In 1947 Oscar winner Dalton Trumbo and nine other filmmakers were brought in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee and were asked to testify about known communists in the Hollywood community. All 10 filmmakers, including Trumbo, refused. The result saw the Hollywood Ten convicted for contempt of court, jailed, and blacklisted from the Hollywood community. Now, 35 years after his death, Trumbo is finally getting credit for one of his greatest works.
The Writers Guild of America has announced today, via The Los Angeles Times, that Dalton Trumbo's screenplay credit for Roman Holiday has been restored, nearly 60 years after the film was first released. This, however, isn't the first time that Trumbo's credit for the film has been changed. When the movie first came out, credit was given to Ian McLellan Hunter, who fronted for Trumbo's work. This became controversial when Roman Holiday took home the Oscar for Best Screenplay and the award was given to Hunter. In 1992 the Academy changed their records to show that Trumbo had actually written the script and in 1993 Trumbo's widowed wife was presented with the trophy.
The only thing that is kind of strange about this story is how long it took for the WGA to officially put Trumbo's name on the record. You'd think that the Oscar drama in the early 90s would have been enough to get things to change, as that was right after the fall of the Soviet Union and people were still recovering from the red scare. Regardless, it's always great to see the correct person get credit for their own work, so let this be a posthumous congratulations to Trumbo and his family.
