Norma Barzman
{{Short description|American screenwriter (1920–2023)}}
{{expand French|topic=bio|date=January 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Norma Barzman
| image = Publicity_Photo_of_Norma_Barzman.jpg
| caption = Publicity Photo of Norma Barzman
| birth_name = Norma Levor
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|9|15}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|12|17|1920|9|15}}
| death_place = Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
| alma_mater =Radcliffe College
| occupation = {{hlist|Screenwriter|actress}}
| years_active = 1946–2000
| spouse = {{ubl
| {{marriage|Claude Shannon|1940|1941|reason=div}}
| {{marriage|Ben Barzman|1942|1989|reason=died}}
}}
| children = 7, including Paolo
}}
Norma Levor Barzman (September 15, 1920 – December 17, 2023) was an American journalist, screenwriter, actress and novelist {{Cite web|title=Norma BARZMAN|url=https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/artist/norma-barzman|access-date=2021-11-27|website=Festival de Cannes 2021|language=en}} who was active in the film industry in the Golden Age of Hollywood.{{Cite web|title=Norma Barzman|url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/file?fid=53c6dfaa299b50689a000acf|access-date=2021-11-27|website=UCLA|language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last=Rampell|first=Ed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0X2oeDjwcicC&dq=norma+barzman&pg=PA32|title=Progressive Hollywood: A People's Film History of the United States|date=2005-01-01|publisher=Red Wheel Weiser|isbn=978-1-932857-10-8|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Prime|first=Rebecca|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3lMAgAAQBAJ&dq=norma+barzman&pg=PA114|title=Hollywood Exiles in Europe: The Blacklist and Cold War Film Culture|date=2014-01-14|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-6263-6|language=en}}
Life and career
Barzman was born into a Jewish family on September 15, 1920, in Manhattan, New York City.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-17 |title=Norma Barzman obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/norma-barzman-obituary-db0vmkf7c |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=The Times |language=en-UK}} She attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |last=Leovy |first=Jill |date=2024-01-11 |title=Norma Barzman, blacklisted screenwriter who took on Hollywood, dies at 103 |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-01-11/la-et-norma-barzman-dead-obituary-screenwriter-hollywood-blacklist |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} She started her career in 1946 writing the original story for Never Say Goodbye and The Locket. Later, she also wrote Finishing School (1952) and Il triangolo rosso (1967).{{Cite book|last=Wald|first=Alan M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=06m7si6MeAcC&dq=norma+barzman&pg=PA355|title=American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War|date=2012-10-15|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-0-8078-3734-4|language=en}}
Barzman also appeared as an actress{{Cite book|last=McDonagh|first=Fintan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMk5EAAAQBAJ&dq=norma+barzman&pg=PA126|title=Edward Dmytryk: Reassessing His Films and Life|date=2021-07-21|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-4314-4|language=en}} in Theatre 70 (1970) and Pajama Party (2000) as the Groovy Grandma guest.{{Cite web|title=Blacklisted screenwriter Norma Barzman opens 'Hollywood Exiles in Europe' series|url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/dept/faculty/blacklisted-screenwriter-norma-barzman-opens-hollywood-exiles-in-europe-series|access-date=2021-11-27|website=UCLA|language=en-US}}
Personal life
Barzman married mathematician Claude Shannon,{{Cite web|author=Guardian Staff|date=2005-10-21|title=I was a Hollywood communist|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/oct/21/usa.gender|access-date=2021-11-27|website=the Guardian|language=en}} known as the "father of information theory",{{Cite web|title=I saw this movie last August at a showing at the Computer History Museum and one... {{!}} Hacker News|url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23873599|access-date=2021-11-27|website=news.ycombinator.com}} and lived with him in Princeton, New Jersey. When they divorced, Barzman moved to Los Angeles with her mother and took classes at the School for Writers, the members of which were leftist. She met and married screenwriter Ben Barzman.{{Cite web|title=Tender Comrades, interviews with blacklisted film industry figures by Paul Buhle (by L. Proyect)|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/tender_comrades.htm|access-date=2021-11-27|website=www.columbia.edu}} Having been blacklisted from Hollywood between the years 1949 and 1976, they lived in London, Paris, and on the French Riviera at Mougins. They had seven children.{{cite web|url=https://filmtalk.org/2022/08/23/norma-barzman/|title=Norma Barzman, now 102, victim Hollywood blacklist: "Marilyn Monroe came to warn us"|publisher=filmtalk.org|date=2022-08-23}}
Barzman died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on December 17, 2023, at the age of 103.{{cite news |last1=Feinberg |first1=Scott |title=Norma Barzman, Screenwriter Who Was Among the Last Survivors of the Hollywood Blacklist, Dies at 103 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/norma-barzman-dead-screenwriter-hollywood-blacklist-survivor-1235766083/ |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=December 19, 2023}}
Filmography
= Writer =
- Il triangolo rosso (1967)
- Finishing School (1952)
- The Locket (1946)
- Never Say Goodbye (1946)
= Actress =
- Pajama Party (2000) - Groovy Grandma guest
- Theatre 70 (1960) - Narrator
= Documentary =
- Les exilés d'Hollywood (2006)
- Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)
Books
- The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin (2006){{Cite book|last=Norma Barzman|url=https://www.biblio.com/book/end-romance-memoir-love-sex-mystery/d/1015505676|title=The End of Romance A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin|date=2006-03-01|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=978-1-56025-813-1|location=New York}}
- The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate (2002){{Cite web|title=9781560254669: The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate (Nation Books) - AbeBooks - Barzman, Norma: 1560254661|url=https://www.abebooks.com/9781560254669/Red-Blacklist-Intimate-Memoir-Hollywood-1560254661/plp|access-date=2021-11-27|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en}}
- Rich Dreams (1982){{Cite web|title=9780446900348: Rich Dreams - AbeBooks - Ben And Norma Barzman: 0446900346|url=https://www.abebooks.com/9780446900348/Rich-Dreams-Ben-Norma-Barzman-0446900346/plp|access-date=2021-11-27|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{imdbname|0059555}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barzman, Norma}}
Category:American women screenwriters
Category:Jewish American screenwriters
Category:Jewish American actresses
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Screenwriters from New York City
Category:People from Beverly Hills, California