George Sklar and Miriam Blecher papers

George Sklar (Yale 1929) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist known for his involvement with social protest theater during the Great Depression. In 1933, he cofounded the Theatre Union, a collective of leftist writers and activists that produced plays for a working-class audience. He also served on the board of the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal initiative that staged many of his plays, including Life and Death of an American (1939). Sklar’s first play, Merry-Go-Round (1932), written with Albert Maltz while they studied at Yale, was adapted into the film Afraid to Talk. Sklar and Maltz also collaborated on the anti-war drama Peace on Earth (1933), the first play produced by the newly established Theatre Union. Several of his works depicted racism and race relations, including Stevedore (1934), written with Paul Peters, and And People All Around (1967). Sklar and Peters again collaborated on Parade, a satirical revue, in 1935; his other plays include a Broadway adaptation of the 1944 film Laura (1947), written with Vera Caspary, and Brown Pelican (1974), which explored environmentalism.

In the 1940s, Sklar moved to Los Angeles to write screenplays for Hollywood films such as First Comes Courage (1943). He was blacklisted from the industry after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1949. He also wrote novels such as The Two Worlds of Johnny Truro (1947), The Promising Young Men (1952), and The Identity of Dr. Frazier (1961).

Born Gidolio Sklar in Meriden, Connecticut, Sklar received a B.A. from Yale University in 1929 and graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1931, where he studied under George Pierce Baker. Sklar married Miriam Blecher in 1935, with whom he had three children: Judith Rasminsky, and Daniel and Zachary Sklar.

Miriam Blecher was an American dancer and choreographer who was prominent in the New York modern dance movement during the Great Depression. In 1932, she cofounded the Workers Dance League, a left-wing umbrella organization that grew out of her involvement in the Communist Party, with other Jewish dancers such as Edith Segal, Anna Sokolow, and Nadia Chilkovsky. That same year, Blecher also established the New Dance Group, a collective of politically-active modern dancers from Hanya Holm’s studio. Blecher choreographed the anti-Nazi piece Van der Lubbe’s Head (1934) while working at the New Dance Group, and she later served as the organization’s director for three years.

Blecher was born in New York City to Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary. She graduated from Hunter College and studied dance at the Henry Street Settlement House under Martha Graham and Louis Horst. After moving to Los Angeles with her husband, Blecher taught children’s dance classes and held dance therapy workshops.