Theatre Guild playhouse in 1924, an event attended by both Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York and Otto Kahn. In his play, Lawson explored the concept of Kahn as governor rather than Smith. Hollywood While Lawson was working in Hollywood, New Playwrights Theatre decided to produce his play, The International, with set design by John Dos Passos. It opened on January 12, 1928, and ran for twenty-seven performances. In 1928, Lawson moved to Hollywood, where he wrote scripts for films such as The Ship for Shanghai, Bachelor Apartment, and Goodbye Love. In the winter of 1930–1931, during the Great Depression, Lawson wrote Success Story. The Theatre Guild rejected the script, but Harold Clurman, a reader for them, had recently formed the Group Theatre and needed new scripts. Clurman and Lawson reworked the play during the summer of 1932, and Success Story opened on September 26, 1932, for 121 performances. Lawson also adapted his play, Success at Any Price, for film, writing the screenplay for the 1934 work. In 1933, Lester Cole, Samuel Ornitz, and Lawson helped to organize and become first presidents of the Screen Writers Guild. After Lawson was fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he moved to Washington, D.C. There he worked to have the group recognized by the National Labor Board for purposes of bargaining for screenwriters. While in D.C., Lawson's The Pure in Heart and Gentlewoman were being produced in New York. Lawson wrote The Pure in Heart while he was working on Success Story. The Theatre Guild agreed to produce the play, but closed it when the out-of-town tryout in Baltimore failed. After the Group Theatre also rejected the play, it was produced by Richard Aldrich and Alfred De Liagre. The Pure in Heart opened on March 20, 1933, and had a run of only seven performances. Gentlewoman, completed in association with D. A. Doran Jr, was produced by the Group Theatre and opened on March 22, 1934. It ran for twelve performances. During the 1930s, leftists accused Lawson of lacking ideological and political commitment. New Playwrights Theatre associate Mike Gold attacked him in The New Masses on April 10, 1934, describing him as "A Bourgeois Hamlet of Our Time", who wrote adolescent works that lacked moral fiber or clear ideas. Lawson responded a week later in The New Masses. In the article "'Inner Conflict' and Proletarian Art", he said his middle-class childhood prevented him from fully