The first person to refuse an Oscar changed the history of cinema

Many creative people in Hollywood spend their entire careers trying to win an Oscar, but some of them don’t seem to care. Or if they care, some of them have other concerns that take higher priority. Such was the case with Dudley Nichols, a screenwriter whose career spanned from 1930’s Men Without Women to 1960’s Heller in Pink Tights. In 1936, he won an Academy Award for The Informer, It is a famous film about an Irish detective. Filled with guilt after betraying his friend in the IRA.

Although “The Informer” is not very popular these days, in the decades since its release, it has been commonly cited as one of the best films in American cinema. But in 2024, the film is best known for what happened when the film’s screenwriter won an Oscar. Nichols, who was one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild, was not happy with the Academy’s refusal to recognize SWG or support its fight for better pay and proper credit for their work. He boycotted the ceremony, and when the Academy tried to mail him his award, he returned it and wrote an open letter in response:

“As one of the founders of the Screenwriters Guild, which was created in revolt against the Academy, and which was born out of disillusionment with the way it works against the talent used in any emergency, I deeply regret that I cannot accept this award,” Nichols said. books. “Accepting that means I’m turning my back on the nearly 1,000 members of the Screen Writers Guild.”

And the Academy’s president at the time, Frank Capra, He said in response In response to Nichols’ protest, “Membership in the Academy has nothing to do with the award and never has. The Dudley Nichols Award will stand, even if he does not accept the statue which is merely a symbol of the award.”

Eventually, Nichols accepted the Oscar in 1938, but only because he achieved most of his goals for the SGA. Like Santa Anna’s log I mentioned That same year, “the National Labor Relations Board today certified the Screen Writers Guild Inc. as exclusive bargaining agents for approximately 325 writers working at 13 Hollywood motion picture studios.”

It’s not clear how much Nichols’ boycott of the Oscars affected this outcome; Searching through newspaper archives, no journalist appears to have linked Nichols’s 1936 boycott to the SGA’s 1938 breakthroughs. Before and after the adoption of the SWG, it was common for newspapers to mention Nichols’ Oscar win for “The Informer” without mentioning his boycott For the award or the reasons for it. Even for Nichols’ obituary in 1960, newspapers often neglect to mention this detail, although Nichols’s rejection of the award was undoubtedly one of his most remarkable moments.

However, Nichols’ boycott of the 8th Academy Awards was just one of many moves he made in the fight for better conditions for screenwriters in Hollywood. In the same year that the Oscars were boycotted, the Screen Writers Guild grew rapidly and gained influence, although many newspapers appeared to be in favor of the producers the guild was fighting against. “The Screenwriters Guild is a tool of communist radicals.” Washington Herald Books In April of that year, “who apparently would not mind cutting their own throats if only they could at the same time cut the throats of producers and workers in general.” For those who haven’t forgotten Latest WGA strike of 2023 And the rhetoric surrounding it, this argument against the Writers Union sounds all too familiar.

Nichols and other union members continued to fight regardless, and most of the rights they fought for were achieved. Included “Shorter optional contracts, the power to fix credits, (and) a deposit on speculative actions.” This made life easier not only for them, but for the generations of screenwriters who would follow them. the Success of subsequent writers’ strikes It owes much to the struggles faced in Nicholls’ early work.

Why were newspapers reluctant to mention Nichols’ boycott of the Oscars? This may have been because many of them at the time were too busy raising concerns about potential communists within the union Nicholls had helped found. “There are undoubtedly secret communists working in the writing business here who wish to impose a closed shop and, by subtle but recognizable methods, exclude from the screen ideas contrary to their own.” one columnist wrote In 1938, he added: “The radicals are more or less free to use words like ‘fink’, ‘scab’ and ‘house union’ towards those who turn away from their attempts at coercion and intimidation, but any mention of Communism in connection with their activities is denounced as Red baiting, but red baiting should be recognized as a legitimate defensive measure.

This columnist was Westbrook Bigler, a man who also really hated the New Deal, disapproved of labor unions in general, and opposed anti-lynching legislation for good measure. Although he is not highly respected now, Bigler was at the height of his influence in the 1940s, helping pave the way for the Second Red Scare that severely affected the SGA. Throughout the 1940s, the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated countless Hollywood creatives for their alleged communist affiliations. Although the idea of ​​communism infiltrating Hollywood would later be viewed more as a moral panic than a real problem, the damage it did to the careers of many screenwriters (many of whom were… Completely blacklisted from Hollywood) cannot be undone.

Dudley Nichols survived the Second Red Scare mostly unscathed, although as a prominent character in SWG, his character remained damaged throughout this period. Writer Robert Hughes to attest That Nicholls, whom he described as “certainly very left-wing, though I don’t know if he was a Communist”, had “demanded” Hughes’s resignation in 1932 because of Hughes’s anti-Communist beliefs.

The accusation was never proven. Looking at the records, it seems likely that the disagreement between Hughes and Nicholls in the early 1930s was the result of their different views on how the SWG should operate. “anyvery Time to have an olive branch These guys see the cloven hoof,” Nichols said He complained in 1938. “They imagineAny writer must be brave enough to stand up for his reasonable rights Be extreme.”

As the Second Red Scare slowly faded and the Writers Guild remained intact, Nichols continued to write screenplays and continued to be a revered and award-winning figure in the industry. As the Tulsa World newspaper I mentioned In February 1954, the Thursday Night Screen Writers Guild awarded its Laurel Achievement Award, symbolizing the greatest contribution over the years to his craft and his guild, to Dudley Nichols. Nichols had written such landmark films as “Prince Valiant,” “Big Sky” and “Bells.” St. Mary’s,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Stagecoach,” and “The Detective.” The award was presented at the Guild’s annual dinner and was the decision of its 21 board members.”