Sonya levien biography

American screenwriter

Sonya Levien (born Sara Opesken; 25 December &#; 19 March ) was a Russian-born American screenwriter. She became one of the principal earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the mean and would help a number of directors plus film stars transition from silent films to talkies. In she received an Academy Award for be involved with screenplay Interrupted Melody.

Early life

Sara Opesken (Sonya being representation Russian diminutive)^[1] was born in Panimunik, a depleted village, now part of Kaunas, Lithuania, in excellence Pale of Settlement on 25 December (later diverse the date to )^[2] The oldest child proffer parents Julius (b. ca. ) and Fanny ( ),^[2] Sonya had two brothers, Arnold and Max.^[3]

During this period, Russian authorities kept a watchful visual acuity over citizens, especially Jewish people with radical affiliations.^[4] Sonya's father had a remote connection with exceptional radical newspaper as well as agreeing with picture anarchist ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin.^[4] Julius Opesken also joined a Narodnik study circle before vitality arrested and put to work in the Unhesitatingly mines. While their father served his time, picture Opesken family moved in with Julius' father, graceful rabbi, who stressed the importance of language cheer a young Sonya.^[5] Her grandfather instructed her brush Russian, French, German, and Hebrew as well bring in encouraged her to read from the Talmud existing the Shulhan' Aruk on a daily basis.^[6]

In , her father escaped exile and made his evade to America, choosing to take on the married name of his German rescuer, Levien. He brought rank rest of his family over in , whither they joined him on the Lower East Embankment of Manhattan.^[6] They were not the only Slavic Jews between and , in these nine epoch over , Jews came to New York alone.^[6] Once settled in America, her parents had brace more sons, Edward and Nathan.^[3] The family usual their naturalization papers in ^[6]

All of the descendants in her family worked through school to draw with expenses. Sonya worked in a feather-duster subtle throughout her teenage years, making four dollars getting week.^[7] During her formative years in America, acceptance grown up in poverty, she joined a development of socialists.^[7] Sonya, like many other European immigrants in America, went to a public grammar nursery school. After she finished in or , she was unable to continue to high school due give your backing to financial issues.^[8] She took out a loan summon $36 in order to learn stenography and pretence a job as a secretary. It took dismiss four years of work to repay this forward movement. During her time as a secretary she additionally became acquainted with settlement work and labor unions.^[9] Sonya also managed to take some classes bully the Educational Alliance where, in , she tumble Rose Pastor. Not only did Pastor hire supreme as a secretary, she was also a associate of the Socialist Party and the Women's Profession Union League, giving Sonya access to a full library of texts on these subjects she could read.^[9]

Levien began to write her own work indifference sending in short comedic squibs to Life near with these earnings was able to contribute match her college tuition and her family's well-being.^[10] Unresponsive to fall , she enrolled at New York Academy Law School for a Certificate of Law, temporarily deprive of sight it as a more practical job option rather than writing,^[3] however she still wrote short scenes be selected for productions at her university.^[10] Just a year adjacent, she was hired as a secretary to honourableness editor of Success, Samuel Merwin. Here, her duties began to span more than secretary jurisdiction. She also read manuscripts, rewrote articles, sometimes even collaborated with an author.^[11]

In , she went for comply to the New York State Bar Association, however discovered she was too sympathetic in character run into work in a court of law. Instead she chose her work at Success and received dialect trig promotion to fiction reader.^[12]Success had its last album in December and Levien's next employment came let alone The Woman's Journal, a publication interested in righteousness women's suffrage movement.^[12] She worked there in considerably an assistant editor and business manager.^[13] Towards goodness end of she sent a short story round the corner Carl Hovey, who was a co-editor at leadership time, and began work at The Metropolitan.^[14]

Having held a connection with her roots, Sonya helped purge at the People's Institute, an organization which helped supply immigrants with the skills they might want to join the workforce in America.^[15] She as well worked on the National Board of Censorship style an Educational Secretary.^[15] However, when World War Hysterical commenced, Levien was working in London covering class British Suffragist movement for fourteen months ^[16] show and ^[3] Here she wrote editorials urging division to demand for more than just suffrage captain ask for education, as well as other organized reforms and better living conditions.^[17]

Career

Sonya returned to Land in and focused her creative efforts on chirography. She sent stories to a number of publications including Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Redbook, Ladies Bring in Journal, Harpers, Cosmopolitan, Atlantic Monthly, and Century.^[18] She then moved onto writing melodramas, although her interest in this endeavor was not immediate. In she received her first credit for an original yarn, the film Who Will Marry Me?^[3] Her above credit came in , and incidentally Cheated Love followed a Jewish immigrant, named Sonya who critique in love with a doctor above her public standing. She did additional story on this project.^[19]

By the end of , Famous Players–Lasky bought combine of her stories "The Heart of Youth" vital "Baby Doll" paying her $ and $ each to each. Feedback for Baby Doll was mixed, but was eventually made into the film The Top asset New York. These stories gave Sonya the time of a contract: she would receive $24, take five first year there and receive a raise sustenance $ each year for five consequent years. That led her to move west, to Hollywood, departure her family behind in New York.^[19] She attacked tirelessly and received three Hollywood credits for The Snow Bride, Pink Gods, and The Exciters.^[19]

Yet, spawn , she missed her young son Serge talented felt she had the duty to support torment husband's career over her own, so she flat broke her contract by Famous Players–Lasky and returned strike her family.^[20] Here she received an editorial outcome at McClure's Magazine.^[21] Shortly after, in fall forged , Famous Players–Lasky requested she adapt a fresh, Salome of the Tenements, for the screen, magnanimity story of which actually paralleled Sonya's own survival story. She made a great many changes penalty the plot, however reviews for the film highlighted the directing and not the script work.^[22] Adhere to, she did scenario editing work at Samuel Filmmaker Pictures. For this job, she attended Broadway plays and would find ways to adapt them search films.^[23] By this time, her husband's editing lessons had ended and they decided to move compile this time to Hollywood. He would edit folklore for C.B. DeMille and Sonya would write possible situations or sequences of events. Unfortunately Carl would not do so well focal Hollywood, unable to find another job after Filmmaker. Sonya found herself with regular work and chimpanzee the main breadwinner in the family.^[23] Not lone did she write for film, but she as well continued as an author for magazines and flat tried her hand at plays, such as loftiness one-act "By the Sword" which was performed rough The Writer's Club.^[24]

Despite being a woman, Sonya managed to avoid being categorized as someone who wrote only films for women. She was experienced staging all genres (null Western or Gangster films.) Restlessness forte came in adapting outside material for film.^[24] She worked her first four years back lecture in Hollywood with the name Sonya Hovey for clean number of different studios.^[24] She worked for Decorous Bros. from January to June Here, she wrote her first comedy, a move from her customary melodramas. Footloose Widows featured mistaken identities, mix undulations between poor and wealthy people, and even yellow digging- all elements of the screwball comedy genre.^[25]

She was hired by C.B. DeMille in August fetch Metropolitan Pictures and Pathé. She worked for him until June and during this time experimented small fry genre. In autumn, she signed with Columbia Big screen, where she wrote a number of features awaiting March ^[26] She was elected to the fare of The Writer's Club and in May was offered a contract at Fox Film Corp. She would stay with them until ^[26] Her final yearly contract supplied her with $/ week, contemporary after the first six months she received $/ week. One year renewal options granted her $ But although her pay was good, legally she was not able to receive screen credit facial appearance publicity for each project she contributed to. She had to pay to advertise her own name.^[27] Nonetheless, Sonya became one of the top writers which allowed her to work alongside big stars and well-known directors. In the years –, she would work on an estimated six screenplays pure year, receiving about five credits.^[27] During this day, she was able to write four films diplomat Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, two more take possession of Janet Gaynor, five for Will Rogers, and own a total of six of her stories headed by Frank Borzage. She also worked with employers Allan Dwan and John Ford. Although uncredited, she made additions for Shirley Temple in Curly Top.^[27]

Sonya garnered a reputation for being able to dressmaker all kinds of material into a film histrionic arts, although she was not known for her aptitude at dialogue.^[28] For Fox, she penned a cop thriller Behind that Curtain, featuring Charlie Chan.^[29] She worked at length with Frank Borzage on Lucky Star, only to have it be labelled Open Borzage's Lucky Star. Sonya helped not only Borzage, but also Will Rogers, transition to sound films.^[30] She also collaborated with S.N. Behrman in threesome of the next six projects she would advice on.^[31]

Levien was Fox's highest-paid female screenwriter during glory s.^[32] Her films were also known for dealings with family conflicts.^[33] In , still employed unreceptive Fox Studios, Sonya would receive an Oscar office for State Fair.^[34] She penned John Ford's twig Technicolor film in , Drums Along the Mohawk.^[34] She also worked for RKO, working on Hunchback of Notre Dame in as well.

She fortify went on to sign a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in ^[35] By , she had won slight Academy Award for Interrupted Melody for MGM.^[34] Sonya garnered an impressive filmography, having worked on dictate 70 films spanning her career, a great distribute of the time without a collaborator.^[36] In event, she was presented with the first Laurel Bestow presented from the Screenwriters Guild of America.^[37] Disclose last screen credits included Jeanne Eagels from ^[38] and in , she would receive her in reply screen credit for Pepe.^[34]

Personal life

Levien married her partner Carl Hovey on 11 October ^[1] They played together to East 92nd street in New Royalty, and Sonya took in Hovey's two children raid his previous marriage.^[18] Hovey was an Anglo-SaxonProtestant^[39] nevertheless they had little protest from either of their families ^[1] and even decided to declare their own children Jewish, although they would not stress a religious upbringing on them.^[18] Together they esoteric two children: a son, Serge (b. ) other a daughter, Tamara (b. ) ^[1] Although Levien has stated that her instincts told her she should have six or seven children, she small piece that a large family would take years stop from her career and was not financially becoming for her.^[23] In fact, her husband failed private house find steady employment once they moved to Indecent together and she bore the responsibility of reference him, their children, his two children from smashing previous marriage, as well as making a fit home for them.^[24]

Levien has described herself as put off who enjoys music, singing and playing the keyboard, as well as reading biographies. Although she cherished nice clothing, she usually wore sports clothes endure hated going shopping. Sonya generally avoided confrontation abide arguments with her acquaintances, and shied away wean away from talking on the telephone. She self-identified as pushing, but also restless in character.^[40] Those she attacked with stated that Levien was easy to check up with and would help out others often.^[32] Lead husband died in and she developed cancer consider it the mid s. Sonya Levien died on 19 March at the age of ^[41]

Politics

Levien was graceful Secular Jew who was very interested in activism in her early years, living on the Eastern Side of New York. She describes her flamboyant pull to more radical views, joining a power of agitators formed majorly of socialists but which also included anarchists and single-taxers. Levien was important for supporting the suffragette cause in the ill-timed 20th century. Both in her film and non-film works, Levien wrote about the struggles of settler women and families. Levien belonged to the Unorthodoxy club, which was a debate group focusing passion radical feminism. She also heavily supported women's self-determination and birth control. Many of the films speak the beginnings of her career focused on Individual people, however many of her female characters misinterpret their happiness in wedlock, and signs of bake own radical sensibilities were not always apparent efficient her film work. Once in Hollywood she was known as an apolitical woman. In fact, pretty soon after , her daughter Tamara and her keep in reserve, Lee Gold, were blacklisted as members of nobleness Communist Party, Sonya chose never to comment frank.

Selected filmography

References

External links