Arnold Manoff (born Pismenoff; April 25, 1914 – February 10, 1965) was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
In the 1930s he assembled games and songs of the streets of the city for the Works Progress Administration's Writer's Project.
[6] His first novel, Telegram From Heaven, published by Dial Press in 1942, recounts the struggle of an unemployed stenographer from the viewpoint of the stenographer, A review of the book in The New York Times said that Manoff "has written a readable book, pulsing with life," and that he "knows the life of the submerged poor and he has an intimate sympathy for them.
His novella All You Need is One Good Break was published in Story and produced on Broadway in 1950, in a production starring John Berry.
"[7] The New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson called the play "a tabloid tale about a tenement wastrel" and said it was "maudlin when it was not commonplace.
The review praised the performance of Lee Grant,[9] who left the hit play Detective Story to join the cast.
Her name later appeared in the publication Red Channels, and as a result, for the next ten years,[13] she too was blacklisted and her work in television and movies was limited.
"[13] While they were blacklisted, Manoff and fellow Jewish writers Abraham Polonsky and Walter Bernstein formed what has been described as a "kind of collective to help each other survive by writing under the table" for television, mainly for the historical series You Are There.
[6] Walter Grauman, who directed a Naked City episode written by Manoff, said years later that he was shocked to learn that his real name was not "Carpenter" and discovered it by accident.
[15] In her 2014 memoir I Said Yes to Everything, Lee Grant wrote that Manoff was known as "the silver fox" when she first met him in 1950 during rehearsals for All You Need is One Good Break, because of his white hair that made him look older than his 36 years.