Dalton Trumbo was born in 1905 in Montrose, Colorado, an hour south of this bathtub.
His family moved to Grand Junction when he was three. He grew up and graduated from high school there, and wrote for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
He continued writing as an adult and became an accomplished novelist — Johnny Got His Gun, an anti-war novel, won a National Book Award in 1939. His greatest success, however, came as a screenwriter. He wrote screenplays for Hollywood movies including Roman Holiday, Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
Controversy surrounded his work for Hollywood, though, due to his political advocacy. Accused — accurately, as he admitted — of Communist sympathies during the Red Scare period of the 1940’s and 50’s, Trumbo was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to provide information on other communist sympathizers, denounced the congressional committee, and was convicted of contempt of Congress. His appeal to the Supreme Court failed, and he spent eleven months in a federal penitentiary. His reaction: “As far as I was concerned, it was a completely just verdict. I had contempt for that Congress and have had contempt for several years since.”
Nine other writers experienced the same fate. They, along with Trumbo, were “blacklisted,” which meant the entertainment industry refused to hire them, and they became known as the Hollywood Ten. As time went on, over 100 other professionals were blacklisted, as well.
Trumbo wrote some of his most successful screenplays during the blacklist period. Two, Roman Holiday and The Brave One, won Academy Awards for best story, but they were attributed to other writers. Eventually, through support in the early 1960’s from director Otto Preminger and actor Kirk Douglas, he was properly credited for his work.
Dalton Trumbo was known to write his screenplays in the bathtub, and the sculpture shown here is based on a photo taken in his home in 1967. The work was installed in front of the Avalon movie theater on Grand Junction’s Main Street in 2007.
As you can see, the sculpture is outside, and winters in Grand Junction are cold. The polished handles on the bathtub faucet, however, suggest that passers-by have tried to warm up Dalton’s bath water.
