Reply #4: Weird coincidence... [View All]

The Blacklisting of Hollywood's Talent

In September of 1947, the Primary hearings of the Communist Infiltration of Hollywood Motion Picture Industry saw so-labelled "friendly witnesses" testifying. Known friendly witnesses were Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer (representing the studio heads), Ronald Reagan (head of the Screen Actors Guild), Robert Montgomery, Lela Rogers (mother of Ginger Rogers), Walt Disney, Adolphe Menjou, Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor. These men brought mass publicity and answered questions openly, willingly and honestly. They were treated with respect and many read pre-compiled answers. Not at any time were they under suspicion. Immediately, out of the 41 subpoenaed witnesses, the committee singled out nineteen known, leftist directors, producers, screenwriters and actors as enemies of the state or communists. They were declared to be "unfriendly", meaning they would refuse to answer questions about their political beliefs. Eleven of the nine were questioned about their connection with the Communist party. As a direct result, their lives were greatly affected. Bertolt Brecht, the German emigrant playwright, was the only person of the eleven "unfriendly" witnesses who answered questions while on the stand. After claiming he wasn't a communist, he immediately returned to East Germany. The remaining ten "unfriendlys" acquired the name "The Hollywood Ten". The Hollywood Ten consisted of one director (Edward Dmytryk) and nine screenwriters (Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornintz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo). Claiming their Fifth Amendment rights at the stand, they refused to answer any and all questions. Gordon Kahn also used the same excuse for not answering.

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These are only a few of the 324 blacklisted persons of the Hearings of Communist Inflitration in the Motion Picture Industry. It is speculated that over 200 more were blacklisted through other forms in the media. These people are Academy-Award winners, classic film makers, and staples in the form of how films are made. There is no complete list of the names of the banned, here is to name a few people that were definately blacklisted (the Hollywood Ten is in bold); Orson Bean, Herschel Bernardi, Walter Bernstein, John Berry, Alvah Bessie, Herbert J. Biberman, Charles Bickford, Marc Blitzstein, Joe Edward Bromberg, Phoebe Brand, Bertolt Brecht, Peter Brocco, Phil Brown, Sidney Buchman, Hugo Butler, Jean Butler, Morris Carnovsky, Lee Cobb, Lester Cole, Richard Collins, Jeff Corey, John Cromwell, Howard Da Silva, Edward Dmytryk, Paul Draper, John Henry Faulk (radio personality), Jerry Fielding, Betty Garett, Bernard Gordon, Lloyd Gough, John Garfield, Lee Grant, John Howard Lawson, Robert Lees, Philip Loeb, Josep h Losey, Marsha Hunt, Sam Jaffe, Paul Jarrico, Gordon Kahn, Victor Kilian, Howard Koch, Tony Kraber, Ring Lardner Jr., Louise Lewis, Albert Maltz, Arnold Manoff, Burgess Meredith, Lewis Milestone, Pamela Miller, Karen Morley, Zero Mostel, Jean Muir, Frank O'Connor, Clifford Odets, Samuel Ornitz, Alfred Palca, Larry Parks, Irving Pichel, Abraham Polonsky, Robert Presnell Jr., Ayn Rand, John Randolph, Martin Ritt, Anne Revere, Bob Roberts, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Rossen, Waldo Salt, Adrian Scott, Joshua Shelley, Gale Sondergaard, Frank Tarloff, Dorothy Tree, Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson, Richard Wright and Nedrick Young. So much talent was put on hold for a decade or more.

http://home.earthlink.net/~tenspeed/SimonaSara/blacklist.htm