1. Sonya Levien became one of the highest earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and would help a number of directors and film stars transition from silent films to talkies.
42 Facts About Sonya Levien
1. 2.
Sonya Levien's father had a remote connection with a radical newspaper as well as agreeing with the anarchist ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin.
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Sonya Levien's grandfather instructed her in Russian, French, German, and Hebrew as well as encouraged her to read from the Talmud and the Shulhan' Aruk on a daily basis.
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Sonya Levien brought the rest of his family over in 1896, where they joined him on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
5.
Sonya Levien worked in a feather-duster factory throughout her teenage years, making four dollars each week.
6.
Sonya Levien took out a loan for $36 in order to learn stenography and get a job as a secretary.
7.
Sonya Levien managed to take some classes at the Educational Alliance where, in 1903, she met Rose Pastor.
8.
Sonya Levien began to write her own work by sending in short comedic squibs to Life and with these earnings was able to contribute to her college tuition and her family's well-being.
9.
Sonya Levien read manuscripts, rewrote articles, sometimes even collaborated with an author.
10.
Sonya Levien worked there in 1912 as an assistant editor and business manager.
11.
Sonya Levien worked on the National Board of Censorship as an Educational Secretary.
12.
However, when World War I commenced, Sonya Levien was working in London covering the British Suffragist movement for fourteen months in 1913 and 1914.
13.
Sonya Levien returned to America in 1914 and focused her creative efforts on writing.
14.
Sonya Levien sent stories to a number of publications including Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Harpers, Cosmopolitan, Atlantic Monthly, and Century.
15.
Sonya Levien then moved onto writing melodramas, although her success in this endeavor was not immediate.
16.
Sonya Levien worked tirelessly and received three Hollywood credits for The Snow Bride, Pink Gods, and The Exciters.
17.
Sonya Levien made a great many changes to the plot, however reviews for the film highlighted the directing and not the script work.
18.
Sonya Levien found herself with regular work and as the main breadwinner in the family.
19.
Sonya Levien worked her first four years back in Hollywood with the name Sonya Hovey for a number of different studios.
20.
Sonya Levien worked for him until June 1928 and during this time experimented in genre.
21.
Sonya Levien was elected to the board of The Writer's Club and in May 1929 was offered a contract at Fox Film Corp.
22.
Nonetheless, Sonya Levien became one of the top writers which allowed her to work alongside big stars and well-known directors.
23.
Sonya Levien worked with directors Allan Dwan and John Ford.
24.
Sonya Levien garnered a reputation for being able to adapt all kinds of material into a film screenplay, although she was not known for her prowess at dialogue.
25.
Sonya Levien worked at length with Frank Borzage on Lucky Star, only to have it be labelled Frank Borzage's Lucky Star.
26.
Sonya Levien helped not only Borzage, but Will Rogers, transition to sound films.
27.
Sonya Levien's films were known for dealing with family conflicts.
28.
In 1933, still employed by Fox Studios, Sonya Levien would receive an Oscar nomination for State Fair.
29.
Sonya Levien penned John Ford's first Technicolor film in 1939, Drums Along the Mohawk.
30.
Sonya Levien worked for RKO, working on Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939 as well.
31.
Sonya Levien then went on to sign a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941.
32.
Sonya Levien garnered an impressive filmography, having worked on over 70 films spanning her career, a great deal of the time without a collaborator.
33.
Sonya Levien married her husband Carl Hovey on 11 October 1917.
34.
Sonya Levien has described herself as one who enjoys music, singing and playing the piano, as well as reading biographies.
35.
Sonya Levien generally avoided confrontation and arguments with her acquaintances, and shied away from talking on the telephone.
36.
Those she worked with stated that Sonya Levien was easy to work with and would help out others often.
37.
Sonya Levien's husband died in 1956 and she developed cancer in the mid 1950s.
38.
Sonya Levien died on 19 March 1960 at the age of 71.
39.
Sonya Levien was a Secular Jew who was very interested in activism in her early years, living on the East Side of New York.
40.
Sonya Levien describes her natural pull to more radical views, joining a group of agitators formed majorly of socialists but which included anarchists and single-taxers.
41.
Sonya Levien was known for supporting the suffragette cause in the early 20th century.
42.
Sonya Levien belonged to the Heterodoxy club, which was a debate group focusing on radical feminism.