Interview with Stanley Dyrector, Playwright & Author
1. You've been working in media for a long time. How did you get started in this business?
Wow! A long time, over five decades. Where did time go? Growing up on the mean streets of Brownsville Brooklyn NY. (an area where 'Murder Incorporated' thrived earlier), I went to the movies and was hooked dreaming of being a movie star. So, that was where the bug bit me first. Then, as fate would have it, at 11 years old, I got my first paying job in showbiz, singing as an alto, in a choir, making forty dollars; gave me an intoxicating feeling. In Public School 144, in sixth grade, Stanley Berson and I thought we could cut the mustard as a duet singing on the radio, so we'd go audition, cold turkey, at
CBS radio and NBC, without agent or appointments. Poof! end of our careers. Couldn't get past gatekeepers. Went back to practicing clarinet and saxophone, my father dutifully paid for. During teenage years, I tried to get audition for "A Stone for Danny Fisher" Off-Broadway. No luck. A few years later, in the US Navy, stationed on a carrier in San Diego, I'd go on Liberty to Hollywood. I was at the USO on Hollywood Boulevard (next to The Pantages) with my friends', the Marines. We'd hang out and they'd listen to me act out Clifford Odet's dialogue in 'Golden Boy', they'd egg me on. An agent,
Allen Connor, saw me acting the dialogue, thought I'd be the perfect unknown actor to play the lead in a new movie called "The Barney Ross Story." I jumped at the chance, met the casting director. But the following week my ship lifted anchor for Japan. The movie came out as "Monkey on My Back", starring Cameron Mitchell.
2. What happened when you left the military?
When I got Honorably Discharged, I pursued my dream, going to "The Hollywood School of Drama" under GI Bill, where another agent saw me do a scene from "Born Yesterday" with Judy Rose(Helen Rose, the costume designer's, daughter). My stage name was changed to Marcus Dyrector, I was cast in co-starring role in a film,"Teenage Rumble", whose title was changed to "Dragstrip Riot" starring Fay Wray, Yvonne Lime, Gary Clarke, Connie Stevens. I played Cliff, the comic relief. We were the good kids who drove Corvettes, while bad guys drove motorcycles. After movie finished, I'm driving taxis. I join Valmar Oleska's, Theatre of Arts, - casting director sees me in a scene - Voila. My name is changed again, to Mark Douglas. I appear on TV episodes, like, Lux Playhouse, Buckskin, Playhouse 90, M-Squad, co-starring opposite Lee Marvin. I also am cast in Native American roles, before it was politically incorrect. TV acting is also pressure. Eventually I go back to my real name, Stanley Dyrector, on "The Tony Randall Show". And prior to that period I write a play called 'A Pelican of the Wilderness" which critic John Mahoney of the LA Times writes it is "Outstanding." The play was my take
on the crazy Vietnam War. Then fortune happened when an established screenwriter reads my work, and I become a collaborator on a series called Wagon Train, on episode titled "The Katy Piper Story", thus my career as a TV writer
begins.
3. You've worked in TV, radio, and theatre, which are all very different. How do you feel about publishing?
Yes, they are all different aspects of the craft. In TV writing, I always felt under the gun. Almost as I felt as an actor on TV. rush, rush. When my wife Joyce joined me, we collaborated on TV Soaps, and Sears and Mutual Radio Theatre. Joyce used to love watching soaps, thank God. She knew them better than I did. We were hired by the ABC Network to write "All My Children," "Ryan's Hope" and "General Hospital.", etcetera. I was a radio kid and I liked it a lot. With the exception of plays, radio dramas had the most dialogue because an hour show couldn't afford to have 'dead air.' Publishing? Putting a book together, writing it, that is labor intensive! It never seems to end, not even at the end of the end of the book. Hats off
to Authors!!
4. Tell us a little bit about your book. Why made you decide to write?
My book, "Shedding Light on the Hollywood Blacklist: Conversations With Participants".is the result primarily of transcriptions of my guest interviews' with blacklisted screenwriters and actors from my cable television show over a decade ago, (with the exception of the audio interview I did with actress Marsha Hunt, a few months back in 2012). Several of the shows won WAVE AWARDS for Excellence in local programming. The major motive for me for this book was because of friends who had been blacklisted. We all didn't start out to be friends, it just happened for me along the way of pursuing and getting to know these individuals who were persecuted by the madmen inquisitors of the day, with the help of the United States Government, so sadly, I say. HUAC was the acronym for the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947-1975).,which
historians dubbed the McCarthy era, even though HUAC was prior to McCarthy, and he never came to Hollywood. But it was the era of the witch-hunts. My friend Robert Lees and Abraham Polonsky were named as Communists by actor Sterling
Hayden, back in the day. Nobody wanted to hire them. Norma Barzman and her husband Ben had to flee the country, as did Jean Rouverol Butler and the Trumbo family. Dedicated Americans like Jeff Corey who distinguished himself with
valor in the midst of Kamikaze attacks, on an aircraft carrier during World War II, when discharged couldn't get acting work anymore for many years to come. But, hold onto your hats, now, when you read my book's introduction! You will discover that Hollywood now has a new Blacklist. A blacklist that all young screenwriters seem to want to become a part of. It is a Blacklist for the best unproduced screenplays. I kid you not; this actually exists now in Tinsletown, USA. A number of the screenplays have made it to the big screen. A couple of old timers I spoke to about the new blacklist were struck with ire and
disbelief.
5. Tell us about your publishing experience so far.
This is my first book. And I feel fortunate to have been given the opportunity for this book by Ben Ohmart, of BearManor Media. And to be helped by my two editors, and by production manager, Sandy Grabman. Also by Ed Asner who did a Foreword to my book. And, of course, my esteemed colleagues members of the Writers Guild of America West who read the book and gave glowing comments. But, in the beginning of the process of separating the Wheat from the Chaff , was a big challenge. Like most neophytes I was very naive about the whole process. How organized you must be. I am by nature a wild card. I wanna be loose as a goose, as we used to say in Brooklyn. By the way, I have 2 plays on the market now, one of which I did with Joyce called "Marilyn and Phil", based on a true story about Marilyn Monroe and our friend
Phil. Brooklyn Publishers (no, not of NYC) has published. For a preview of it go to www.brookpub.com, Click on Ten Minute duet. And then, my solo published play is titled, "The Other JFK", which is about my afternoon with Vaughn Meader. Published by One Act Play Depot (OAPD).
6. How can your fans contact you?
They can check out "The Stanley Dyrector Show" on the City of Los Angeles' Channel 36, which broadcasts my cable TV shows usually, once a week at midnight. Or go to their Internet website http://www.la36.org/. and watch a plethora of my shows. Say, if you folks really like it, send the station an email and maybe someone will give me more air time, like, CNN. Harumph!
Thank you Stanley!
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Shedding Light on the Hollywood Blacklist
What Really Happened...
Albany, GA – BearManor Media proudly announces the release of Shedding Light on the Hollywood Blacklist, by Stanley Dyrector.
“Congratulations Stanley Dyrector...WAVE AWARDS... Video Excellence Award presented for Community Media in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 9, 2001, The Stanley Dyrector Show: The Hollywood Blacklist...”
“Dyrector has encountered countless people that help Hollywood sparkle but never get a chance to shine...Screenwriters on the Hollywood Blacklist in the 50's denied work due to their politics...” – Debra Beyer, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2006.
"...I'm not afraid to be corrected by a guest, or to tell them I love them!"...Dyrector explored the blacklisting period of Hollywood during the McCarthy era...” California Seniors Weekly (2000)
ISBN: 1-59393-244-8 Format: Softcover; 6” x 9”; 262 pages
Price: $19.95 Available also through Ingram and amazon.com
About the Author: Stanley Dyrector was born in Brooklyn, New York. Beginning his career as an actor, he switched to writing, where he found much success. His TV writing credits include such popular shows as Wagon Train and Slattery’s People. He and his wife, Joyce, teamed up and wrote for daytime TV soaps on ABC, as well as hour radio dramas and comedies for Sears Radio Theatre and Mutual Radio Theatre. Dyrector’s 2-act Vietnam-era play, A Pelican of the Wilderness, was deemed by LA Times critic John Mahoney as “Outstanding.” His award-winning interview show called The Stanley Dyrector Show can be seen in various locales and on the Internet.
About BearManor Media:
BearManor Media is a small press that publishes BIG books. They pride themselves on publishing quality entertainment biographies, so they often put out the first book on unique subjects. BearManor Media specializes in books with nostalgic themes like Radio and the Jews, How Fibber McGee and Molly Won WWII, Marx and ReMarx, and Perfect Fool: The Life and Career of Ed Wynn.
Albany, GA – BearManor Media proudly announces the release of Shedding Light on the Hollywood Blacklist, by Stanley Dyrector.
“Congratulations Stanley Dyrector...WAVE AWARDS... Video Excellence Award presented for Community Media in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 9, 2001, The Stanley Dyrector Show: The Hollywood Blacklist...”
“Dyrector has encountered countless people that help Hollywood sparkle but never get a chance to shine...Screenwriters on the Hollywood Blacklist in the 50's denied work due to their politics...” – Debra Beyer, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2006.
"...I'm not afraid to be corrected by a guest, or to tell them I love them!"...Dyrector explored the blacklisting period of Hollywood during the McCarthy era...” California Seniors Weekly (2000)
ISBN: 1-59393-244-8 Format: Softcover; 6” x 9”; 262 pages
Price: $19.95 Available also through Ingram and amazon.com
About the Author: Stanley Dyrector was born in Brooklyn, New York. Beginning his career as an actor, he switched to writing, where he found much success. His TV writing credits include such popular shows as Wagon Train and Slattery’s People. He and his wife, Joyce, teamed up and wrote for daytime TV soaps on ABC, as well as hour radio dramas and comedies for Sears Radio Theatre and Mutual Radio Theatre. Dyrector’s 2-act Vietnam-era play, A Pelican of the Wilderness, was deemed by LA Times critic John Mahoney as “Outstanding.” His award-winning interview show called The Stanley Dyrector Show can be seen in various locales and on the Internet.
About BearManor Media:
BearManor Media is a small press that publishes BIG books. They pride themselves on publishing quality entertainment biographies, so they often put out the first book on unique subjects. BearManor Media specializes in books with nostalgic themes like Radio and the Jews, How Fibber McGee and Molly Won WWII, Marx and ReMarx, and Perfect Fool: The Life and Career of Ed Wynn.
