Alfred Levitt
Film, TV writer
Though Levitt was never charged with any crime, the subpoena issued him by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951 was so damaging to his career that he used an assumed name, Tom August, for almost two decades after his hearing.
Best known for his TV series work, he wrote for "The Donna Reed Show" in the 1950s, "The Brady Bunch" in the '60s and "All in the Family" in the '70s. He often wrote scripts with his wife, Helen Slotte Levitt. She died in 1993.
Leavitt's first feature credit was 1948's "The Boy With Green Hair," sharing credit with Betsy Beaton and Ben Barzman. Feature scripts he penned with his wife included "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" (1964) and "The Monkey's Uncle" (1965).
In 1968, after Levitt resumed submitting his work under his own name, he helped form the Hollywood Blacklist Writers Credits Committee. Gradually, the committee members corrected the script credits for dozens of movies for which writers had used either a pseudonym or a "front," a name borrowed from another Hollywood screenwriter who'd not been blacklisted.
The Writers Guild of America West honored Levitt for this work in 1995, by which time the Blacklisted Writers Credits Committee had restored accurate screen credits to 82 films.
New York City native began his writing career as the sports editor for the school paper at NYU's Bronx campus. He also joined several political groups as a student, including the Young Communist League in 1932. Later that decade, he came to Hollywood to work as a script reader, was drafted in 1942 and was sent to England a year later. At the end of the war, he was sent to France. There he worked with famed photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson on the film "Le Retour" (The Reunion), about the repatriation of prisoners of war and concentration camp survivors. Levitt helped write the film's narration.
By 1950, several of the Hollywood producers Levitt had worked with had been subpoenaed by the House committee and were dropped by the studios. He went through a similar experience when the movie "Dream Wife" was in production in the early 1950s. While one of three writers credited, Leavitt was dropped from the project when he was subpoenaed.
While disenchanted with the Communist Party by 1951, when he received his subpoena, he refused to leave it because others might interpret it as fear. Rather than hide the subpoena, Leavitt decided to advertise it, beginning wit the words: "Like most of you I have been opposed to the Un-American Activities Committee for a long time." No one would print it.
In a written statement that he was not allowed to read at his HUAC hearing in Los Angeles, Leavitt defended the right to freedom of speech and expression of individual conscience. After Leavitt's hearing, several Hollywood colleagues called and asked him for help, and he wrote a speech for them to deliver at their hearings. He never revealed their names.
In recent years, Levitt taught script-writing classes at several schools, including Cal State U. Northridge. He worked on a Writers Guild project to supplement the pensions of blacklisted writers. He served on the guild's board 1981-84 and was secretary-treasurer 1985-89.
He is survived by a son and a daughter, two grandchildren and a brother.
Donations in his name can be made to the Alzheimer's Assn., 5900 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1700, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
