Editing Ben Hecht (section)

==Personal life==

===Married life===
He married Marie Armstrong (1892–1956), a [[gentile]],<ref name=TabletBDS /> in 1915, when he was 21, and they had a daughter, Edwina (1916–1991), who would grow up to be an actress. He later met [[Rose Caylor]], a writer, and together they left Chicago (and his family) in 1924, moving to New York. He was divorced from Armstrong in 1925. He married Caylor that same year, and they remained married until Hecht's death in 1964.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00488|title=Ben Hecht: An Inventory of His Collection in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center|website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu|access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref>

On July 30, 1943, Ben and Rose had a daughter, Jenny Hecht, who became an actress at the age of 8. She died of a drug overdose on March 25, 1971, at the age of 27, shortly after completing her third movie appearance. A play about Jenny's brief life, ''The Screenwriter's Daughter'' by Larry Mollin, was staged in London in October 2015.<ref>[https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/the-screenwriters-daughter-review-at-leicester-square-theatre-lounge-london-generic/ "The Screenwriter's Daughter review at Leicester Square Theatre Lounge, London – 'generic{{'"}}], November 2, 2015</ref>

===Civil rights activism===
According to Hecht historian Florice Whyte Kovan, he became active in promoting [[civil rights]] early in his career.

{{blockquote|in the early 1920s, Hecht organized campaigns against the [[Ku Klux Klan]], whose lynchings of minorities, primarily blacks, terrorized the American South and North&nbsp;... Artists and writers joined the effort, blending civil rights into the arts and literary scene&nbsp;...

Hecht wrote enough stories about black-white dynamics to form a small collection, including ''To [[Bert Williams]]'', a richly symbolic obituary to the eminent vaudevillian, the thought-provoking ''The Miracle''&nbsp;... In the same period, circa May–June 1923, Hecht&nbsp;... collaborated on a musical with Dave Payton (Peyton), jazz pianist and music critic for the black newspaper the ''[[Chicago Defender]]''&nbsp;... He broke taboos by publishing a regular column, Black-belt Shadows, about Chicago and broader AfroAmerica by young William Moore – with the then-daring editorial note: "This column is conducted by a Negro journalist". A factor in his willingness to work with blacks on occasion was his first playwriting experience: his collaborator was a young black student.

Hecht film stories featuring black characters included ''[[Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (film)|Hallelujah, I'm a Bum]]'', co-starring Edgar Conner as [[Al Jolson]]'s sidekick in a politically savvy, rhymed dialogue over [[Richard Rodgers]] music. Jolson, a noted blackface performer and star of ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', was also active in promoting racial equality on the Broadway stage.

Hecht's most important race film historically was the [[Frank Capra]] message film ''[[The Negro Soldier]]'', a feature-length tribute shown to the armed forces and civilians during [[World War II]].<ref name=Kovan1>Kovan, Florice Whyte, ''Some Notes on Ben Hecht's Civil Rights Work, the Klan and Related Projects'', [http://benhechtbooks.net/ben_hecht__human_rights]</ref>}}

===Supporting allies during World War II===
Hecht was among a number of signers of a formal statement, issued in July 1941, calling for the "utmost material assistance by our government to England, the [[Soviet Union]], and China". Among those who signed were former Nobel Prize winners in science and other people eminent in education, literature, and the arts. It advocated

{{blockquote|the protection of civil liberties and the rights of labor,&nbsp;... the elimination of all forms of racial and religious discrimination from our public and private life&nbsp;... [and] the worldwide defense of human liberty&nbsp;... There can be no victory over Hitlerism abroad if democracy is destroyed at home.}}

Later that year, he had his first large-scale musical collaboration with symphonic composer [[Ferde Grofe]] on their patriotic cantata, ''Uncle Sam Stands Up''.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1941/07/28/archives/full-war-aid-urged-130-eminent-in-science-and-the-arts-sign-appeal.html "Full War Aid Urged"]. ''The New York Times'', July 28, 1941.</ref>

===Jewish activism===
{{further|American Zionist Movement}}
{{seealso|The Little Candle}}

Hecht claimed that he had never experienced [[anti-Semitism]] in his life, and claimed to have had little to do with Judaism, but "was drawn back to the [[Lower East Side]] late in life and lived for a while on Henry Street, where he could absorb the energy and social consciousness of the ghetto", wrote author Sanford Sternlicht.<ref name=Sternlicht/>  In 1931, he published a novel, ''A Jew in Love'', for which he was called, a "self-hating Jew", and which has been analysed as a product of a generation of Jewish writers seeking to escape their parent's immigrant past.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glicksberg |first=Charles I. |date=1968 |title=A Jewish American Literature? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43467979 |journal=Southwest Review |volume=53 |issue=2 |page=202 |jstor=43467979 |issn=0038-4712}}</ref><ref name=Paris>{{Cite web |last=White |first=Edward |date=2017-11-03 |title=The Hollywood Darling Who Tanked His Career to Combat Anti-Semitism |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/03/the-courageous-unpopular-activism-of-ben-hecht/ |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> 

His indifference to Jewish issues changed when he met [[Peter Bergson]], who was drumming up American assistance for the Zionist group [[Irgun]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Child of the Century|last=Hecht|first=Ben|publisher=Simon & Schuster, Inc.|year=1954|location=New York, NY|pages=483}}</ref> Hecht wrote in his book, ''[[Perfidy (book)|Perfidy]]'', that he used to be a scriptwriter until his meeting with Bergson, when he accidentally bumped into history: that is, the burning need to do anything possible to save the doomed Jews of Europe (paraphrase from ''Perfidy''). As Hecht relates it in ''A Child of the Century'', he didn't feel particularly Jewish in his daily life until Bergson shook him out of his assimilated complacency: Bergson invited Hecht to ask three close friends whether, in their opinion, Hecht was an American or a Jew. All three replied that he was a Jew. (This is incorrect; in his book, ''A Child of the Century'', Hecht says that he used that line to convince David Selznick to sponsor a mass meeting at the Hollywood canteen.)

Like many stories Hecht told about his life, that tale may be apocryphal, but after meeting Bergson, Hecht quickly became a member of his inner circle and dedicated himself to some goals of the group, particularly the rescue of Europe's Jews.

Hecht "took on a ten-year commitment to publicize the atrocities befalling his own religious minority, the Jews of Europe, and the quest for survivors to find a permanent home in the Middle East".<ref name=Kovan1/> In 1943, during the midst of the Holocaust, he predicted, in a widely published article in ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' magazine,

{{blockquote|Of these 6,000,000 Jews [of Europe], almost a third have already been massacred by Germans, Romanians, and Hungarians, and the most conservative of scorekeepers estimate that before the war ends, at least another third will have been done to death.<ref>Hecht, Ben (February 1943). "Remember Us". ''[[Reader's Digest]]''.</ref>}}

Also in 1943, "out of frustration over American policy, and outrage at Hollywood's fear of offending its European markets", he organized and wrote a pageant, ''[[We Will Never Die]]'', which was produced by [[Billy Rose]] and [[Ernst Lubitsch]], with the help of composer [[Kurt Weill]] and staging by [[Moss Hart]]. The pageant was performed at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] for two shows in front of 40,000 people in March 1943. It then traveled nationwide, including a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Hecht was disappointed nonetheless. As Weill noted afterward, "The pageant has accomplished nothing. Actually, all we have done is make a lot of Jews cry, which is not a unique accomplishment."<ref>Bach, Steven. ''Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart'', Capo Press (2001)</ref>{{rp|237}}

[[File:AlvinPlayhouse.jpg|thumb|New York City opening of ''A Flag is Born'' at the Alvin Playhouse]]
[[File:BenHechtMaoz.jpg|thumb|MS ''Ben Hecht'']]

Following the war, Hecht openly supported the [[Jewish insurgency in Palestine]], a campaign of violence being waged by underground Zionist groups (the [[Haganah]], [[Irgun]], and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]]) in Palestine. Hecht was a member of the Bergson Group, an Irgun front group in the United States run by Peter Bergson, which was active in raising money for the Irgun's activities and disseminating Irgun propaganda.

Hecht wrote the script for the Bergson Group's production of ''[[A Flag is Born]]'', which opened on September 5, 1946, at the Alvin Playhouse in New York City. The play, which compared the Zionist underground's campaign in Palestine to the [[American Revolution]], was intended to increase public support for the Zionist cause in the United States. The play starred [[Marlon Brando]] and [[Paul Muni]] during its various productions. The proceeds from the play were used to purchase a ship that was renamed the [[USS Cythera (PY-31)|MS ''Ben Hecht'']], which carried 900 Holocaust survivors to Palestine in March 1947. The [[Royal Navy]] captured the ship after it docked, and 600 of its passengers were detained as illegal immigrants and sent to the [[Cyprus internment camps]]. The SS ''Ben Hecht'' later became the flagship of the [[Israeli Navy]]. The crew was imprisoned by the British authorities in [[Acre Prison]], and assisted in the preparations for the [[Acre Prison break]].<ref name=Porter>Porter, Darwin. ''Brando Unzipped'', Blood Moon Productions (2006) p.120</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://wymaninstitute.org/about/|title=About the Wyman Institute|date=February 23, 2017|website=David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies |access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref><ref>Bell, Bowyer J.: ''Terror out of Zion'' (1976), pg. 207</ref>

Hecht's most controversial action during this period was writing an open letter to the Jewish insurgents in May 1947 which openly praised underground violence against the British. It included the highly controversial passage:

{{blockquote|Every time you blow up a British arsenal, or wreck a British jail, or send a British railroad train sky high, or rob a British bank, or let go with your guns and bombs at the British betrayers and invaders of your homeland, the Jews of America make a little holiday in their hearts.<ref name=Clark/><ref>Clarke, Peter (2007) ''The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire'' Penguin, London {{ISBN|978-0-14-102005-1}}</ref><ref name=boycott>[https://www.nytimes.com/1948/10/24/archives/britain-objects-ben-hechts-films-face-london-boycott-television.html "Ben Hecht's Films Face London Boycott"]. ''The New York Times'', October 24, 1948</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19470519&id=i9cQAAAAIBAJ&pg=5193,2329341|title=Arrest of U.S. Crew. Illegal Jewish Ship Held|website=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |via=Google News Archive|access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/735/a-stone-for-his-slingshot/|title=A Stone for His Slingshot |date=March 5, 2014|website=[[Jewish Review of Books]] |access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref>}}

Six months after the establishment of Israel, the Bergson Group was dissolved, followed by a dinner in New York City where former Irgun commander [[Menachem Begin]] appeared, saying,

{{blockquote|I believe that my people, liberated and re-assembled in its country, will contribute its full share toward the progress of all mankind&nbsp;... [and predicted] that all of Palestine eventually would be free, and that peace and brotherhood would prevail among Arabs and Jews alike.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1948/11/30/archives/former-irgun-leader-sees-palestine-unity-with-brotherhood-among.html "Former Irgun Leader Sees Palestine Unity With Brotherhood Among Jews and Arabs"]. ''The New York Times'', November 30, 1948</ref>}}

Thanks to his fundraising, speeches, and jawboning, Sternlicht writes,

{{blockquote|"Ben Hecht did more to help Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, and to ensure the survival of the nascent state of Israel, than any other American Jew in the twentieth century". As much as anything, it was the abiding love of his Jewish parents and Rose Hecht that motivated the writer to become arguably "the most effective propagandist the Jewish state ever had. In 1964, at Hecht's funeral service at Temple Rodeph Shalom in New York City, among the eulogists was Menachem Begin."<ref name=Sternlicht/>}}

In October 1948, the [[Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association]], a trade union representing about 4,700 British film theaters, announced a ban on all films in which Hecht had a role.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19481014&id=fyIhAAAAIBAJ&pg=2928,834307|title=British Boycott Ben Hecht's Work|website=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |via=Google News Archive|access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19500311&id=89tXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4233,4978092|title=Paper Deplores Ban on Brothers Movie|website=[[Spokane Daily Chronicle]] |via=Google News Archive |access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref> This was a result of "his intemperate utterances on the Palestine problem", according to one source.<ref name=boycott/> As a result, filmmakers, concerned with jeopardizing the British market, became more reluctant to hire Hecht. Hecht cut his fee in half and wrote screenplays under pseudonyms or completely anonymously to evade the boycott, which was lifted in 1952.<ref name=TabletBDS/>