Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War

Chapter 7. From Pacifist to Soldier

167 7 From Pacifist to Soldier On January 18, 1938, Robert Sherwood wrote in his diary: “Made up my mind today that I’m interested (in writing) in nothing less than reforming the world. The other day I said to Alex Korda, ‘I’m sick of world affairs, war, etc. I wish I could write a plain drawing room comedy.’ He laughed and said it was impossible. ‘You can’t even keep world affairs out of the drawing room.’”¹ The British film producer had hit the nail on the head. Bob’s life was consumed by world affairs. World War I remained the key experience in shaping his responses to an international scene that turned uglier with each passing day during the latter half of the 1930s. In his extant diaries dating from 1936, he tracked events around the world and the U.S. government’s reactions to them. He then used those events to write plays that would entertain , inform, and inspire people to think and act. His particular mission was to investigate the causes of war and their effects on personal lives and civil liberties. If critics accused him of writing propaganda, so be it. By the mid-1930s many playgoers saw Bob as the most important antiwar voice in the American theater. Granted, there were other playwrights who addressed the issue, but none were as consistently prolific or successful, especially on Broadway. The Federal Theatre Project, begun in 1935 as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation to put people to work and end the economic depression, circulated a list of plays and pageants with antiwar themes, but none of them were commercially viable for the Broadway stage. They included David Whitlock and Salesmen of Death, both of which dealt with the family dynamics between armaments makers and salesmen versus pacifists; Wooden Soldiers, which dramatized the harmful results of allowing children to play with war toys; and the symbolic War on Trial and The Way of Peace, about the tragedy and futility of war.² The commercial theater saw a small number of antiwar plays produced between 1932 and 1937, none of which, except Bob’s Idiot’s Delight, had a truly significant run on Broadway, on tour, or as a film.³ Largely issuing warnings about the tragedy of war or the imminence of another conflict, they included Reginald Lawrence and S. K. Lauren’s 1932 Men Must Fight; George Sklar and Albert Maltz’s 1933 Peace on Earth; John Haynes Holmes and Reginald Lawrence’s 1935 If This Be Treason; the 1936 productions of Irwin Shaw’s Bury the Dead and Paul Green and Kurt 168 Act Two Weill’s musical Johnny Johnson; and Sidney Howard’s 1937 The Ghost of Yankee Doodle. The lack of successful antiwar productions reflected both depression economics and changes in the political climate. In terms of economics, whereas there had been 239 productions during the 1929–30 Broadway season, there were only 100 in 1938–39. The intervening years saw a steady decline in ticket sales and available money for investment. While disappointment in the international peace process and fear of war created an audience that preferred other topics for entertainment, the tone of the antiwar movement grew both urgent and frustrated. With Mussolini’s tight control on Italy and his roaming eyes turning to Ethiopia and Albania, and Hitler’s rise to dictatorial power putting people at risk within and outside Germany, residents of the United States began to fear that their nightmare of Europe dragging the nation into another war would become a reality. Although Asia was less of a focal point for the general public, Japan’s hold on Manchuria since 1931 and its subsequent aggression against China added to this concern. The position that most staunch antiwar organizations and individuals took throughout much of the 1930s was one of cautious neutrality. If the United States could remain out of conflicts and instead, in a calm and resolute manner, persuade world leaders to make treaties, stay within their borders, and honor the everweakening League of Nations and World Court, perhaps another world war could be averted. Although some voices in the nation expressed concern for those peoples who were being harassed and imprisoned, or who were fleeing fascist countries, the U.S. government itself took no forceful position on such injustices. For most senators, representatives, and their constituencies, as long as the United States was safe...