Robert Leicester Wagner (1872-1942) was the editor and publisher of Script, a weekly literary film magazine published in Beverly Hills, California, between 1929 and 1949.Rob Wagner was a magazine writer, screenwriter, director and artist before founding the liberal magazine that focused its coverage on the film industry and California and national politics. Its leftist leanings attracted many of the best artists and writers during the Depression.
While accompanying Charlie Chaplin on a Liberty Bond tour in April 1918, the U.S. Justice Department and War Department kept Wagner under 24-hour surveillance as a suspected German agent because of his alleged pro-German statements and activities as a militant Socialist.
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The subject of the book "Hollywood Bohemia: The Roots of Progressive Politics in Rob Wagner's Script.".
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A committed Socialist, Rob Wagner served as an editor of the Los Angeles-based The Western Comrade magazine from 1913-1914 and contributor to many leftist publications. He was also active in Upton Sinclair's campaign for Califormia governor in 1934. During World War I he was called before a federal grand jury on suspicion of sedition for his outspoken support of Socialist and Bolshevik activists.
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Rob Wagner's documentary film, "Our Wonderful Schools" (1915), won a bronze medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition fair in San Francisco.
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