• • • Ayn Rand’s Hollywood years 
Steven Kurutz, Wall Street Journal - Speakeasy Altruism  |Ayn Rand Institute  |The Fountainhead  |We The Living  |Personal life  |Image  |Video  | Interview with Ayn Rand biographer Anne C. Heller.If Ayn Rand was criticized for writing unrealistic plot lines and one-dimensional characters in her novels, she likely took inspiration from her background: Rand spent her early years in America as a Hollywood screenwriter. In a fortuitous bit of timing, the Russian émigré met director Cecil B. DeMille two days after arriving in Los Angeles, in 1926, and was soon on the set of his biblical epic, “King of Kings.” DeMille hired Rand as a junior screenwriter, and she was paid $25 a week to work on scripts like “His Dog,”a piece of studio fluff about an ex-con reformed through love for his pooch.   Published: 2009-11-15