Maurice Rapf

Maurice Harry Rapf (May 19, 1914 – April 15, 2003) was an American screenwriter and professor of film studies. His work includes the screenplays for early Disney live-action features Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart (1949), uncredited work on the screenplay for the animated feature Cinderella (1950), and several films of the late 1930s. He was a co-founder of the Screen Writers Guild. He was blacklisted in 1947 due to his association with the Communist Party USA. He later taught film studies at Dartmouth College.

Personal life Rapf was Jewish, the son of Harry Rapf, an executive and film producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and worked briefly for his father as a child actor. He had a brother Matthew Rapf, known for producing the TV series Kojak and other television and film work.

In 1934, while majoring in English at Dartmouth, Rapf visited the Soviet Union as an exchange student, where he was impressed by the presentation of Communism he was shown. Despite the danger to a Jew visiting Berlin at that time, he stopped there on the way home, an experience which he described in his autobiography as convincing him that Communism was the only thing capable of defeating Hitler, and greatly influenced his political views. He graduated in 1935, and moved to Hollywood.

In January 1939, he married actress Louise Seidel, a Catholic, over the objections of their parents.

In 1944 Rapf was recruited by Walt Disney to work on the screenplay for Song of the South (1946), from a treatment by screenwriting newcomer Dalton Reymond. According to journalist Neal Gabler, one of the reasons Disney hired Rapf was to temper what Disney feared would be Reymond's white Southern slant:Rapf was a minority, a Jew, and an outspoken left-winger, and he himself feared that the film would inevitably be Uncle Tomish. "That's exactly why I want you to work on it," Walt told him, "because I know that you don't think I should make the movie. You're against Uncle Tomism, and you're a radical." Rapf initially hesitated to work on an animated film, but when he found out that most of the film would be live-action and was told that he could make extensive changes, he accepted the offer.

In July 1946, Rapf was one of several people listed in a column by The Hollywood Reporter publisher William Wilkerson, identifying them as Communists and sympathizers. "Billy's List" formed the basis for what became the Hollywood Blacklist, and while Rapf was excused from testifying to the House Unamerican Activities Committee due to illness, being summoned effectively ended his career in the industry. So Dear to My Heart – 1948 Cinderella (uncredited) – 1950 My First Week at Dartmouth - 1951 Father Brown (aka, The Detective, uncredited) – 1954 Energetically Yours - 1957 The Salesman Isn't Dead, He's Different - 1965 The Era of Radical Change and the Corporation - 1967 The Automotive Mechanic and Technician: Careers in Automotive Service - 1967 Slavery and Slave Resistance - 1969 Gnomes – 1980