Donald Ogden Stewart, Pt. 2: Wives, Charles Lindbergh, the Blacklist, Two Memoirs & A Monkey on a Statue

Part of an ongoing series about writers I learned about while visiting the Indianapolis Public Library as a teenager in search of mentors. This time I'm continuing with the life and work of Donald Ogden Stewart. But you figured that out from the title, right?

When Donald Ogden Stewart took on Charles Lindbergh, he discovered that fighting evil is difficult when influential people are rooting for the bad guy.  

Early in his Hollywood screen-adaptation career, writer Donald Ogden Stewart aspired to be part of elite society, especially the parts where the rich famous people hung out. But after he himself got money and fame, Stewart became galvanized by the work of Socialist writers. He abandoned the glitzy, frothy life of celebrity parties and  Algonquin Round Table luncheons in favor of firing off blazing letters expressing fierce opposition to Nazism and fascism. Furthermore, he didn't want to be on the "wrong side" in the class war between rich and poor. 

There is where Charles Lindbergh comes in the picture. "Lucky Lindy" was once famous for flying solo over the ocean. His name was in the news again when his infant son disappeared from his crib. But in the 1930s, Lindbergh became infamous, liberals and anti-Fascists, for his promotion of racism and eugenics, for spreading "America First" propaganda, and for his open admiration for Adolph Hitler. But the general public looked past his creepy politics, because he was handsome and once flew an airplane a long way. And Lindbergh had the financial support of many tycoons who shared his views. 

As Lindbergh spoke at "America First" rallies and championed crazy theories about genetic superiority, novelist I. A. R. Wylie was penning Keeper of the Flame. The book's plot centered on the death of a civic leader who used his fame to promote fascism in the guise of patriotism. There was also the question of whether his widow may have been involved in a desperate actions to save America. The main characters were pretty clearly Charles Lindbergh (very much alive in real life) and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. 

The book became a film, directed by George Cukor and  starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Despite the talent involved, the movie was received poorly and didn't get support from the studio.

Here's the trailer for "Keeper of the Flame":

Donald Ogden Stewart adapted Keeper of the Flame for the screen, as he'd done with "The Philadelphia Story" and other successful films. But this time he was seen as radical for opposing Hitler and his American supporters with their "protect the white people" messaging. 

It wasn't the screen credit alone for "Keeper of the Flame" which got Stewart onto the conservatives' radar. He'd joined a number of groups including the Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, the Motion Picture Artists Committee to Aid Republican Spain, and even acted as President of the League of American Writers (an anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist group). Stewart was famous for his demand-filled political telegrams to FDR. No one was surprised when, in 1950, Stewart was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

It was Stewart's shift from socialite to Socialist which caused the break-up of his first marriage. The Stewart marriage is one of those in where biographers take sides and choose a "good wife" and a "bad wife." In this case, Beatrice Ames, the first wife, is seen as the baddie. 

But Beatrice was there for Stewart in his halcyon Oscar-winning days as a screenwriter, and with her he enjoyed the parties and the fun. Stewart knew that his wife's beauty was a draw for celebrities, and he liked famous people. The couple had two children, and life was easy and good. Then Stewart suddenly reviled it all, and began to spend all his time at political meetings, which didn't interest Beatrice at all. 

Stewart, in the days in which he and Beatrice had "drifted apart," got romantically involved with another politically-minded person, the writer Ella Winter. He hoped to stay married to Beatrice while maintaining his "alliance" with Winter, but in 1938 Beatrice told Stewart she'd also found someone new and she asked for a divorce. 

After the divorce, Beatrice's re-marriage made headlines, because her new husband was a Count, and the grandson of novelist Leo Tolstoy. 

Count Ilya Tolstoy

Lest it look like Beatrice had sought out the European old money allied with Hitler's goals, Count Tolstoy was a down-to-earth fellow. In fact, during the summers of 1930 and 1931, he worked as a guide for visitors to what was then Mount McKinley (now Denali) National Park in Alaska. Though he was less a rugged outdoorsman hiking up craggy trails and more a celebrity for tourists to meet, according to this source.

After a few years, Beatrice's marriage to the Count went south, and the break-up, which she revealed to the press, was reported in less prestigious papers than the marriage had been.

Ella Winter, Donald Ogden Stewart's second wife, had her own romantic complications. She'd been married to muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens, whose articles about the plight of the urban poor were compiled into the book The Shame of the Cities.  Ella and Lincoln had a son, Peter. Steffens died in 1936. 

I have less to say here about Ella Winters than I have said about Beatrice Ames as Ella was a writer and could tell about her own life. Her book Red Virtue was about time she's spent in Russia, and she was part of a very active art colony in California and thus appears in many others' memoirs. Her first husband Lincoln Steffens was also very public, as he called attention to social issues, and that spotlight also shone on Ella. For more on her life, the Wikipedia article has many more touchpoints for research.

Once Stewart and Winter were partners in love and politics, their relationship lasted forty years. Both died in 1980, just a few weeks apart, and both wrote memoirs.  Ella gave an interview about her book, and you can hear that here.

The British newsreel company Pathe' shot some fottage of Donald Ogden Stewart and Ella Winter at their home near London. The newsreel involves writing but mostly it's about statues and a monkey. (The female monkey has one of Ella's sons' names. Okay then!)

 

Next time: Cornelia Otis Skinner 

Garbo