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Alan Schwartz ’53: Commitment, Communication, and Comedic Encounters

“I was driving down the street with my wife, when she gasped and pointed up to the large advertisement for Mel Brooks’ new film SpaceBalls, which displayed in huge letters ‘May the Schwartz be with you.’” Alan Schwartz ’53, a famed entertainment lawyer, returned to Cornell on October 22^nd to speak in the Munschauer Career Series. Schwartz, whose practice focuses on entertainment, intellectual property, corporate and tax law, has represented and made close connections with numerous integral figures in our culture, including Tennessee Williams, Watson and Cricks, Mel Brooks, and Truman Capote.

Schwartz is a strong proponent of a liberal arts education, as he said, “the best education is one where you are open to all possibilities, where your empathy for others’ ideas and your own can make you understand more about how the world works and how you fit into it.” At Cornell, Schwartz was a member of “Water Margin,” a vibrant organization that dealt with breaking down racial and religious barriers.

Schwartz tells innumerable tales of adventure and unbelievable hilarity, stories you would assume only originate from a movie script.  After working at Greenbaum, Ernst, and Wolff’s law firm for only a few months, Schwartz was asked by one of the partners to take an impromptu trip to Havana to retrieve a concealed record regarding the unsolved disappearance of a Spanish author.  “Listen,” Schwartz said. “I was a liberal arts major, so I flew to Havana.”

So there he was, in a Cuban bar, talking to mysterious man with three names: ‘Flourice Fogerty Friedman,” when a few hours later Schwartz receives a phone call dictating, “You are to be kidnapped by Castro.” Long story short, Schwartz fled the situation as fast as he could, but learned a special lesson: don’t believe everything that is said to you or happens to you.

Schwartz recounted to the crowded Goldwin Smith Hall Auditorium of the day that distinguished producer Mel Brooks stepped foot in his office, at the time only a bizarre unknown with the desire to produce Springtime for Hitler: The musical. Schwartz was amused by Brooks’ comedic, whimsical idea because of the open-mindedness his Cornell education supplied him with, he said. Of course, this script eventually evolved into The Producers, and since then, Schwartz and Brooks have maintained an extremely close working relationship.

Walking across Cornell’s campus sixty-one years ago, Schwartz peered towards a stone wall marked with a quote, which in English states, “Nothing human is alien to me.” For Schwartz, this is the epitome of a liberal arts education; to keep your mind and emotions open, whatever you are, and to absorb the world and walk away with as much as you can. And to conclude with Schwartz’s closing remarks:  May the Schwartz be with you.