Trumbo

“Spartacus” screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted during the Red Scare, may have identified with the shrewd Thracian gladiator who led a slave revolt against the crushing overlords of the Roman Republic.

On the night of the election, I was with a veteran activist who told me a story about Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted writer.

Studios refused to hire writers named as Communists or fellow travelers, and formerly successful writers such as Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr. were drummed out or relegated to writing under fake names.

Trumbo’s daughter, Mitzi Trumbo, personally lent some of the objects, including two typewriter ribbon tins that Trumbo used when he was incarcerated to hold his personal belongings.

Trumbo, who wrote the scripts for “Exodus” and “Spartacus,” among others, also directed it.