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Sonya Levien

January 01, 1970

Sonya Levien (born Sara Opesken; 25 December 1888 – 19 March 1960) was a Russian-born American screenwriter. She became one of the highest earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and would help a number of directors and film stars transition from silent films to talkies. In 1955 she received an Academy Award for her screenplay Interrupted Melody.

Sonya Levien
From a 1925 magazine
Born(1888-12-25)25 December 1888
Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died19 March 1960(1960-03-19) (aged 71)
Hollywood, California, USA
Other namesSonya Hovey
OccupationScreenwriter
Years active1921–1960
Spouses
Carl Hovey
​
​
(m. 1917; died 1956)​

Early life edit

Sara Opesken (Sonya being the Russian diminutive)[1] was born in Panimunik, a small village, now part of Kaunas, Lithuania, in the Pale of Settlement on 25 December 1888 (later changing the date to 1898.)[2] The oldest child to parents Julius (b. ca. 1863) and Fanny (b.ca. 1865),[2] Sonya had two brothers, Arnold and Max.[3]

During this period, Russian authorities kept a watchful eye over citizens, especially Jewish people with radical affiliations.[4] Sonya's father had a remote connection with a radical newspaper as well as agreeing with the anarchist ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin.[4] Julius Opesken also joined a Narodnik study circle before being arrested and put to work in the Siberian mines. While their father served his time, the Opesken family moved in with Julius' father, a rabbi, who stressed the importance of language to a young Sonya.[5] Her grandfather instructed her in Russian, French, German, and Hebrew as well as encouraged her to read from the Talmud and the Shulhan' Aruk on a daily basis.[6]

In 1891, her father escaped exile and made his way to America, choosing to take on the surname of his German rescuer, Levien. He brought the rest of his family over in 1896, where they joined him on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.[6] They were not the only Russian Jews between 1891 and 1900, in these nine years over 150,000 Jews came to New York alone.[6] Once settled in America, her parents had two more sons, Edward and Nathan.[3] The family received their naturalization papers in 1905.[6]

All of the children in her family worked through school to help with expenses. Sonya worked in a feather-duster factory throughout her teenage years, making four dollars each week.[7] During her formative years in America, having grown up in poverty, she joined a group of socialists.[7] Sonya, like many other European immigrants in America, went to a public grammar school. After she finished in 1901 or 1902, she was unable to continue to high school due to financial issues.[8] She took out a loan for $36 in order to learn stenography and get a job as a secretary. It took her four years of work to repay this loan. During her time as a secretary she also became acquainted with settlement work and labor unions.[9] Sonya also managed to take some classes at the Educational Alliance where, in 1903, she met Rose Pastor. Not only did Pastor hire her as a secretary, she was also a member of the Socialist Party and the Women's Trade Union League, giving Sonya access to a whole library of texts on these subjects she could read.[9]

Levien began to write her own work by sending in short comedic squibs to Life and with these earnings was able to contribute to her college tuition and her family's well-being.[10] By fall 1906, she enrolled at New York University Law School for a Certificate of Law, seeing it as a more practical job option than writing,[3] however she still wrote short scenes for productions at her university.[10] Just a year later, she was hired as a secretary to the editor of Success, Samuel Merwin. Here, her duties began to span more than secretary jurisdiction. She also read manuscripts, rewrote articles, sometimes even collaborated with an author.[11]

In 1909, she went for admission to the New York State Bar Association, but discovered she was too sympathetic in character to work in a court of law. Instead she chose her work at Success and received a promotion to fiction reader.[12] Success had its last publication in December 1911 and Levien's next employment came from The Woman's Journal, a publication interested in the women's suffrage movement.[12] She worked there in 1912 as an assistant editor and business manager.[13] Towards the end of 1912 she sent a short story to Carl Hovey, who was a co-editor at the time, and began work at The Metropolitan.[14]

Having retained a connection with her roots, Sonya helped out at the People's Institute, an organization which helped supply immigrants with the skills they might need to join the workforce in America.[15] She also worked on the National Board of Censorship as an Educational Secretary.[15] However, when World War I commenced, Levien was working in London covering the British Suffragist movement for fourteen months [16] in 1913 and 1914.[3] Here she wrote editorials urging women to demand for more than just suffrage and ask for education, as well as other institutional reforms and better living conditions.[17]

Career edit

Sonya returned to America in 1914 and focused her creative efforts on writing. She sent stories to a number of publications including Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Harpers, Cosmopolitan, Atlantic Monthly, and Century.[18] She then moved onto writing melodramas, although her success in this endeavor was not immediate. In 1919 she received her first credit for an original story, the film Who Will Marry Me? [3] Her second credit came in 1921, and incidentally Cheated Love followed a Jewish immigrant, named Sonya who is in love with a doctor above her social standing. She did additional story on this project.[19]

By the end of 1921, Famous Players–Lasky bought two of her stories "The Heart of Youth" and "Baby Doll" paying her $2500 and $3000 respectively. Feedback for Baby Doll was mixed, but was eventually made into the film The Top of New York. These stories gave Sonya the opportunity of a contract: she would receive $24,000 her first year there and receive a raise of $5000 each year for five consequent years. This led her to move west, to Hollywood, leaving her family behind in New York.[19] She worked tirelessly and received three Hollywood credits for The Snow Bride, Pink Gods, and The Exciters.[19]

Yet, by 1923, she missed her young son Serge and felt she had the duty to support her husband's career over her own, so she broke her contract by Famous Players–Lasky and returned to her family.[20] Here she received an editorial position at McClure's Magazine.[21] Shortly after, in fall of 1924, Famous Players–Lasky requested she adapt a novel, Salome of the Tenements, for the screen, the story of which actually paralleled Sonya's own life story. She made a great many changes to the plot, however reviews for the film highlighted the directing and not the script work.[22] Next, she did scenario editing work at Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. For this job, she attended Broadway plays and would find ways to adapt them into films.[23] By this time, her husband's editing work had ended and they decided to move together this time to Hollywood. He would edit stories for C.B. DeMille and Sonya would write scenarios. Unfortunately Carl would not do so well in Hollywood, unable to find another job after DeMille. Sonya found herself with regular work and as the main breadwinner in the family.[23] Not only did she write for film, but she also continued as an author for magazines and even tried her hand at plays, such as the one-act "By the Sword" which was performed by The Writer's Club.[24]

Despite being a woman, Sonya managed to avoid being categorized as someone who wrote only films for women. She was experienced in all genres (null Western or Gangster films.) Her forte came in adapting outside material for film.[24] She worked her first four years back in Hollywood with the name Sonya Hovey for a number of different studios.[24] She worked for Warner Bros. from January to June 1926. Here, she wrote her first comedy, a move from her usual melodramas. Footloose Widows featured mistaken identities, mix ups between poor and wealthy people, and even gold digging- all elements of the screwball comedy genre.[25]

She was hired by C.B. DeMille in August 1926 for Metropolitan Pictures and Pathé. She worked for him until June 1928 and during this time experimented in genre. In autumn, she signed with Columbia Pictures, where she wrote a number of features until March 1929.[26] She was elected to the board of The Writer's Club and in May 1929 was offered a contract at Fox Film Corp. She would stay with them until 1939.[26] Her first yearly contract supplied her with $500/ week, and after the first six months she received $600/ week. One year renewal options granted her $750. But although her pay was good, legally she was not able to receive screen credit or publicity for each project she contributed to. She had to pay to advertise her own name.[27] Nonetheless, Sonya became one of the top writers which allowed her to work alongside big stars and well-known directors. In the years 1929–1935, she would work on an estimated six screenplays a year, receiving about five credits.[27] During this period, she was able to write four films for Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, two more for Janet Gaynor, five for Will Rogers, and have a total of six of her stories directed by Frank Borzage. She also worked with directors Allan Dwan and John Ford. Although uncredited, she made additions for Shirley Temple in Curly Top. [27]

Sonya garnered a reputation for being able to adapt all kinds of material into a film screenplay, although she was not known for her prowess at dialogue.[28] For Fox, she penned a detective thriller Behind that Curtain, featuring Charlie Chan.[29] She worked at length with Frank Borzage on Lucky Star, only to have it be labelled Frank Borzage's Lucky Star. Sonya helped not only Borzage, but also Will Rogers, transition to sound films.[30] She also collaborated with S.N. Behrman in three of the next six projects she would assist on.[31]

Levien was Fox's highest-paid female screenwriter during the 1930s.[32] Her films were also known for dealing with family conflicts.[33] In 1933, still employed by Fox Studios, Sonya would receive an Oscar nomination for State Fair. [34] She penned John Ford's first Technicolor film in 1939, Drums Along the Mohawk. [34] She also worked for RKO, working on Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939 as well.

She then went on to sign a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941.[35] By 1955, she had won an Academy Award for Interrupted Melody for MGM.[34] Sonya garnered an impressive filmography, having worked on over 70 films spanning her career, a great deal of the time without a collaborator.[36] In fact, she was presented with the first Laurel Award presented from the Screenwriters Guild of America.[37] Her last screen credits included Jeanne Eagels from 1957[38] and in 1960, she would receive her final screen credit for Pepe.[34]

Personal life edit

Levien married her husband Carl Hovey on 11 October 1917.[1] They moved together to East 92nd street in New York, and Sonya took in Hovey's two children from his previous marriage.[18] Hovey was an Anglo-Saxon Protestant[39] but they had little protest from either of their families [1] and even decided to declare their own children Jewish, although they would not enforce a religious upbringing on them.[18] Together they had two children: a son, Serge (b. 1920) and a daughter, Tamara (b. 1923.) [1] Although Levien has stated that her instincts told her she should have six or seven children, she found that a large family would take years away from her career and was not financially suitable for her.[23] In fact, her husband failed to find steady employment once they moved to Hollywood together and she bore the responsibility of supporting him, their children, his two children from a previous marriage, as well as making a comfortable home for them.[24]

Levien has described herself as one who enjoys music, singing and playing the piano, as well as reading biographies. Although she admired nice clothing, she usually wore sports clothes and hated going shopping. Sonya generally avoided confrontation and arguments with her acquaintances, and shied away from talking on the telephone. She self-identified as ambitious, but also restless in character.[40] Those she worked with stated that Levien was easy to work with and would help out others often.[32] Her husband died in 1956 and she developed cancer in the mid 1950s. Sonya Levien died on 19 March 1960 at the age of 71.[41]

Politics edit

Levien was a Secular Jew who was very interested in activism in her early years, living on the East Side of New York. She describes her natural pull to more radical views, joining a group of agitators formed majorly of socialists but which also included anarchists and single-taxers. Levien was known for supporting the suffragette cause in the early 20th century. Both in her film and non-film works, Levien wrote about the struggles of immigrant women and families. Levien belonged to the Heterodoxy club, which was a debate group focusing on radical feminism. She also heavily supported women's emancipation and birth control. Many of the films in the beginnings of her career focused on Jewish people, however many of her female characters found their happiness in wedlock, and signs of her own radical sensibilities were not always apparent in her film work. Once in Hollywood she was known as an apolitical woman. In fact, shortly after 1950, her daughter Tamara and her husband, Lee Gold, were blacklisted as members of the Communist Party, Sonya chose never to comment publicly.

Selected filmography edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Levy-Reiner, Sherry (2009). "Sonya Levien". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  2. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Sonya Levien | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  4. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: : A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 4.
  5. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: : A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 5.
  6. ^ a b c d Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: : A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 6.
  7. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: : A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 8.
  8. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 9.
  9. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 10.
  10. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 11.
  11. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. pp. 12–13.
  12. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. pp. 14–15.
  13. ^ Rosenbloom, Nancy J. (2015). "From Greenwich Village to Hollywood: The Literary Apprenticeship OF Sonya Levien". The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. 14: 80–103. doi:10.1017/S1537781414000577. S2CID 163604745.
  14. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrows Publishing. pp. 16–17.
  15. ^ a b Cepalir, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 22.
  16. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 23.
  17. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 24.
  18. ^ a b c Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 29.
  19. ^ a b c Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 54.
  20. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 55.
  21. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 56.
  22. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 61.
  23. ^ a b c Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 64.
  24. ^ a b c d Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 66.
  25. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 67.
  26. ^ a b Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. pp. 69–70.
  27. ^ a b c Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 72.
  28. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 74.
  29. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 75.
  30. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 76.
  31. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 77.
  32. ^ a b Rosenbloom, Nancy J. (2015). "From Greenwich Village to Hollywood: The Literary Apprenticeship of Soya Levien". The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. 14: 80–103. doi:10.1017/S1537781414000577. S2CID 163604745.
  33. ^ Hurwitz, Edith (1986). American Screenwriters: Second Series. Gale Research Company. p. 177.
  34. ^ a b c d Hal Erickson, Rovi (2013). . Movies & TV Dept. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  35. ^ Hurwitz, Edith (1986). American Screenwriters: Second Series. Gale Research Company. p. 176.
  36. ^ Hurwitz, Edith (1986). American Screenwriters: Second Series. Gale Research Company. p. 173.
  37. ^ "Sonya Levien – Women Film Pioneers Project". wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  38. ^ Brett Erans, Patricia (27 September 2013). "Sonya Levien Profile". Women Film Pioneers Project. Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  39. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 28.
  40. ^ Ceplair, Larry (1996). A Great Lady: A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien. Lanham: Scarecrow Publishing. p. 73.
  41. ^ Hurwitz, Edith (1986). American Screenwriters: Second Series. Gale Research Company. p. 178.

External links edit

  • Sonya Levien at IMDb
  • Sonya Levien at the Women Film Pioneers Project

January 01, 1970
sonya, levien, born, sara, opesken, december, 1888, march, 1960, russian, born, american, screenwriter, became, highest, earning, female, screenwriters, hollywood, 1930s, would, help, number, directors, film, stars, transition, from, silent, films, talkies, 19. Sonya Levien born Sara Opesken 25 December 1888 19 March 1960 was a Russian born American screenwriter She became one of the highest earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and would help a number of directors and film stars transition from silent films to talkies In 1955 she received an Academy Award for her screenplay Interrupted Melody Sonya LevienFrom a 1925 magazineBorn 1888 12 25 25 December 1888Kovno Governorate Russian EmpireDied19 March 1960 1960 03 19 aged 71 Hollywood California USAOther namesSonya HoveyOccupationScreenwriterYears active1921 1960SpousesCarl Hovey m 1917 died 1956 wbr Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Politics 5 Selected filmography 6 References 7 External linksEarly life editSara Opesken Sonya being the Russian diminutive 1 was born in Panimunik a small village now part of Kaunas Lithuania in the Pale of Settlement on 25 December 1888 later changing the date to 1898 2 The oldest child to parents Julius b ca 1863 and Fanny b ca 1865 2 Sonya had two brothers Arnold and Max 3 During this period Russian authorities kept a watchful eye over citizens especially Jewish people with radical affiliations 4 Sonya s father had a remote connection with a radical newspaper as well as agreeing with the anarchist ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin 4 Julius Opesken also joined a Narodnik study circle before being arrested and put to work in the Siberian mines While their father served his time the Opesken family moved in with Julius father a rabbi who stressed the importance of language to a young Sonya 5 Her grandfather instructed her in Russian French German and Hebrew as well as encouraged her to read from the Talmud and the Shulhan Aruk on a daily basis 6 In 1891 her father escaped exile and made his way to America choosing to take on the surname of his German rescuer Levien He brought the rest of his family over in 1896 where they joined him on the Lower East Side of Manhattan 6 They were not the only Russian Jews between 1891 and 1900 in these nine years over 150 000 Jews came to New York alone 6 Once settled in America her parents had two more sons Edward and Nathan 3 The family received their naturalization papers in 1905 6 All of the children in her family worked through school to help with expenses Sonya worked in a feather duster factory throughout her teenage years making four dollars each week 7 During her formative years in America having grown up in poverty she joined a group of socialists 7 Sonya like many other European immigrants in America went to a public grammar school After she finished in 1901 or 1902 she was unable to continue to high school due to financial issues 8 She took out a loan for 36 in order to learn stenography and get a job as a secretary It took her four years of work to repay this loan During her time as a secretary she also became acquainted with settlement work and labor unions 9 Sonya also managed to take some classes at the Educational Alliance where in 1903 she met Rose Pastor Not only did Pastor hire her as a secretary she was also a member of the Socialist Party and the Women s Trade Union League giving Sonya access to a whole library of texts on these subjects she could read 9 Levien began to write her own work by sending in short comedic squibs to Life and with these earnings was able to contribute to her college tuition and her family s well being 10 By fall 1906 she enrolled at New York University Law School for a Certificate of Law seeing it as a more practical job option than writing 3 however she still wrote short scenes for productions at her university 10 Just a year later she was hired as a secretary to the editor of Success Samuel Merwin Here her duties began to span more than secretary jurisdiction She also read manuscripts rewrote articles sometimes even collaborated with an author 11 In 1909 she went for admission to the New York State Bar Association but discovered she was too sympathetic in character to work in a court of law Instead she chose her work at Success and received a promotion to fiction reader 12 Success had its last publication in December 1911 and Levien s next employment came from The Woman s Journal a publication interested in the women s suffrage movement 12 She worked there in 1912 as an assistant editor and business manager 13 Towards the end of 1912 she sent a short story to Carl Hovey who was a co editor at the time and began work at The Metropolitan 14 Having retained a connection with her roots Sonya helped out at the People s Institute an organization which helped supply immigrants with the skills they might need to join the workforce in America 15 She also worked on the National Board of Censorship as an Educational Secretary 15 However when World War I commenced Levien was working in London covering the British Suffragist movement for fourteen months 16 in 1913 and 1914 3 Here she wrote editorials urging women to demand for more than just suffrage and ask for education as well as other institutional reforms and better living conditions 17 Career editSonya returned to America in 1914 and focused her creative efforts on writing She sent stories to a number of publications including Saturday Evening Post Collier s Redbook Ladies Home Journal Harpers Cosmopolitan Atlantic Monthly and Century 18 She then moved onto writing melodramas although her success in this endeavor was not immediate In 1919 she received her first credit for an original story the film Who Will Marry Me 3 Her second credit came in 1921 and incidentally Cheated Love followed a Jewish immigrant named Sonya who is in love with a doctor above her social standing She did additional story on this project 19 By the end of 1921 Famous Players Lasky bought two of her stories The Heart of Youth and Baby Doll paying her 2500 and 3000 respectively Feedback for Baby Doll was mixed but was eventually made into the film The Top of New York These stories gave Sonya the opportunity of a contract she would receive 24 000 her first year there and receive a raise of 5000 each year for five consequent years This led her to move west to Hollywood leaving her family behind in New York 19 She worked tirelessly and received three Hollywood credits for The Snow Bride Pink Gods and The Exciters 19 Yet by 1923 she missed her young son Serge and felt she had the duty to support her husband s career over her own so she broke her contract by Famous Players Lasky and returned to her family 20 Here she received an editorial position at McClure s Magazine 21 Shortly after in fall of 1924 Famous Players Lasky requested she adapt a novel Salome of the Tenements for the screen the story of which actually paralleled Sonya s own life story She made a great many changes to the plot however reviews for the film highlighted the directing and not the script work 22 Next she did scenario editing work at Samuel Goldwyn Pictures For this job she attended Broadway plays and would find ways to adapt them into films 23 By this time her husband s editing work had ended and they decided to move together this time to Hollywood He would edit stories for C B DeMille and Sonya would write scenarios Unfortunately Carl would not do so well in Hollywood unable to find another job after DeMille Sonya found herself with regular work and as the main breadwinner in the family 23 Not only did she write for film but she also continued as an author for magazines and even tried her hand at plays such as the one act By the Sword which was performed by The Writer s Club 24 Despite being a woman Sonya managed to avoid being categorized as someone who wrote only films for women She was experienced in all genres null Western or Gangster films Her forte came in adapting outside material for film 24 She worked her first four years back in Hollywood with the name Sonya Hovey for a number of different studios 24 She worked for Warner Bros from January to June 1926 Here she wrote her first comedy a move from her usual melodramas Footloose Widows featured mistaken identities mix ups between poor and wealthy people and even gold digging all elements of the screwball comedy genre 25 She was hired by C B DeMille in August 1926 for Metropolitan Pictures and Pathe She worked for him until June 1928 and during this time experimented in genre In autumn she signed with Columbia Pictures where she wrote a number of features until March 1929 26 She was elected to the board of The Writer s Club and in May 1929 was offered a contract at Fox Film Corp She would stay with them until 1939 26 Her first yearly contract supplied her with 500 week and after the first six months she received 600 week One year renewal options granted her 750 But although her pay was good legally she was not able to receive screen credit or publicity for each project she contributed to She had to pay to advertise her own name 27 Nonetheless Sonya became one of the top writers which allowed her to work alongside big stars and well known directors In the years 1929 1935 she would work on an estimated six screenplays a year receiving about five credits 27 During this period she was able to write four films for Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor two more for Janet Gaynor five for Will Rogers and have a total of six of her stories directed by Frank Borzage She also worked with directors Allan Dwan and John Ford Although uncredited she made additions for Shirley Temple in Curly Top 27 Sonya garnered a reputation for being able to adapt all kinds of material into a film screenplay although she was not known for her prowess at dialogue 28 For Fox she penned a detective thriller Behind that Curtain featuring Charlie Chan 29 She worked at length with Frank Borzage on Lucky Star only to have it be labelled Frank Borzage s Lucky Star Sonya helped not only Borzage but also Will Rogers transition to sound films 30 She also collaborated with S N Behrman in three of the next six projects she would assist on 31 Levien was Fox s highest paid female screenwriter during the 1930s 32 Her films were also known for dealing with family conflicts 33 In 1933 still employed by Fox Studios Sonya would receive an Oscar nomination for State Fair 34 She penned John Ford s first Technicolor film in 1939 Drums Along the Mohawk 34 She also worked for RKO working on Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939 as well She then went on to sign a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1941 35 By 1955 she had won an Academy Award for Interrupted Melody for MGM 34 Sonya garnered an impressive filmography having worked on over 70 films spanning her career a great deal of the time without a collaborator 36 In fact she was presented with the first Laurel Award presented from the Screenwriters Guild of America 37 Her last screen credits included Jeanne Eagels from 1957 38 and in 1960 she would receive her final screen credit for Pepe 34 Personal life editLevien married her husband Carl Hovey on 11 October 1917 1 They moved together to East 92nd street in New York and Sonya took in Hovey s two children from his previous marriage 18 Hovey was an Anglo Saxon Protestant 39 but they had little protest from either of their families 1 and even decided to declare their own children Jewish although they would not enforce a religious upbringing on them 18 Together they had two children a son Serge b 1920 and a daughter Tamara b 1923 1 Although Levien has stated that her instincts told her she should have six or seven children she found that a large family would take years away from her career and was not financially suitable for her 23 In fact her husband failed to find steady employment once they moved to Hollywood together and she bore the responsibility of supporting him their children his two children from a previous marriage as well as making a comfortable home for them 24 Levien has described herself as one who enjoys music singing and playing the piano as well as reading biographies Although she admired nice clothing she usually wore sports clothes and hated going shopping Sonya generally avoided confrontation and arguments with her acquaintances and shied away from talking on the telephone She self identified as ambitious but also restless in character 40 Those she worked with stated that Levien was easy to work with and would help out others often 32 Her husband died in 1956 and she developed cancer in the mid 1950s Sonya Levien died on 19 March 1960 at the age of 71 41 Politics editLevien was a Secular Jew who was very interested in activism in her early years living on the East Side of New York She describes her natural pull to more radical views joining a group of agitators formed majorly of socialists but which also included anarchists and single taxers Levien was known for supporting the suffragette cause in the early 20th century Both in her film and non film works Levien wrote about the struggles of immigrant women and families Levien belonged to the Heterodoxy club which was a debate group focusing on radical feminism She also heavily supported women s emancipation and birth control Many of the films in the beginnings of her career focused on Jewish people however many of her female characters found their happiness in wedlock and signs of her own radical sensibilities were not always apparent in her film work Once in Hollywood she was known as an apolitical woman In fact shortly after 1950 her daughter Tamara and her husband Lee Gold were blacklisted as members of the Communist Party Sonya chose never to comment publicly Selected filmography editCheated Love 1921 First Love 1921 The Top of New York 1922 Pink Gods 1922 The Snow Bride 1923 The Exciters 1923 Salome of the Tenements 1925 Why Girls Go Back Home 1926 Christine of the Big Tops 1926 The Princess from Hoboken 1927 The Heart Thief 1927 A Harp in Hock 1927 A Ship Comes In 1928 The Power of the Press 1928 The Younger Generation 1929 Trial Marriage 1929 Behind That Curtain 1929 Lucky Star 1929 Frozen Justice 1929 South Sea Rose 1929 So This Is London 1930 Song o My Heart 1930 Liliom 1930 Lightnin 1930 Daddy Long Legs 1931 The Brat 1931 Surrender 1931 Delicious 1931 She Wanted a Millionaire 1932 After Tomorrow 1932 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1932 Tess of the Storm Country 1932 Cavalcade 1933 State Fair 1933 The Warrior s Husband 1933 Berkeley Square 1933 Mr Skitch 1933 As Husbands Go 1934 Change of Heart 1934 The White Parade 1934 Here s to Romance 1935 Navy Wife 1935 Paddy O Day 1936 The Country Doctor 1936 Ramona 1936 Reunion 1936 In Old Chicago 1937 Four Men and a Prayer 1938 Kidnapped 1938 The Cowboy and the Lady 1938 Drums Along the Mohawk 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 Ziegfeld Girl 1941 The Amazing Mrs Holliday 1943 The Valley of Decision 1945 State Fair 1945 The Green Years 1946 The Great Caruso 1951 Quo Vadis 1951 The Merry Widow 1952 The Student Prince 1954 Hit the Deck 1955 Interrupted Melody 1955 Oklahoma 1955 Bhowani Junction 1956 Jeanne Eagels 1957 Pepe 1960 State Fair 1962 References edit a b c d Levy Reiner Sherry 2009 Sonya Levien Jewish Women A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia Jewish Women s Archive Retrieved 8 March 2016 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Press p 1 a b c d e Sonya Levien Jewish Women s Archive jwa org Retrieved 25 February 2016 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Press p 4 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 5 a b c d Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 6 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 8 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 9 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 10 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 11 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing pp 12 13 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing pp 14 15 Rosenbloom Nancy J 2015 From Greenwich Village to Hollywood The Literary Apprenticeship OF Sonya Levien The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 14 80 103 doi 10 1017 S1537781414000577 S2CID 163604745 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrows Publishing pp 16 17 a b Cepalir Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 22 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 23 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 24 a b c Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 29 a b c Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 54 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 55 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 56 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 61 a b c Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 64 a b c d Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 66 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 67 a b Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing pp 69 70 a b c Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 72 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 74 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 75 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 76 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 77 a b Rosenbloom Nancy J 2015 From Greenwich Village to Hollywood The Literary Apprenticeship of Soya Levien The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 14 80 103 doi 10 1017 S1537781414000577 S2CID 163604745 Hurwitz Edith 1986 American Screenwriters Second Series Gale Research Company p 177 a b c d Hal Erickson Rovi 2013 The New York Times Movies amp TV Dept Baseline amp All Movie Guide Archived from the original on 16 December 2013 Retrieved 9 March 2016 Hurwitz Edith 1986 American Screenwriters Second Series Gale Research Company p 176 Hurwitz Edith 1986 American Screenwriters Second Series Gale Research Company p 173 Sonya Levien Women Film Pioneers Project wfpp cdrs columbia edu Retrieved 25 February 2016 Brett Erans Patricia 27 September 2013 Sonya Levien Profile Women Film Pioneers Project Columbia University Libraries Retrieved 9 March 2016 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 28 Ceplair Larry 1996 A Great Lady A Life of the Screenwriter Sonya Levien Lanham Scarecrow Publishing p 73 Hurwitz Edith 1986 American Screenwriters Second Series Gale Research Company p 178 External links editSonya Levien at IMDb Sonya Levien at the Women Film Pioneers Project Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sonya Levien amp oldid 1205163458, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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