Jane Balfus
Cinematic Spain – Fall 2017
Final Essay
Prof. Sara Villa – The New School
Alvah Cecil Bessie
Alvah Cecil Bessie was born in a wealthy sector of Harlem in 1904 to a Jewish family. His father was an inventor, and also worked in business, which allowed for their affluent lifestyle. Bessie attended Columbia University and majored in English studies. He became involved in a friendship with Eugene O’Neill after college, who was a prominent member of the Provincetown Players; a group of creatives involved in theatre, that began in Massachusetts. This relationship with O’Neill launched Bessie into a performance career. He acted for almost five years with the Provincetown company. He eventually moved to France in 1928 and pursued writing. He fell under the category of US-born writers and businessmen who relocated to Europe in the 1920s. A few years later, his concerns regarding Fascist ideology became increasingly more aggravated. It can be assumed that perhaps his proximity to Spain led him to solidify his supposed “radical communist thought”. Almost ten years after he moved to France, on the twenty second of January in 1938, Bessie sailed to Spain on the S.S. Lafayette with the intent to join the International Brigade’s fight against the Franco-led rebellion (Bessie Papers).
In his book profiling his life during the Brigade, “Men In Battle: A Story of Americans in Spain” he specifically addresses those who ask why he went. “Even people whose experience has made them aware of the world-wide peril of democracy cannot somehow take the logical step in thinking that would answer the question for them. They want to know why American citizens, young men and some old, could abandon obligations in their native land, to fight in a war that ‘was not their own’. Yet it is precisely because these volunteers were able to bridge that gap in man’s thinking…although some went for adventure, some on impulse, the vast majority left their own country as a result of irresistible determination to take place in a struggle whose frontlines are not confined to Spain” (xiii).
Bessie acquired his pilot’s license in advance before he left for Spain with the plan to serve as a flying operative, but he was instead assigned to front-line combat unit. Upon his return, he wrote perhaps one of his most known works mentioned previously above, “Men in Battle”, which was published in 1939. The book remains to be known as one of the most prominent wartime memoirs. According to Ernest Hemingway the read is noted as “A true, honest, fine book”.
When Bessie returned to the United States, he officially joined the Communist party, and returned to an even more prosperous career in cinema. He worked as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers Productions. However, his success in the industry was fleeting. In 1947 he became blacklisted as one of the “Hollywood Ten”: a group of film workers. This group of men were noted for their refusal to be questioned at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, with regards to the influence of the Communist Party in the motion-picture industry (Carl Geiser Papers). That same year he was quoted with the following statement. ‘I do not believe this committee has any more right to inquire into my political affiliations…General Eisenhower himself has refused to reveal his political affiliations, and what is good enough for General Eisenhower is good enough for me…”(Bessie).
His career was very much impeded after the HUAC scandal, but his legacy lived on through his writing, and translations. Bessie passed in 1985, but remains to be credited as one of the infamous Hollywood Ten, and a notable member of the Lincoln Brigade.
Citations:
Biographical File, 1979-1985; Carl Geiser Papers ; ALBA.004; Box 1; Folder; 27 Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Audio Collection, ALBA. AUDIO.001; Drawer 5; Cassette 1-006; Bessie, Alvah Cecil-Interview [tape 2 of 4]; Undated. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Bessie, Alvah . “ Issue No. 51 – Including by Alvah Bessie.” SNEAK PREVIEW OF A HOLLYWOOD FLASHBACK by Alvah Bessie, The Realist Issue No. 51, June 1964, The Realist, June 1964, www.ep.tc/realist/51/.
“Bessie, Alvah Cecil, 1904-1985 SNAC.” Social Networks and Archival Context, SNAC, snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w61v5cp5.
Bessie, Alvah Cecil. Men in battle: a story of Americans in Spain. Pinnacle Books, 1977. Call number DP269.9 .B39. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.