- When, in his old age, Elia Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar, she was one of the most vociferous and eloquent critics of the award, and was interviewed on British television about it.
- She met and married screenwriter Ben Barzman. Between the years 1949 and 1976 they lived in London, Paris, and Mougins (France), having been blacklisted from Hollywood. They had seven children.
- It was Dmytryk who testified about the Barzmans to HUAC in early 1951. The director had returned to the U.S. and was in prison on the Hollywood 10 contempt charge. "In order to get out of prison he named us and a lot of other people," said Barzman.
- She and her husband Ben first became aware that the police were on their case when they were tipped off by a young actress, also called Norma, who was on her way to a party the Minellis were throwing to celebrate the arrival of their new daughter, Liza. Spotting the Barzmans having an alfresco gin and tonic, the actress told them that she had been stopped by cops at the bottom of their street and asked if she was going to visit them. Two years later, in exile, Ben spotted a photo of the actress in a newspaper. She had changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
- She wrote the screenplay to the 1953 Italian production "Finishing School" and episodes of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" while raising seven children.
- It was the Depression-era drama "Christ in Concrere" based on the Pietro Di Donato novel that brought the Barzmans and their two small children to England in early 1949. "Christ in Concrete" won acclaim and prizes in Europe. Released as "Give Us This Day'" in England and the U.S., "it was only shown for two weeks in an all-night movie theater in New York," said Barzman. The movie was the first blacklist exile film.
- It was during the communist witch hunts that many progressive writers, actors, directors and producers under scrutiny decided to go into exile in hopes of continuing their careers. Some moved to Europe, including directors Jules Dassin and Joseph Losey, and screenwriters Ben and Norma Barzman. Others such as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo went to Mexico.
- After obtaining her FBI files, Norma Barzman "discovered they followed us in Paris. We moved around a lot, and they knew every telephone number and every address. They knew everything we did from 1949 to 1954 until we bought our house in Paris." And to complicate matters, the U.S. Embassy took away her passport in 1951 for seven years.
- Barzman wrote the 2003 autobiography "The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate" and has been a leader in getting blacklisted writers' credits restored to films that were released with a "front" name.
- She was active in the film industry in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
- She became pals with Sophia Loren while her husband Ben was writing the screenplay for El Cid, and the photographer Robert Capa stroked her pregnant belly for good luck on his way to a night of gambling.
- Her husband wrote also screenplays, but he was depressed and bitter in exile.
- Barzman appeared during the UCLA Film and Television Archive's "Hollywood Exiles in Europe" series in July-Aug. 2014.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content