James Dalton Trumbo Book Report

There was a time when America was suspicious of loyal communists and gathered anyone who was suspected of being one. It did not matter if such people were targeted for aiding Soviet Russia or other enemies of the state, but simply for believing in communism; the belief that assets should be distributed equally in the nation. When people with such a belief were caught, they were called into martial court for questioning. A certain Hollywood screenwriter, James Dalton Trumbo was one of these people. The book TRUMBO was written by Bruce Cook and published by the Grand Central Publishing, a reissued edition, in September 8, 2015. In the book, Cook explains the early life of Trumbo, the blacklist from Hollywood films, and how Trumbo broke it.
Dalton

was born in December 05, 1905 (26). He lived at Colorado with his parents, Orus and Maud Trumbo while writing for the Colorado newspaper. In July 1925, he left to Los Angeles “[to study at the] University of Southern California …and got a job at the Davis Perfection Bakery…” (51). While he was working as a baker and a student, Trumbo spent his free time to write multiple short stories, but they were never published. It was not until October 1935 when he was finally hired by Warner Bros. to be a screenwriter and started his career (88). During these years, Dalton had a difficult time trying to find an opportunity to write for films because of the dramatic economic hit of the Great Depression. There were no movies in productions which gave him and Hollywood a hard time to start any projects. In December 1943 Dalton believed that “it was not madness to hope for possibility of making a better sort of world, and he [volunteered to join] the Communist Party” (148-51). He did not care of the risk of losing his job or being spied by federal officers. Trumbo believed that the communist party was by good people with good intentions. This of course, is what made Trumbo in such trouble for his future as a movie screenwriter.
A group called the Un-American Activities Committee called for ten men who were a part of the “Unfriendly Nineteen”, who were a group of screen writers suspected of being communist, and later called the Hollywood Ten. They were questioned multiple times of whether they were or were not a member of the communist party, and the men refused to answer. Trumbo stated that he “could answer it, but if [he] did, [he] would hate myself in the morning” (184). Trumbo and the other nine men refused to answer their questions because they had no right to question their belief. Since the Hollywood Ten refused to cooperate with the investigation, they were all were cited for contempt of Congress.
After serving his time in jail, Trumbo was unemployed and was desperate to find a job.

Frank King and the King Brothers, who were independent producers, hired Trumbo while he was on the blacklist. King stated that ‘[he] just had a short budget to make a picture and saw this as an opportunity to get a fine writer to work for [them] whom [they] could not otherwise afford’ (194). Trumbo was able to find a job by writing films for King, but he could not have his name credited. On 1957, the Academy Awards rewarded a Robert Rich for The Brave One as ‘the Best Motion Picture Story’ (265). It was later revealed that a Robert Rich never enlisted in the Screen Writers Guild, a group of screenwriters who were eligible to be rewarded. Reporters suspected it was a pseudonym by Trumbo, and that it was him that wrote the scripts. He denied it and said someone else who was a member of the Hollywood Ten wrote it. They denied it as well. It became a cycled game of trying to discover who wrote the movie. The scandal became a joke towards “…the House Committee on Un-American Activities and of the blacklist enforced by the Committee’s Hollywood supporters” (266). Trumbo later wrote two more films, Spartacus and Exodus to spite those blacklist supporters even further. After the presidential election, John F. Kennedy went to watch the films and said “that he had enjoyed it, that it was a good film” (283). This finally marked the end of the blacklist as people finally accepted

Trumbo.
Cook managed to gather his information by having interviews with people who knew Trumbo. He also was given the opportunity to have an interview with Trumbo himself. This was how Cook was able to record his past life and personal opinions; through the exclusive interview and the permission to roam through his house for documents. As a primary source, Cook was able to have a detailed understanding of Trumbo’s perspective. He also interviewed people such as Harry Benge, who knew him in his early life, and Frank King, the producer that saved Trumbo. Another example of Cook’s source was his wife, Cleo Trumbo. After Trumbo’s death, Cook managed to have a private interview at her home and talked about how the two met, and their marriage life. The way Cook gathered his sources also shows his own perspective of Trumbo’s life.
Cook’s point of view is always on Trumbo’s side. He favors Trumbo in his life decisions and beliefs. He always views Trumbo as a clever man who was successful by using tactics. One example is the Brave One incident when Trumbo uses the pseudonym, Robert Rich. He paraphrases from Trumbo words: “all the press came to me, and I dealt with them in such a way that they knew bloody well I had written it” (265-66). Trumbo does not directly say these words, but they are in Cook’s perspective. He loves Trumbo so much that sometimes he creates his own image of Trumbo.
This was the worst feature in the book. Cook was biased and narrated some of Trumbo’s stories. An example is when Trumbo explains to Cleo that she was invalidly married to Hal, Cleo’s fiancé, and lived happily ever after (120-1). Cook sets up the story as if he made it up himself. It is very distracting and sometimes the source is questionable. There are no quotations in some scenes, said by some characters, which can be distracting and is easily noticeable. In the book Cook was able to create his persona of who Trumbo was, a glorious man who fought against poverty and defeated the Hollywood blacklist.
While that was the worst feature, it was also the best feature at the same time. Cook may be narrating his own understanding of Trumbo’s life, but it sends a sense of excitement for readers. Reality is not always adventurous and exciting, so that is why Cook wrote the stories in such a way for enjoyment. Also, Cook captures Trumbo’s sense of humor such as the time he was being questioned by Congress. When Robert Stripling, counsel and chief investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities, asked Trumbo if he was a communist, he replied: “I shall answer in my own words. Very many questions can be answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ only by a moron or a slave” (182). Cook is sometimes too biased when explaining Trumbo’s experience, but he does it while being creative.
Cook’s objective in the book is to explain Trumbo’s life and to explain his accomplishments against discrimination for his belief. He does an excellent job of gathering information and explaining his experiences. The segments of Trumbo’s life range from his early life in Colorado, his job in a bakery and scriptwriter in California, his romance competition for Cleo, and his redemption against the Hollywood blacklist. There was an injustice in Trumbo’s life against the blacklist, and Cook recognized that it needed to be shown that it was unfair. He also explains very detailed descriptions of a person’s thoughts, history, and characteristics. Cook was successful on identifying Trumbo’s experiences as detective for finding information and as a writer for explaining it on paper.