Content area
Full Text
Introduction by Steve Neale
Albert G. Ruben was an important contributor to many left-liberal TV shows in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He began his TV career as a script editor and occasional writer for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-9), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-7), The Buccaneers (1956-7) and Sword of Freedom (1958) in the UK in the 1950s. As detailed in the interview below, he was a key figure in the network of communication linking Hannah Weinstein and Sapphire Films, both based in London, and Ring Lardner Jr., lan McLellan Hunter and the other blacklistees, most of them based in the US, who wrote scripts for these shows. On leaving the UK in the 1958, Ruben worked as story editor on Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-63), as story editor, associate producer and occasional screenwriter on Have Gun, Will Travel (1957-63), as a writer on The Nurses (1962-5) and Espionage (1963), as a staff writer on The Defenders (1961-5), as a writer on For the People (1965), WVPO (1967-9) and Streets of San Francisco (1972-7), and as writer and producer on Kojak (1973-8). He currently lives in New York. This interview with Ruben was conducted by David Marc in 1998. It is one of a series of interviews in the Steven H. Scheuer Television History Collection at Syracuse University. A set of endnotes has been added. Edits, amendment and additions are marked by the use of square brackets; spellings in the original transcription have been altered where necessary to conform to the Film Studies house style. Our thanks go to David Marc and Syracuse University for permission to publish the interview and to Paul Buhle for drawing it to our attention.
Interview by David Marc, 9 March 1998, New York City
David Marc: Tell us a little about your childhood and upbringing.
Albert G. Ruben: I was brought up in Santa Monica, California. Attended Santa Monica public schools. Not very exciting or interesting. [ ] Santa Monica at that time was largely dominated demographically by people who had moved out from the Midwest. The main industry in the city was Douglas Aircraft.
DM: What years are we talking about?
AR: '35 until I went into the army in '44.
DM: Was the...