a box of paints, is the most important character in pub¬ lishing, and should be the most richly rewarded. Under the present scheme of things, he isn’t. His work is bought cheap and sold dear by people whose contribution to the art of publishing is often restrictive and sometimes cheapening. Why not reverse the order? Why not let the artist own the medium through which his work is marketed and hire his own technicians? Why not publish a magazine cooper¬ atively? Farmers, doctors, dentists, dairy¬ men, and a dozen other professions have CHECK THIS CREDIT Dwight Babcock writes in to state that he was never assigned to the story. The Man Who Dared, at Columbia, on which he was erroneously credited in our last issue as a contributor to the dialogue. The error originated in the Academy Bul¬ letin, which is correcting it, as we are happy to do here. Industry offices keep¬ ing files of writing credits published in these pages are requested to delete this credit attributed to Mr. Babcock in The Screen Writer for June. ★ ★ I C A T I a IV established successful cooperatives. Why not writers? This kind of thinking resulted, in December, 1 945, in a group of forty New York writers putting up $40,000 in cash to see if their colleagues wanted to try it, and incorporating the venture as Associated Magazine Contributors. Since then, about $160,000 in stock has been subscribed by the creative crafts, mainly on the East Coast, and an office has been opened at 68 West 45th St., New York City. Jerome Ellison, for¬ merly Managing Editor of Collier’s, has been employed as Editor-Publisher, and Walter Rose, formerly Assistant Publisher of the Breskin Publishing Company, has been hired as Business Manager. Plans are shaping up to publish early next year. The group has recently applied to California securities authorities for per¬ mission to offer the stock in that state. On their approval, participation of the California writing fraternity will be sought by direct mail. Among those whose money and ability are backing the magazine are: John Hersey, Christopher LaFarge, Walter Lippman, Pearl Buck, Roger Butterfield, Margaret Culkin Banning, John Stein¬ beck, Raymond Swing, Clifton Fadiman, John Dos Passos, Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay, Ogden Nash and Robert St. 44