The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-01
MOSCOW AND ME
A Noted
American Writer
Relates His
Experiences

jul for the four months of our con-
tract, fare in dollars reimbursed, and
sent home via Paris, some few still
continued to weep in the Harlem
papers about the evils of Moscow
which housed a film company that
would not make bad picture from a
weak fscenario-so they could act in
it.
One can understand that attitude,
however, SO great is the urge to go
in the movies, even among us Ne
groeS. Many an aspirant has left
Hollywood cursing Metro Goodwin
Mayer. But between leaving Holly
wood and Moscow there is this diff
ference. Many disappointed would
be screen stars depart from Holly
wood hungry Our Negro artists left
Moscow well-fed, we'll paid, and well
entertained, having been given free
excursions that included Odessa, the
Black Sea, Central Asia, Tiflis, and
Dnieprostroy. They went home via
London, Paris. or Berlin. Or they
could have stayed (and several did
with offers of parts in other films or
Jobs in Moscow. But I hear from
New York that few are still mad
because they could not Immediately
star in BLACK and White" be the
scenario good or bad.
o, Movies. Temperaments. Artists.
Ambitions. Scenarios. Directors, pro-
ducers, advisors, actors, censors,
changes, reyisions, conferences. It's
a complicated art-the cinema. I'm
glad I write poems.
AFTER three months Of the movies,
IA was delighted to pack my bags
and go off on a plain prose writing
assignment to Central Asia for a
study Of the new life there around
Bukhara and Samarkand-sociali
tearing down the customs Of ages;
yelled women, concubinage, mosques,
Allah-worSfip, and illiteracy disap-
pearing When came back to Mos
COW in the winter, those of our Ne
gro group who had remained, seven
in all, had settled down comfortably
to life in the Soviet capital Dorothy
west was writing, Mildred Jones TAX
ing screen tests for a new picture
Long, tall Patterson, who paints
houses, had married a girl who paints
pictures, and together they have ex-
ecuted some of the finest decorations
for the May Day celebration. Way
land Rudd was studying singing, fenc-
ing and dancing, and taking a role
in. new Meyerhold play. Mckenzie
stayed in the films, working for
Meschrabpom. And Homer Smith, as
a special consultant in the Central
Post Office, was supervising the in
s1aHation of an American special de-
livery system for Moscow mail. So the
Negroes made themselves at home.
Some were getting fat.
After five months in Asia, I was
glad to be back in Moscow again
great, busting city comparable in
some ways to Chicago, Cleveland or
New York. But very different, too.
For instance, in the American cities
money. is the powerful and respected
thing In Moscow, work is powerful
and not money. One can have ever
SO many rubles and still find many
places and pleasures closed to him.
Food, lodging, theatre tickets, medi-
cal service, all the things that dollars
buy at home, are easily available in
Moscow only II one is worker and
has the proper papers from ones fac
tory, shop, office or trade union. I
ives glad I belonged to the Interna-
tional Union of Revolutionary Writ
erS. Credentials were far more i'm
portant than rubles.
can Doors Open to U.s."
And another thing that makes
Moscow different from Chicago or
Cleveland, or New York, is that in
the cities at slone Negroes-like me
must stay away from great many
places-hotels, clubs, parks, theatres.
factories. offices, and union halls
because they are not white. And in
Moscow all the doors are open to us
just the same. of course, and I find
myself forgetting that the Russians
are white folks. They're too damn
decent and polite. To walk into big
hotel without the doorman yelling
at me Cat my age). "Hey, boy,
where're you going?" Or to sit at the
table. in any public restaurant and
not be told, eve don't serve Negroes
here" Or to have the right Of seek
ing job at any factory or in any
office where 1 am qualified to work
and never be turned down on account
~ a.