106-532: Herman Jacob Mankiewicz ( / ˈ m æ ŋ k ə w ɪ t s / MANG -kə-wits ; November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter who, with Orson Welles , wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941). Both Mankiewicz and Welles went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. Mankiewicz was previously a Berlin correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily , assistant theater editor at The New York Times , and
212-674: A film studio , production company , TV network, or producer, they often have to continue networking, mainly with directors or executives, and push to have their projects "chosen" and turned into films or TV shows. If interest in a script begins to fade, a project can go dead. The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) is the international federation of screenwriters' and playwrights' unions, who recognize union membership across international borders. They have 14 different affiliates across various nations who collectively work to verify original authorship, fight for fair compensation, and enforce copyright. Most professional screenwriters in
318-545: A seamstress from the German-speaking Kurland region of Latvia . The family lived first in New York, then moved to Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania , where Herman's father accepted a teaching position. In 1909, Herman's brother, Joseph L. Mankiewicz —who later became a successful writer, producer, and director—was born, and both boys and a sister, Erna , spent their childhood there. Census records indicate
424-469: A 1971 essay that was and continues to be strongly disputed. Much debate has centered on this issue, largely because of the importance of the film itself, which most agree is a fictionalized biography of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst . According to film biographer David Thomson , however, "No one can now deny Herman Mankiewicz credit for the germ, shape, and pointed language of the screenplay..." Mankiewicz biographer Richard Meryman notes that
530-502: A Pulitzer Prize in 1971, died at age 43 of cardiac arrest as a result of complications from a long battle with leukemia . In May 1983, Tribune columnist Aaron Gold died at age 45 of complications from leukemia . Gold had coauthored the Tribune's "Inc." column with Michael Sneed and prior to that had written the paper's "Tower Ticker" column. The Tribune scored a coup in 1984 when it hired popular columnist Mike Royko away from
636-509: A Pulitzer for editorial writing in 1986. In 1987, reporters Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting, and in 1988, Dean Baquet , William Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting. In 1989, Lois Wille won a Pulitzer for editorial writing and Clarence Page snagged the award for commentary. In 1994, Ron Kotulak won a Pulitzer for explanatory journalism, while R. Bruce Dold won it for editorial writing. In 1998, reporter Paul Salopek won
742-595: A Pulitzer for explanatory writing, and in 1999, architecture critic Blair Kamin won it for criticism. In September 1981, baseball writer Jerome Holtzman was hired by the Tribune after a 38-year career at the Sun-Times . In September 1982, the Chicago Tribune opened a new $ 180 million printing facility, Freedom Center . In November 1982, Tribune managing editor William H. "Bill" Jones, who had won
848-475: A broadsheet for home delivery, but would publish in tabloid format for newsstand , news box, and commuter station sales. The change, however, proved unpopular with readers; in August 2011, the Tribune discontinued the tabloid edition, returning to its established broadsheet format through all distribution channels. The Tribune was owned by parent company Tribune Publishing . In May 2021, Tribune Publishing
954-448: A closely guarded military secret. The story revealing that Americans broke the enemy naval codes was not cleared by censors, and had U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt so enraged that he considered shutting down the Tribune . The paper is well known for a mistake it made during the 1948 presidential election . At that time, much of its composing room staff was on strike. The early returns led editors to believe (along with many in
1060-740: A company other than Tribune Entertainment. Siskel remained in that freelance position until he died in 1999. He was replaced as film critic by Dave Kehr . In February 1988, Tribune foreign correspondent Jonathan Broder resigned after a February 22, 1988, Tribune article written by Broder contained a number of sentences and phrases taken, without attribution, from a column written by another writer, Joel Greenberg, that had been published 10 days earlier in The Jerusalem Post . In August 1988, Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Coakley died at age 41 of complications from AIDS . In November 1992, Tribune associate subject editor Searle "Ed" Hawley
1166-409: A first draft. Multi-step deals, where the writer is signed on for more than the first draft (typically including a rewrite) can earn a screenwriter more, with experienced WGA members earning up to $ 5,000,000 for their work. Non-union screenwriters can also work for a salary, but will typically earn less than a unionized screenwriter. Pay can vary dramatically for a non-unionized screenwriter. Some of
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#17327919738171272-521: A full crew, and the paper was forced to print a correction stating that Plattner "now says that she passed along a story she had heard as something she had experienced." The Tribune has been a leader on the Internet, acquiring 10 percent of America Online in the early 1990s, then launching such web sites as Chicagotribune.com (1995), Metromix .com (1996), ChicagoSports.com (1999), ChicagoBreakingNews.com (2008), and ChicagoNow (2009). In 2002,
1378-451: A great job for us," editor James Squires said at the time. "It's a question of how much a person can do physically. We think you need to be a newspaper person first, and Gene Siskel has always tried to do that. But there comes a point when a career is so big that you can't do that." Siskel declined to comment on the new arrangement, but Ebert publicly criticized Siskel's Tribune bosses for punishing Siskel for taking their television program to
1484-530: A lot of unnecessary labor and expense." A future Hollywood biographer went so far as to suggest that Mankiewicz’s behavior "made him seem erratic even by the standards of Hollywood drunks." Mankiewicz died March 5, 1953, at age of 55, of uremic poisoning , the result of liver failure, at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. Orson Welles said of him, "He saw everything with clarity. No matter how odd or how right or how marvelous his point of view was, it
1590-492: A month without pay. Kirkpatrick wrote that further evidence was revealed came out that another of Soll's columns contained information which he knew was false. At that point, Tribune editors decided to accept the resignation offered by Soll when the internal investigation began. After leaving, Soll married Pam Zekman , a Chicago newspaper (and future TV) reporter. He worked for the short-lived Chicago Times magazine, by Small Newspaper Group Inc. of Kankakee, Illinois , in
1696-648: A position to further a project. Once the script is sold, the writer has only the rights that were agreed with the purchaser. A screenwriter becomes credible by having work that is recognized, which gives the writer the opportunity to earn a higher income. As more films are produced independently (outside the studio system), many up-and-coming screenwriters are turning to pitch fests, screenplay contests, and independent development services to gain access to established and credible independent producers. Many development executives are now working independently to incubate their own pet projects. Screenwriters are rarely involved in
1802-806: A reporter in Berlin , Mankiewicz also sent pieces on drama and books to The New York Times . At one point he was hired in Berlin by dancer Isadora Duncan to be her publicist in preparation for her return tour in the United States. At home again in the U.S., he took a job as a reporter for the New York World . Known as a "gifted, prodigious writer," he contributed to Vanity Fair , The Saturday Evening Post , and numerous other magazines. While still in his twenties, he collaborated with Heywood Broun , Dorothy Parker , Robert E. Sherwood and others on
1908-401: A revue; and collaborated with George S. Kaufman on a play, The Good Fellows , and with Marc Connelly on the film The Wild Man of Borneo (1941). From 1923 to 1926, he was at The New York Times as assistant theater editor to George S. Kaufman, and soon after became the first regular theater critic for The New Yorker , writing a column during 1925 and early 1926. He was a member of
2014-439: A script to suit the desires of a director or studio . For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak. Hollywood has shifted writers onto and off projects since its earliest days, and the assignment of credits is not always straightforward or complete, which poses a problem for film study. In his book Talking Pictures , Richard Corliss discussed
2120-491: A supposed incident in which a pilot for Air Zimbabwe who was flying without a copilot inadvertently locked himself out of his cockpit while the plane was flying on autopilot and as a result needed to use a large ax to chop a hole in the cockpit door. An airline representative wrote a lengthy letter to the paper calling the account "totally untrue, unprofessional and damaging to our airline" and explaining that Air Zimbabwe does not keep axes on its aircraft and never flies without
2226-466: A thousand words in his book to Kansas, Mankiewicz almost balanced the attention between Kansas and Oz , feeling it necessary that audiences relate to Dorothy Gale in a real world before she was transported to a magic one. By the end of the week he had finished 56 pages, and included instructions to film the scenes in Kansas in black and white . His goal, according to film historian Aljean Harmetz ,
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#17327919738172332-457: A whole ... Citizen Kane was overwhelmingly Welles's film, a triumph of intense personal magic. Herman was one of the talents, the crucial one, that were mined by Welles. But one marvels at the debt those two self-destroyers owe to each other. Without Welles there would have been no supreme moment for Herman. Without Mankiewicz there would have been no perfect idea at the perfect time for Welles ... to confirm his genius ... The Citizen Kane script
2438-463: Is certain is that his extensive chain of newspapers and radio stations blocked all mentions of the film, and refused to accept advertising for it, while some Hearst employees worked behind the scenes to block or restrict its distribution . Citizen Kane was nominated for an Academy Award in every possible category, including Best Original Screenplay . Meryman writes, "Herman insisted he had no chance to win, though The Hollywood Reporter had given
2544-461: Is put out about a project that a film studio , production company , or producer wants done, they are referred to as "open" assignments. Open assignments are more competitive. If screenwriters are competing for an open assignment, more established writers usually win the assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment. Many screenwriters also work as full- or part-time script doctors , attempting to better
2650-412: Is sold, it is called a spec script . Amateur screenwriters will often pursue this work as "writers in training," leading these spec scripts to often go uncredited or come from unknown screenwriters. Further separating professional and amateur screenwriters is that professionals are usually represented by a talent agency . These screenwriter-specific employment agencies work to handle the business side of
2756-503: Is someone who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting . These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television commercials, video games, and the growing area of online web series. In the silent era , screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright , photoplay writer , photoplay dramatist , and screen playwright . Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being
2862-521: Is that there isn't one single line in the picture that wasn't in writing—writing from and by me—before ever a camera turned." Mankiewicz biographer Sydney Ladensohn Stern discounts his assertion as his defensiveness with his father, especially because he and other family members had recently bailed him out financially. According to film historian Otto Friedrich , it made Mankiewicz "unhappy to hear Welles quoted in Louella Parsons 's column, before
2968-627: Is the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and the ninth-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill , the Chicago Tribune became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln , and the then new Republican Party 's progressive wing. In the 20th century, under Medill's grandson 'Colonel' Robert R. McCormick , its reputation
3074-579: The New York Daily News . In a renewed circulation war with Hearst's Herald-Examiner , McCormick and Hearst ran rival lotteries in 1922. The Tribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks. The same year, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower . The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received. The winner
3180-544: The Algonquin Round Table . His writing attracted the notice of film producer Walter Wanger , who offered him a contract to work at Paramount, and Mankiewicz soon moved to Hollywood . Paramount paid Mankiewicz $ 400 a week plus bonuses, and by the end of 1927, he was head of Paramount 's scenario department. Film critic Pauline Kael wrote about him and the creation of Citizen Kane in " Raising Kane ", her 1971 New Yorker article: "In January, 1928, there
3286-579: The Chicago Sun-Times . Kirkpatrick stepped down as editor in 1979 and was succeeded by Maxwell McCrohon (1928–2004), who served as editor until 1981. He was transitioned to a corporate position. McCrohon held the corporate position until 1983, when he left to become editor-in-chief of the United Press International . James Squires served as the paper's editor from July 1981 until December 1989. Jack Fuller served as
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3392-582: The Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine. The paper decided to fire Thomas—and suspend his photographer on the Emerge story, Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune photographer Ovie Carter for a month—because Thomas did not tell the Tribune about his outside work and also because the Emerge story wound up appearing in print first. On June 6, 1999, the Tribune published a first-person travel article from freelance writer Gaby Plattner that described
3498-638: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In the 20th-century, Colonel Robert R. McCormick , who took control in the 1920s, the paper was strongly isolationist and aligned with the Old Right in its coverage of political news and social trends. It used the motto "The American Paper for Americans". From the 1930s to the 1950s, it excoriated the Democrats and the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt ,
3604-505: The Tribune ' s editor from 1989 until 1993, when he became the president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Tribune . Howard Tyner served as the Tribune' ' s editor from 1993 until 2001, when he was promoted to vice president/editorial for Tribune Publishing. The Tribune won 11 Pulitzer prizes during the 1980s and 1990s. Editorial cartoonist Dick Locher won the award in 1983, and editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly won one in 1985. Then, future editor Jack Fuller won
3710-568: The Tribune ' s photo library. She later worked for the National Enquirer and as a producer for The Jerry Springer Show before committing suicide in November 2005. In April 1994, the Tribune ' s new television critic, Ken Parish Perkins , wrote an article about then- WFLD morning news anchor Bob Sirott in which Perkins quoted Sirott as making a statement that Sirott later denied making. Sirott criticized Perkins on
3816-575: The Tribune hired Margaret Holt from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel as its assistant managing editor for sports, making her the first female to head a sports department at any of the nation's 10 largest newspapers. In mid-1995, Holt was replaced as sports editor by Tim Franklin and shifted to a newly created job, customer service editor. In 1994, reporter Brenda You was fired by the Tribune after free-lancing for supermarket tabloid newspapers and lending them photographs from
3922-514: The "typical American film" of that period. In addition to Citizen Kane, he wrote or worked on films including The Wizard of Oz , Man of the World , Dinner at Eight , The Pride of the Yankees and The Pride of St. Louis . Film critic Pauline Kael credits Mankiewicz with having written, alone or with others, "about forty of the films I remember best from the twenties and thirties...He
4028-463: The ' Central Park West Voltaire ' ". According to Kael, Mankiewicz did not work on every kind of picture. He did not do Westerns , for example; and once, when a studio attempted to punish him for his customary misbehavior by assigning him to a Rin Tin Tin picture, he rebelled by turning in a script that began with the craven dog frightened by a mouse and reached its climax with a house on fire and
4134-432: The 1960s, its corporate parent owner, Tribune Company began expanding into new markets buying additional daily papers. For the first time in its over-a-century-and-a-half history, in 2008, its editorial page endorsed a Democrat, Barack Obama , a U.S. Senator from Illinois, for U.S. president. Originally published solely as a broadsheet , the Tribune announced on January 13, 2009, that it would continue publishing as
4240-472: The Canadian science ship CSS Acadia . The Tribune ' s reputation for innovation extended to radio; it bought an early station, WDAP, in 1924 and renamed it WGN , the station call letters standing for the paper's self-description as the "World's Greatest Newspaper". WGN Television was launched on April 5, 1948. These broadcast stations remained Tribune properties for nine decades and were among
4346-657: The McCormick years. On May 1, 1974, in a major feat of journalism, the Tribune published the complete 246,000-word text of the Watergate tapes , in a 44-page supplement that hit the streets 24 hours after the transcripts' release by the Nixon White House . Not only was the Tribune the first newspaper to publish the transcripts, but it beat the U.S. Government Printing Office 's published version, and made headlines doing so. A week later, after studying
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4452-617: The U.S. are unionized and are represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Although membership in the WGA is recommended, it is not required of a screenwriter to join. The WGA is the final arbiter on awarding writing credit for projects under its jurisdiction. The WGA also looks upon and verifies film copyright materials. Other notable screenwriters' unions include the Writers' Guild of Great Britain , representing screenwriters in
4558-493: The U.S., he married Sara Aaronson of Baltimore . He took her overseas on his next job as a newspaper writer in Berlin from 1920 to 1922; then returned to the U.S. to do political reporting for George Seldes on the Chicago Tribune . Herman and Sara had three children: screenwriter Don Mankiewicz (1922–2015), political adviser Frank Mankiewicz (1924–2014), and novelist Johanna Mankiewicz Davis (1937–1974). While
4664-574: The UK, and La Guilde Française des Scénaristes, representing screenwriters in France. Minimum salaries for union screenwriters in the US are set by the Writers Guild of America . The median compensation for a first draft from a first time screenwriter is $ 100,000, while the most experienced members have a median compensation of $ 450,000. The most experienced WGA members have reported up to $ 4,000,0000 compensation for
4770-500: The air, and the Tribune later printed a correction acknowledging that Sirott had never made that statement. Eight months later, Perkins stepped down as TV critic, and he left the paper shortly thereafter. In December 1995, the alternative newsweekly Newcity published a first-person article by the pseudonymous Clara Hamon (a name mentioned in the play The Front Page ) but quickly identified by Tribune reporters as that of former Tribune reporter Mary Hill that heavily criticized
4876-684: The authors of the films as shown, and argues that they could not be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for a technical product, a brief " scenario ", "treatment", or "synopsis" that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed. Screenwriting is a contracted freelance profession, not a hired position. No education is required to be a professional screenwriter, but good storytelling abilities and imagination give aspiring screenwriters an advantage. Many screenwriters start their careers doing speculative work ("work on spec"), practicing their screenwriting with no guaranteed financial compensation. If one of these scripts
4982-475: The battle over Citizen Kane . Mank , a black-and-white Mankiewicz biopic directed by David Fincher and starring Gary Oldman in the title role, was released on Netflix in December 2020. Oldman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. He was involved with the following films: Screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter , scribe , or scenarist )
5088-521: The book Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City . On April 29, 1997, popular columnist Mike Royko died of a brain aneurysm . On September 2, 1997, the Tribune promoted longtime City Hall reporter John Kass to take Royko's place as the paper's principal Page Two news columnist. On June 1, 1997, the Tribune published what ended up becoming a very popular column by Mary Schmich called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on
5194-432: The change in the type of conservatism practiced by the paper, but as a watershed event in terms of Nixon's hopes for survival in office. The White House reportedly perceived the Tribune ' s editorial as a loss of a long-time supporter and as a blow to Nixon's hopes to weather the scandal. On December 7, 1975, Kirkpatrick announced in a column on the editorial page that Rick Soll , a "young and talented columnist" for
5300-591: The country) that the Republican candidate Thomas Dewey would win. An early edition of the next day's paper carried the headline " Dewey Defeats Truman ", turning the paper into a collector's item. Democrat Harry S. Truman won and proudly brandished the newspaper in a famous picture taken at St. Louis Union Station . Beneath the headline was a false article , written by Arthur Sears Henning, which purported to describe West Coast results although written before East Coast election returns were available. In 1969, under
5406-462: The dispute had various causes, including the way the movie was promoted. When RKO opened the movie on Broadway on May 1, 1941, followed by showings at theaters in other large cities, the publicity programs included photographs of Welles as "the one-man band, directing, acting, and writing." In a letter to his father afterwards, Mankiewicz wrote, "I'm particularly furious at the incredibly insolent description of how Orson wrote his masterpiece. The fact
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#17327919738175512-664: The dog taking a baby into the flames. Shortly after his arrival on the West Coast, Mankiewicz sent a telegram to journalist-friend Ben Hecht in New York: "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around." He attracted other New York writers to Hollywood who contributed to a burst of creative, tough, sardonic styles of writing for the fast-growing movie industry. Between 1929 and 1935, he worked on at least twenty films, many of which he received no credit for. Between 1930 and 1932 he
5618-548: The early 1930s, Hearst often invited him to spend the weekend at San Simeon. "Herman told Joe to come to the office of their mutual friend Charlie Lederer." "Mankiewicz found himself on story-swapping terms with the power behind it all, Hearst himself. When he had been in Hollywood only a short time, he met Marion Davies and Hearst through his friendship with Charles Lederer, a writer, then in his early twenties, whom Ben Hecht had met and greatly admired in New York when Lederer
5724-411: The evening: On the night of the awards, Herman turned on his radio and sat in his bedroom chair. Sara lay on the bed. As the screenplay category approached, he pretended to be hardly listening. Suddenly from the radio, half screamed, came "Herman J. Mankiewicz." Welles's name as coauthor was drowned out by voices all through the audience calling out, "Mank! Mank! Where is he?" And audible above all others
5830-417: The family lived on Academy Street. Mankiewicz was described as a "bookish, introspective child who, despite his intelligence, was never able to win approval from his demanding father" who was known to belittle his achievements. The family moved to New York City in 1913, where Herman's father accepted a teaching position, at Stuyvesant High School , and Herman graduated from Columbia College in 1917 where he
5936-561: The film first place in ten of its twelve divisions. The fear of Hearst, he felt, was still alive. And Hollywood's resentment and distrust of Welles, the nonconformist upstart, were even greater since he had lived up to his wonderboy ballyhoo." Neither Welles nor Mankiewicz attended the dinner, which was broadcast on radio. Welles was in South America filming It's All True , and Herman refused to attend. "He did not want to be humiliated," said his wife, Sara. Richard Meryman describes
6042-449: The first regular drama critic at The New Yorker . Alexander Woollcott said that Mankiewicz was the "funniest man in New York". Mankiewicz was often asked to fix other writers' screenplays , with much of his work uncredited. His writing style became valued in the films of the 1930s—a style that included a slick, satirical, and witty humor, in which dialogue almost totally carried the film, and which eventually become associated with
6148-427: The highest amounts paid to writers for spec screenplays: $ 5 million: $ 2 million: $ 1 million: Chicago Tribune The Chicago Tribune is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago , Illinois . Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN radio and WGN television received their call letters. As of 2023, it
6254-475: The historian's dilemma: "A writer may be given screen credit for work he didn't do (as with Sidney Buchman on Holiday ), or be denied credit for work he did do (as with Sidney Buchman on The Awful Truth )." After a screenwriter finishes a project, they pair with an industry-based representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent , entertainment lawyer, or entertainment executive. The partnerships often pitch their project to investors or others in
6360-447: The iconoclasm of big-city newsrooms who would introduce their sardonic worldliness to movie audiences. Kael notes that "beginning in 1926, Mankiewicz worked on an astounding number of films." In 1927 and 1928, he did the titles (printed dialogue and explanations) for at least twenty-five films starring Clara Bow , Bebe Daniels , Nancy Carroll , Wallace Beery and other public favorites. By then, sound had arrived, and in 1929 he wrote
6466-440: The kind of movies my friends and I loved best. These were the hardest-headed periods of American movies ... [and] the most highly acclaimed directors of that period, suggests that the writers ... in little more than a decade, gave American talkies their character." Director and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson claimed that the "two most brilliant men he has ever known were George S. Kaufman and Herman Mankiewicz, and that Mankiewicz
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#17327919738176572-401: The kind of movies that were disapproved of as 'fast' and immoral. His heroes weren't soft-eyed and bucolic; he brought good-humored toughness to the movies, and energy and astringency. And the public responded, because it was eager for modern American subjects." Ben Hecht described him as "a Promethean wit bound in a Promethean body, one of the most entertaining men in existence ... [and] called
6678-489: The last half of [the twentieth] century, what the Great American Novel was for the first half. Closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen." Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use their ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases
6784-486: The late 1980s. Soll was born in 1946, in Chicago, to Marjorie and Jules Soll. Soll graduated from New Trier High School , received a Bachelor of Arts in 1968 from Colgate University , and a master's degree from Medill School of Journalism , Northwestern University in 1970. In January 1977, Tribune columnist Will Leonard died at age 64. In March 1978, the Tribune announced that it hired columnist Bob Greene from
6890-405: The leadership of publisher Harold Grumhaus and editor Clayton Kirkpatrick (1915–2004), the Tribune began reporting from a wider viewpoint. The paper retained its Republican and conservative perspective in its editorials, but it began to publish perspectives in wider commentary that represented a spectrum of diverse opinions, while its news reporting no longer had the conservative slant it had in
6996-677: The managing editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr. , brother of Edwin Cowles , initially was the bookkeeper. Each purchased one third of the Tribune . Under their leadership, the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings, and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party . However, the paper continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials, in the wake of the massive famine immigration from Ireland . The Tribune absorbed three other Chicago publications under
7102-629: The most popular comedies at that time and remains a "classic" comedy. In 1933, he went on leave from MGM to write a film warning Americans about the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. No studio was willing to produce his screenplay, The Mad Dog of Europe , and in 1935, MGM was notified by Joseph Goebbels , the Minister of Education and Propaganda under Hitler, that films written by Mankiewicz could not be shown in Nazi Germany unless his name
7208-448: The new editors strongly supported Abraham Lincoln , whom Medill helped secure the presidency in 1860, and pushed an abolitionist agenda. The paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards. In 1861, the Tribune published new lyrics by William W. Patton for the song " John Brown's Body ". These rivaled the lyrics published two months later by Julia Ward Howe . Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after
7314-793: The new editors: the Free West in 1855, the Democratic Press of William Bross in 1858, and the Chicago Democrat in 1861, whose editor, John Wentworth , left his position when elected as Mayor of Chicago . Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as the Chicago Press & Tribune . On October 25, 1860, it became the Chicago Daily Tribune . Before and during the American Civil War ,
7420-539: The new success of comic books . At the same time, it launched the more successful and longer-lasting The Spirit Section , which was also an attempt by newspapers to compete with the new medium. Under McCormick's stewardship, the Tribune was a champion of modified spelling for simplicity (such as spelling "although" as "altho"). McCormick, a vigorous campaigner for the Republican Party, died in 1955, just four days before Democratic boss Richard J. Daley
7526-455: The next eight years. Initially, the Tribune was not politically affiliated, but tended to support either the Whig or Free Soil parties against the Democrats in elections. By late 1853, it was frequently running editorials that criticized foreigners and Roman Catholics . About this time, it also became a strong proponent of temperance . However nativist its editorials may have been, it
7632-648: The oldest newspaper/broadcasting cross-ownerships in the country. (The Tribune ' s East Coast sibling, the New York Daily News , later established WPIX television and FM radio .) The Tribune ' s legendary sports editor Arch Ward created the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933 as part of the city's Century of Progress exposition. From 1940 to 1943, the paper supplemented its comic strip offerings with The Chicago Tribune Comic Book , responding to
7738-696: The ouster of the Republican political boss of Illinois, Sen. William Lorimer . At the same time, the Tribune competed with the Hearst paper, the Chicago Examiner , in a circulation war . By 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out William Keeley, the newspaper's managing editor. By 1918, the Examiner was forced to merge with the Chicago Herald . In 1919, Patterson left the Tribune and moved to New York City to launch his own newspaper,
7844-478: The paper's entertainment sections. The demotion occurred after Siskel and longtime Chicago film critic colleague Roger Ebert decided to shift the production of their weekly movie review show, then known as At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and later known as Siskel & Ebert & The Movies from Tribune Entertainment to The Walt Disney Company 's Buena Vista Television unit. "He has done
7950-554: The paper's one-year residency program. The program brought young journalists in and out of the paper for one-year stints, seldom resulting in a full-time job. Hill, who wrote for the paper from 1992 until 1993, acknowledged to the Chicago Reader that she had written the diatribe originally for the Internet, and that the piece eventually was edited for Newcity . In 1997, the Tribune celebrated its 150th anniversary in part by tapping longtime reporter Stevenson Swanson to edit
8056-541: The paper, whose work had "won a following among many Tribune readers over the last two years", had resigned from the paper. He had acknowledged that a November 23, 1975, column he wrote contained verbatim passages written by another columnist in 1967 and later published in a collection. Kirkpatrick did not identify the columnist. The passages in question, Kirkpatrick wrote, were from a notebook where Soll regularly entered words, phrases and bits of conversation which he had wished to remember. The paper initially suspended Soll for
8162-577: The position was being replaced by a national security writer. In December 1993, the Tribune ' s longtime Washington, D.C. bureau chief, Nicholas Horrock , was fired after he chose not to attend a meeting that editor Howard Tyner requested of him in Chicago. Horrock, who shortly thereafter left the paper, was replaced by James Warren , who attracted new attention to the Tribune ' s D.C. bureau through his continued attacks on celebrity broadcast journalists in Washington. In December 1993,
8268-422: The production of a film. Sometimes they come on as advisors, or if they are established, as a producer. Some screenwriters also direct. Although many scripts are sold each year, many do not make it into production because the number of scripts that are purchased every year exceeds the number of professional directors that are working in the film and TV industry . When a screenwriter finishes a project and sells it to
8374-712: The question of screen credits was officially settled, as saying, 'So I wrote Citizen Kane .' Mankiewicz went to the Screen Writers Guild and declared that he was the original author. Welles later claimed that he planned on a joint credit all along, but Mankiewicz sometimes claimed that Welles offered him a bonus of ten thousand dollars if he would let Welles take full credit. Welles eventually agreed to share credit with Mankiewicz and furthermore, to list his name first. Sometime later, Welles commented on this allegation: God, if I hadn't loved him I would have hated him after all those ridiculous stories, persuading people I
8480-460: The rival Sun-Times . In 1986, the Tribune announced that film critic Gene Siskel , the Tribune ' s best-known writer, was no longer the paper's film critic, and that his position with the paper had shifted from being that of a full-time film critic to that of a freelance contract writer who was to write about the film industry for the Sunday paper and also provide capsule film reviews for
8586-453: The screenwriting job, typically taking on legal, financial, and other important representative roles for the screenwriter. These professional screenwriters rarely work for free. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the film industry , but it often takes years of trial and error, failure, and gritty persistence to achieve success. In Writing Screenplays that Sell , Michael Hague writes, "Screenplays have become, for
8692-455: The script and dialogue for The Dummy, and scripts for many other directors, including William Wellman and Josef von Sternberg . Other screenwriters made large contributions to Hollywood's early sound films, but "probably none larger than Mankiewicz," according to Kael. At the beginning of the Talkies era, he was one of the highest-paid writers in the world, because, Kael writes, "He wrote
8798-505: The script is based on an existing property, such as a book or person's life story, which is adapted by the screenwriter. In most cases, a film project is initiated by a screenwriter. The initiator of the project gets the exclusive writing assignment. They are referred to as "exclusive" assignments or "pitched" assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, often do not have to worry about competing for assignments and are often more successful. When word
8904-421: The story. "Certain elements in the film were taken from Mankiewicz's own experience: the sled Rosebud was based—according to some sources—on a very important bicycle that was stolen from him. ... [and] some of Kane's speeches are almost verbatim copies of Hearst's." Most personally, the word "rosebud" was reportedly Hearst's private nickname for Davies' clitoris . Hearst's thoughts about the film are unknown; what
9010-547: The transcripts, the paper's editorial board observed that "the high dedication to grand principles that Americans have a right to expect from a President is missing from the transcript record." The Tribune ' s editors concluded that "nobody of sound mind can read [the transcripts] and continue to think that Mr. Nixon has upheld the standards and dignity of the Presidency," and called for Nixon's resignation. The Tribune call for Nixon to resign made news, reflecting not only
9116-415: The young", otherwise known as " Wear Sunscreen " or the "Sunscreen Speech". The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann . In 1998, reporter Jerry Thomas was fired by the Tribune after he wrote a cover article on boxing promoter Don King for Emerge magazine at the same time that he was writing a cover article on King for
9222-538: Was Irene Selznick : "Where is he?" George Schaefer accepted Herman's Oscar. "Except for this coauthor award, the Motion Picture Academy excommunicated Orson Welles," wrote Meryman, "[and] as Pauline Kael put it, 'The members of the Academy ... probably felt good because their hearts had gone out to crazy, reckless Mank, their own resident loser-genius." Richard Meryman concludes that "taken as
9328-440: Was Orson Welles , who met him earlier and had become a great admirer of his wit. During the months after his release from the hospital, he and Welles began working on story ideas which led to the creation of Citizen Kane . Despite Welles' denial that the film was about Hearst, few people were convinced—including Hearst. After the release of Citizen Kane , Hearst pursued a longtime vendetta against Mankiewicz and Welles for writing
9434-404: Was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood . The newspaper sponsored a pioneering attempt at Arctic aviation in 1929, an attempted round-trip to Europe across Greenland and Iceland in a Sikorsky amphibious aircraft. But, the aircraft was destroyed by ice on July 15, 1929, near Ungava Bay at the tip of Labrador , Canada. The crew were rescued by
9540-514: Was a key linking figure in just the kind of movies my friends and I loved best." Nearly seventy years after his death, Mankiewicz was portrayed by actor Gary Oldman in the 2020 Oscar -winning film Mank . Mankiewicz was born in New York City in 1897. His parents were German-Jewish immigrants: his father, Franz Mankiewicz, was born in Berlin and emigrated to the U.S. from Hamburg in 1892. In New York he met his wife, Johanna Blumenau,
9646-614: Was a newspaper item reporting that he (Mankiewicz) was in New York 'lining up a new set of newspaper feature writers and playwrights to bring to Hollywood... Most of the newer writers on Paramount's staff who contributed the most successful stories of the past year' were selected by 'Mank.'" Film historian Scott Eyman notes that Mankiewicz was put in charge of writer recruitment by Paramount. As "a hard-drinking gambler," however, he hired men in his own image, such as Ben Hecht , Bartlett Cormack , Edwin Justus Mayer —writers comfortable with
9752-460: Was acquired by Alden Global Capital , which operates its media properties through Digital First Media ; since then, the newspaper's coverage has evolved away from national and international news and toward coverage of Illinois and especially Chicago-area news. The Tribune was founded by James Kelly , John E. Wheeler, and Joseph K. C. Forrest, publishing the first edition on June 10, 1847. Numerous changes in ownership and editorship took place over
9858-399: Was always diamond white. Nothing muzzy." In looking back on his early films, Pauline Kael wrote that Mankiewicz had, in fact, written (alone or with others) "about forty of the films I remember best from the twenties and thirties. I hadn't realized how extensive his career was. ... and now that I have looked into Herman Mankiewicz's career it's apparent that he was a key linking figure in just
9964-547: Was arrested by Chicago police and charged with seven counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with three juveniles in his home in Evanston, Illinois . Hawley formally resigned from the paper in early 1993, and pleaded guilty in April 1993. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison. In October 1993, the Tribune fired its longtime military affairs writer, retired Marine David Evans, saying publicly that
10070-509: Was either producer or associate producer on four comedies and helped write their screenplays without credit: Laughter , Monkey Business , Horse Feathers , and Million Dollar Legs , which many critics considered one of the funniest comedies of the early 1930s. In 1933, he moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where, along with Frances Marion, he adapted Dinner at Eight , which was based on the George S. Kaufman/ Edna Ferber play, and became one of
10176-565: Was elected mayor for the first time. One of the great scoops in Tribune history came when it obtained the text of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. Another was its revelation of United States war plans on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack. The Tribune ' s June 7, 1942, front page announcement that the United States had broken Japan's naval code was the revelation by the paper of
10282-573: Was not until February 10, 1855, that the Tribune formally affiliated itself with the nativist American or Know Nothing party, whose candidate Levi Boone was elected Mayor of Chicago the following month. Around 1854, part-owner Capt. J. D. Webster, later General Webster and chief of staff at the Battle of Shiloh , and Charles H. Ray of Galena, Illinois , through Horace Greeley , convinced Joseph Medill of Cleveland 's Leader to become managing editor. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became
10388-426: Was offering him money to have his name taken off ... that he would be carrying on like this, denouncing me as a coauthor, screaming around. Mankiewicz became good friends with Hollywood screenwriter Charles Lederer , who was Marion Davies 's nephew. Lederer grew up as a Hollywood habitué, spending much time at San Simeon , where Davies reigned as William Randolph Hearst 's mistress. As one of Mankiewicz's admirers in
10494-528: Was removed from the screen credits. During World War II , Mankiewicz officially sponsored and took financial responsibility for many refugees fleeing Nazi Germany for the United States . In February 1938, Mankiewicz was assigned as the first of ten screenwriters to work on The Wizard of Oz . Three days after he started writing, he handed in a 17-page treatment of what was later known as "the Kansas sequence". While L. Frank Baum devoted less than
10600-679: Was resolutely disdainful of the British and French, and greatly enthusiastic for Chiang Kai-shek and Sen. Joseph McCarthy . When McCormick assumed the position of co-editor with his cousin Joseph Medill Patterson in 1910, the Tribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicago's eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000. The young cousins added features such as advice columns and homegrown comic strips such as Little Orphan Annie and Moon Mullins . They promoted political crusades, and their first success came with
10706-428: Was still in his teens. Lederer, a child prodigy who had entered college at thirteen, got to know Mankiewicz." Herman eventually "saw Hearst as 'a finagling, calculating, Machiavellian figure.' But also, with Charlie Lederer, ... wrote and had printed parodies of Hearst newspapers ." In 1939, Mankiewicz suffered a broken leg in a driving accident and had to be hospitalized. During his hospital stay, one of his visitors
10812-564: Was that of a crusading newspaper with an outlook that promoted American conservatism and opposed the New Deal . Its reporting and commentary reached markets outside Chicago through family and corporate relationships at the New York Daily News and the Washington Times-Herald . Through much of the 20th century into the early 21st, it employed a network of overseas news bureaus and foreign correspondents. In
10918-519: Was the more brilliant of the two. ... [and] spearheaded the movement of that whole Broadway style of wisecracking, fast-talking, cynical-sentimental entertainment onto the national scene." In 2024, Mankiewicz was announced as a posthumous inductee into the Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame . Mankiewicz is played by John Malkovich in RKO 281 , a 1999 American film about
11024-943: Was the “Off-Hour” editor of the Columbia Spectator student newspaper. After a period as managing editor of the American Jewish Chronicle and a reporter at the New York Tribune, he joined the United States Army Air Service to fly planes, but because of airsickness, enlisted instead as a private first class with the Marines , A.E.F. In 1919 and 1920, he was director of the American Red Cross News Service in Paris. After returning to
11130-456: Was to "capture in pictures what Baum had captured in words—the grey lifelessness of Kansas contrasted with the visual richness of Oz." He was not credited for his work on the film. Mankiewicz is best known for his collaboration with Orson Welles on the screenplay of Citizen Kane , for which they shared an Academy Award . The authorship later became a source of controversy. Pauline Kael attributed Kane ' s screenplay to Mankiewicz in
11236-411: Was true creative symbiosis, a partnership greater than the sum of its parts." Mankiewicz was an alcoholic . Ten years before his death, he wrote: "I seem to become more and more of a rat in a trap of my own construction, a trap that I regularly repair whenever there seems to be danger of some opening that will enable me to escape. I haven't decided yet about making it bomb proof. It would seem to involve
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