Hollywood Blacklist

The Hollywood Blacklist affected numerous producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals in the 1940s and 1950s.  Those on the list were denied employment from the studios based on their real or suspected political associations and beliefs.  Anyone who was considered to be sympathetic towards the American Communist Party or involved in any humanitarian efforts associated with that party were put on the blacklist. 

The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was formed in 1938 with the sole purpose to investigate and get rid of Communist sympathizers in America. They strongly felt that liberal ideas were being portrayed in Hollywood films that threatened traditional American society.  In 1947, the HUAC established the first Hollywood Blacklist and instantly went after ten writers and directors that refused to testify to the committee about their political affiliation and was cited for being in contempt of Congress.  These writers and directors were known as the “Hollywood Ten.” The Ten consisted of Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biderman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. 

The HUAC held hearings with individuals in the film industry that were being accused of being members or affiliated with the Communist Party, and incorporating sympathetic material in their films.  

J Parnell Thomas, HUAC Chairman

Opening hearings on Hollywood, October 1947

Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter, HUAC testimony, October 1947

In November 1947, fifty members of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Association of Motion Pictures Producers, and the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York and issued the Waldorf Statement, accusing the Ten for performing “a disservice to their employees” and impairing “their usefulness to the industry.”  According to the statement, “We will forthwith discharge or suspend without compensation those (of the Ten) in our employ and we will not re-employ any of the ten until such time as he is acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declared under oath that he is not a Communist.”  They threatened not to hire a Communist or anyone that advocates the overthrow of the United States Government.  The very same day MGM suspended Trumbo and refused to pay him $60,000 in fees, Fox fired Lardner, and RKO fired Dmytryk and Scott. 

The Ten ultimately were cited for contempt after numerous unsuccessful appeals and each spent up to a year in prison.  As a result of the blacklist, actors Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, and director John Houston formed “The Committee for the First Amendment” to protest against the accusations made against the film industry.  Protest efforts failed and the lives and professional careers of individuals persecuted were forever changed.  On June 22, 1950, a pamphlet called Red Channels appeared that named 151 entertainment industry professionals that were accused of being Communist sympathizers.  Many of them were not able to resume their film career because Communism was believed to be the biggest threat to American society; those on the blacklist were perceived as having leftist viewpoints and thought of as traitors by the American public. 

Anticommunist ad (1950)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist

Blacklisting changed the lives of hundreds of movie industry professionals.  Many faced constant harassment from the FBI and were rejected by their own society.  The blacklisting practices continued well throughout the 1950s.  The first signs of the ending of the blacklist started in the late 1950s.  First, John Henry Faulk, a comedy radio host, sued AWARE (private firm that examined “disloyal” individuals) in 1957 and won the lawsuit in 1962.  The court decided that blacklisters were legally liable for the professional and financial damaged caused.  Many individuals who were blacklisted found work in television, mainly at CBS.  For example, Alfred Hitchcock hired blacklisted actor Norman Lloyd as an associate producer for the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  Dalton Trumbo was publicly acknowledged as the screenwriter for the films Spartacus and Exodus in 1960.  Unfortunately, not everyone was able to find work.  Lionel Stander, for instance, could not find work in Hollywood until 1965.

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families protesting in 1950.

           

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist

In December 2011, the Writers Guild of America announced that they have restored full screenplay credit to Dalton Trumbo for his work on Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, almost sixty years after it won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and thirty-five years after his death.  While Trumbo was blacklisted he worked under different names or without credit.  For the Roman Holiday, another writer fronted for Trumbo and secretly sent him the payment for the work.  The original credit stated: “Screenplay by Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton. Story by Ian McLellan Hunter.”  The full credit to the film now reads: “Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter; Story by Dalton Trumbo.”  President of the Writer’s Guild of America West stated, “It is not in our power to erase the mistakes or the suffering of the past, but we can make amends, we can pledge not to fall prey again to the dangerous power of fear or to the impulse to censor, even if that pledge is really only a hope. And, in the end, we can give credit where credit is due.”

Dalton Trumbo

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Works Cited

http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/12/19/30417/blacklisted-writer-gets-credit-restored-oscar-winn/

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v039/39.2lewis.html

http://www.hollywoodmoviememories.com/articles/hollywood-history/hollywood-blacklist-witch-hunt.php

http://www.wga.org/subpage_writersresources.aspx?id=1958

http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-reactionism/19471000_HUAC_Hollywood_Testimony.html

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1225550