Walter Bernstein was born in Brooklyn in 1919. For the next 94 years he wrote and co-wrote terrific movies for big stars: Fail Safe with Henry Fonda, The Train with Burt Lancaster, The Magnificent Seven with everybody—Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson. The Front, with Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, is based on his own experience as a blacklisted writer. We talked about all of this and more at the Writers Guild East.
- PERSON: Harold Ross, founding editor of The New Yorker
- PLACE: Loew’s Cameo Theater on Eastern Parkway
- THING: Red Channels, the six-page blacklist
- BONUS TRACK: Budd Schulberg, who gave names to HUAC
- RANDY’S PLACE: the pier in Piermont, and an encounter with casual racism