Great-Uncle Robert Meltzer: Writer, Humorist, WWII Veteran

The true story of a Hollywood writer turned soldier, killed in action - then blacklisted.

Robert Meltzer, circa 1938

It takes all kinds in this country. Americans are nothing if not opposites. We’re a hot blend of go-getters, reprobates, heroes, cowards, farmers, fishers, and film-makers. We hate, we love, embrace, ignore and hurl over the fence. We like to think there’s only one kind of true American, the one that looks exactly like us. But the truth is our history is made up of millions of everyday oddballs who rose up to keep the rest of us safe in our beds. Such is the case with my great-uncle Robert Meltzer. Bob.

Bob was a composite of patriot, writer, soldier, humorist and socialist sympathizer. I never met him and have very few pictures of him. He left this world long before I arrived. But through some unexpected research I've come to know this American original – mostly from his correspondence with Hollywood big shot, Orson Welles.

The Early Years

Born in 1914, the 5^th of 6 children, Bob grew up in a Jewish family. His parents had emigrated years earlier from Russia by way of New Jersey then Utah before settling in Oakland, California. There was a 16-year gap between Bob and his sister, Beatrice, my own Granny, whom he thought of as a second mother. His early years were spent in school, Scouts, and occasionally on the stage in local productions of whatever he thought funny. He studied music, French, and took quickly to writing, a natural at putting ideas into words that both motivated and amused.

Spring 1935 edition of Cal Berkeley's

California Pelican

Later Uncle Bob attended Cal Berkeley and hit the ground running his first year on the Blue and Gold yearbook staff, the only Freshman to do so in 1932. The next year he was on the editorial board of the university’s renowned publication, The California Pelican. His senior year he became a member of the men’s journalistic honor society, Pi Delta Epsilon and was the Pelican’s editor. 

He raised eyebrows when he approved 5 pages of socialist artwork to be published. In the spring of 1935 he wrote a controversial piece about his generation accepting the inevitable Next War with its lamentable “express purpose of butchering our fellow man.” Peripherally aware of Adolf Hitler and how fascism was already rearing its ugly head abroad, he noted that home in the US, “intolerance and bigotry threaten the very rights for which Americans have traditionally fought.” He was – like so many others of his age - disillusioned with the country’s economy, having seen firsthand how capitalism had thrown the nation into the worst Depression of its history.

After graduation, Bob made his way south to Hollywood and by 1940 was listed as assistant director to Charlie Chaplin on “The Great Dictator,” a cynical and searing take on Hitler's fascist world. Bob understood the young movie industry’s power and reach. In 1941 he flew to New York City to attend the American Writer’s Congress alongside Ring Lardner, Jr. The Congress had decidedly socialist leanings and spent time discussing the use of motion pictures as propaganda. 

The following year he began working extensively with Orson Welles and even appeared as a walk-on in Welles’ production of Journey into Fear alongside actor Joseph Cotton. When Welles sent Bob to Brazil to do research for his next project, the two exchanged a flurry of letters and telegrams discussing everything from Carnaval to local folk music and dance. Orson Welles’ friendship lasted to the end of Bob’s short life. 

Robert Meltzer (c) alongside actor Joseph Cotton (l) in Orson Welles'

"Journey into Fear." See Related Articles below for video link.

America Enters the War

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor December 1941, the world changed for most Americans, Bob included. It’s one thing to criticize your own country, but it’s altogether something else when an outsider attacks it. So like millions across the country, Bob responded.

On October 11, 1942, Robert Meltzer sent a 4-page typed letter to Orson Welles outlining a new radio program he thought would fit Welles perfectly. The program would introduce Americans to the nation’s military aircraft – Flying Fortresses – by interviewing the engineers, the builders, pilots and finally the aircraft themselves. The aircraft were given names like “Snoozy, Rattler, Baby Doll, Big Stuff . . .  They come out of a common experience of democratic living, an experience that’s warm with a humor we like and strong with skills we admire.” This was a far cry from Bob's college days when he bemoaned the inevitable “Next War” with its senseless killing. Our country had been attacked, and he was going to help defend it. 

Orson Welles visits Lockheed factory to acquaint himself with military 

aircraft for broadcast of "Ceiling Unlimited." See Related Articles below

for audio link. 

But promoting Americanism through the media was not enough for Robert Meltzer. Two days later he marched himself down to the recruiting office and enlisted in the US Army for the duration of the war. Within a month, Orson Welles’ new radio show, Ceiling Unlimited, hit the CBS airwaves almost exactly as Bob had proposed it. “Ladies and gentlemen, we want you to get acquainted with the Flying Fortress. It’s your plane, and it’s a great plane. You’re paying for it. Your sons and husbands are flying it. This is your personal war.”

Camp Polk, LA. Meltzer noted that "Louisiana

Purchase a mistake."

Private Meltzer kept his humor while stateside, noting in a telegram from Camp Polk, Louisiana, that “with respect to life here can only say Louisiana Purchase a mistake.” 

He later described one of his Supply Battalion squad leaders as “just recently been a copper miner in Butte, Montana, but for some twenty years before that had occupied his time in most of the nation’s small jails serving time for vagrancy and drunkenness. He’s bald, bow-legged, and ribald – all in a quiet way. I asked him if he were married. Divorced, he said. Why, I asked. Oh, she was a lazy son of a bitch, he said; every time I went to piss in the kitchen sink it was filled with dirty dishes. Under that kind of leadership this squad will obviously win the war and the peace.” 

 “We have actually only one test by which to judge our actions: will we be contributing by them to the defeat and eradication of Fascism?” – Lt. Robert Meltzer, October 10, 1943

After only a few months enlisted, Bob was sent to Officer Candidate Training at Ft. Benning, GA. He graduated in June 1943 and took duty at Ft. Jackson, SC a newly commissioned Lieutenant.

By February 1944, Bob was “indoctrinated as hell” and now stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. He was then shipped overseas shortly after D-Day and, although not part of the landing at Normandy, he volunteered to join the battle-hardened 2^nd Ranger Battalion, the Boys of Pointe du Hoc. According to memoirs of the Battalion’s Pfc Morris Prince, “these men were all volunteers and knew what they had let themselves in for. They had been carefully selected and chosen by our staff of officers, who had given each a thorough interview. They had been physically tested and found to be in the best condition. Their service records were unblemished. They had answered all the Ranger requirements. Each of them had the makings of a true Ranger.” 

Over the next several weeks the Battalion gradually moved west from its initial landing location near La Havre, France. It traveled up the Cherbourg Peninsula with the primary purpose of rounding up German prisoners and corralling them in holding pens. Sometime during that period Bob took charge of 1st Platoon in Able Company. 

The troops’ comparatively mundane task of capturing the enemy by day was offset by the hope of finding a bottle of hard drink in nearby villages at night. Cognac was preferred, but they generally made do with a “damned wonderful, belly-burning, gut-tearing, mind-searing concoction” called Calvados.  Uncle Bob not only tried it, he wrote a light-hearted article about one such adventure called “Normandy Interlude,” published in Collier’s Magazine September 23, 1944. 

Robert Meltzer's "Normandy Interlude" as it appeared in Collier's Magazine, September 1944. 

See Related Articles below for link.

By mid-August, Able Company left the peninsula heading further west to the German stronghold of Brest. Along the way they rounded up more prisoners. The Company camped near Le Folgoet, a lovely area not scarred like Normandy. The men had plenty of time to relax, write letters, play cards, softball, etc.  

On August 15 Orson Welles sent Bob a short letter: 

“Dear Old Bob: I don’t know whether I owe you this or not, but I’m writing it in the hope of another of your happy letters, and some word of your health and whereabouts. I have no news worth a soldier’s attention. – Yours to command, [Orson]”

He never received a reply.  

One week later, on August 21, Able company received a combat mission that was not supposed to be more than a motorized patrol. At first there was no trouble and the Company made contact with friendly units who warned that concealed German automatics were causing a lot of casualties in the area.  Lieutenant Meltzer led his platoon on a foot patrol. As Pfc Prince describes it:

“They cautiously inaugurated their search to hunt out the enemy. They did a thorough job of it, but no trace could be found of the hidden Germans. Suddenly, out of the clear blue skies, a barrage of 88’s began to rain down on them. To add to this, the enemy opened up with his automatic weapons upon the patrol led by Lt. Meltzer. The initial burst literally cut the Lt. down, killing him on the spot.”

Killing him on the spot. At 30 years old, my great-uncle Robert Meltzer died fighting for the country that he loved and worked to defend.

It hardly mattered to the world at war that Bob was killed. Not many were aware he had volunteered to go into combat. And only a few noticed as he led his platoon into an ambush that cost him his life. It hardly mattered to most of the world.

Robert Meltzer was awarded 

the Purple Heart

posthumously

But his death mattered to some. His family mourned the loss for the rest of their lives. The Purple Heart later awarded did little to ease their grief. When I was old enough to understand, my Granny quietly said she once had a younger brother who served but was killed, her heartbreak still clear by the catch in her voice.

And it mattered to his Hollywood friends and associates. In June 1947, the Screen Writers Guild (SWG) established the Robert Meltzer Award, originally meant to honor writers who had been killed in battle. At the unveiling of the award, Orson Welles eulogized:

“Robert Meltzer was a good deal more than a talented writer. He was a good deal more than talented, and a good deal more than a writer. If he’d lived I think he would have been an important writer. Before he died he was already an important human being.

His was a disciplined intelligence, a mind wholly free, informed with a focused curiosity, and anchored to a big warm sympathy.

There had better be more of his sort, if our literature is to survive, and if the democratic cause is still to be defended.”

The award was presented four times in the next four years, mostly for scripts that contributed to a better understanding of the problems of the times. But soon lawmakers in Washington began taking a long hard look at Hollywood.

In 1951, seven years after his death, Robert Meltzer was blacklisted by the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) for his earlier socialist sympathies. The Robert Meltzer Award was withdrawn in Hollywood and wouldn’t be re-established for another 40 years.

It did not matter to HUAC that Bob helped the American public understand its military aircraft.

It did not matter that he had enlisted, served, and volunteered for combat duty.

It did not matter that he was ambushed, killed, and lay buried overseas in a military grave, his heroism all but forgotten.

Because, despite all he had given and all he had lost, he was still considered a threat to our Democracy in the age of HUAC, the Red Scare, and McCarthyism.

2nd Lt Robert Meltzer is buried in the

American Military Cemetery,

Brittany, France

Eventually, long after HUAC disappeared from the national spotlight, the Robert Meltzer Award came out of the shadows. The SWG had merged with the Writers Guild of America, which now presented the award to honor “one act of bravery by remembering another, recognizing an artist's singular act of courage in defense of freedom of expression and the rights of writers everywhere."

In 1991 the Robert Meltzer Award was given to Kirk Douglas in recognition of his role helping bring an end to Hollywood blacklisting.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of my great-uncle Bob’s death. I did not know him. I never heard his voice or saw his smile. And I probably would not agree with all of his politics. But still he matters. I’m proud of who he was and what he did, and I hope this begins to honor him in the way he deserves: patriot, writer, decorated Veteran, socialist, humorist. American. 

"Time will not dim the glory of their deeds." - General John J. Pershing

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Related Articles:

Robert Meltzer's article, Normandy Interlude, as it appeared in Collier's Magazine Sept 1944

Pfc Prince's Memoirs from 2nd Ranger Battalion, Able Company, Overseas and Then - Over the Top  

Orson Welles' film, Journey into Fear. Robert Meltzer appears at the beginning of this video clip, and again at the 3:20 mark. 

Audio recordings of Orson Welles' CBS broadcast, Ceiling Unlimited about the nation's military aircraft and Flying Fortresses 

Special thanks to the staff at Indiana University’s Lilly Library who meticulously maintain Orson Welles' correspondence, scripts, photos, etc.