Eisenstein proposed a biography of munitions invester Sir Basil Zaharoff and a movie version of "Arms and the Man" by George Bernard Shaw. He also made plans for a movie of "Sutter's Gold" by Jack London. But the studio's producers did not like the plan. Paramount then proposed a movie version of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy". This excited Eisenstein, who had read and liked the work, and had met Dreiser at one time in Moscow. Eisenstein completed a script by the start of October 1930. Paramount disliked it completely. They also found themselves intimidated by Major Frank Pease, president of the "Hollywood Technical Director's Institute". Pease, an anti-communist, started a public campaign against Eisenstein. On October 23, 1930, Paramount and Eisenstein declared their contract canceled. Eisenstein and his movie partners were given return tickets to Moscow, at Paramount's expense.