Professor Emeritus Maurice Rapf will be signing copies of his new autobiography "Back Lot: Growing up With the Movies" today at the Dartmouth Bookstore. I talked to Rapf about his life and what to expect from the autobiography. "Back Lot" actually began as a smaller subsection of a book called "All About the Movies," which is a more general guide to movie making.
When Scarecrow Press read the manuscript they found the autobiographical sections fascinating and compiled them to create "Back Lot." Rapf has not read the published copy and is not entirely sure what it contains.
One thing is for sure, Rapf has led a fascinating life and his life story makes for an interesting read. Rapf literally grew up in the movies. His father, Harry Rapf, credited with discovering Joan Crawford, was one of Hollywood's first producers and joined with partner Louis Mayer to become one of the founding members of MGM.
Rapf started his movie career at the age of two as a child actor and has worked in some aspect of show business ever since. He lived in Hollywood through his teens, witnessing the transition from silent to sound film from behind the scenes.
He wrote his first screenplay at Stanford before transferring to Dartmouth in 1933. At Dartmouth his roommate was Bud Schulberg, future writer of "On the Waterfront," an old friend and fellow Hollywood native.
Schulberg and Rapf were estranged for many years after Schulberg named names in front of the House on Un-American Activities Committee. They only reconciled years later when they met at Dartmouth while they were dropping off their sons.
Rapf visited Russia on an early version of a Foreign Study Program in 1934. It was there that he would become interested in the Communist Party. When he returned to the U.S., he became sympathetic to and supportive of the Communist Party, but says now that although he considered himself a Communist, he never officially joined the party.
He graduated with a degree in English in 1935 and returned to Hollywood to work for several major studios, notably Walt Disney Studios. Although he says he'd rather not admit it now, he returned to Dartmouth for a brief time in 1939, taking over for F. Scott Fitzgerald, to collaborate with Schulberg on writing the screenplay for "Winter Carnival," starring Ann Sheridan. Looking back he considers putting his name on the credits one of his biggest mistakes because the movie was "crap," and he had to spend years living it down.
He worked with Disney between 1946 and '47 developing such classics as "Song of the South" and "So Dear to My Heart" and for a brief period "Cinderella." In the late 1940s, things became difficult for him in Hollywood due to his Communist affiliation. He was blacklisted and eventually ended up in New York making industry films. His name was mentioned several times in the HUAC meetings, but he never officially admitted nor denied that he was a member of the Communist Party.
He joined the Dartmouth faculty as an adjunct professor in 1966 and was the first official professor of the Film program while it was still under the auspices of the Drama Department. He joined the faculty full time in 1976 and still continues to teach a screenwriting course once a year. He was also instrumental in founding the Dartmouth Film Society.
Rapf has led an amazing life that reflects not only the history of Hollywood but the history of Dartmouth. He finds his story generally uninteresting and is amazed that Scarecrow Press wanted to publish it. He is more interested in finding a publisher for his book "All About the Movies" which includes an outline of the industry and screenwriting tips. He uses the manuscript of "All About the Movies" in his Screenwriting I class.
Rapf has led a satisfying and full life and looking back remarks "I never wanted to be a big success. I just wanted to do something worthwhile." And judging by his life story he has. He has contributed immeasurably to both the movie industry and the Dartmouth film community. He has spent more than 30 years imparting his wisdom and experience to new generations of students interested in film.
