Ben Hecht was Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriter, yet he considered his film work mere commerce.
In short: Ben Hecht was the quintessential Hollywood screenwriter, earning record sums for scripts he wrote in mere weeks. Yet, he viewed his cinematic output as a way to fund his real passion: literature. He lived a double life, oscillating between the glitz of Los Angeles and his serious writing in New York.
Born in 1894 to Belarusian-Jewish immigrants, Ben Hecht began his career as a journalist in Chicago. His early work for the Chicago Daily News, particularly his column 'One Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago,' established his reputation as a literary observer of urban life. He viewed the city as a treasure trove of stories, later describing his time there as a 'tick-tock of whirling hours' that defined his creative identity.
In 1926, a telegram from Herman J. Mankiewicz lured Hecht to Hollywood with the promise of easy money. Hecht quickly became the industry's most prolific and highest-paid writer, winning the first Academy Award for Best Story for 'Underworld' in 1927. Despite this success, he maintained a cynical distance from the studio system. He often spent as little as two to eight weeks on a script, viewing the work as a means to replenish his bank account rather than as serious art. He felt that Hollywood's rigid censorship and focus on profit over substance stifled his true potential.
Hecht's career was marked by intense collaboration and a flair for rapid-fire, tough dialogue, which made him a master of gangster and newspaper films. He worked with legendary directors like Howard Hawks and producers like David Selznick, often engaging in playful, competitive writing sessions. Yet, he remained haunted by the feeling that his time in film was a waste of his real talents. Even as he became a central figure in American entertainment, he and Mankiewicz reportedly died feeling frustrated that they had never written the great books they believed were within them.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Ben Hecht
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