Brimner - Blacklisted!: Hollywood, the Cold War, and the First Amendment

If a man is a Communist and denies his affiliation before the committee, he has committed perjury and will go to jail. If he answers affirmatively, the second question put to him will be Who else?

Dalton Trumbo

Text copyright 2018 by Larry Dane Brimner

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For all who cherish the Constitution of the United States and the freedoms it guarantees.

LDB

It is a very dangerous precedent when a government body without any judicial function assumes one and still claims it is not subject to any rules of judicial procedure.

Gordon Kahn

Although Russia had been Americas ally against Nazi Germany in World War II, a communist scaresometimes called the Red Scare or Red Menace based on the main color of the Soviet Unions flagswept the United States immediately following the war. Russias influence in the world was expanding, and communist governments were springing up in countries around the globe. In communism as it was practiced in the Soviet Union in 1947, the government owned all industries and property as part of its attempt to create a society where everyone was equal; private ownership of property was forbidden. Some people in the United States worriedthat communists had infiltrated key positions in government and businesses in order to sway public thinking against Americas system of free enterprise, where private businesses compete mostly without the interference of the government. The House of Representatives gave its Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) the task of looking into whether communists had infiltrated American society, and where. The HUACs investigations and hearings were supposed to lead to new laws to combat this communist threat.

THE PLAYERS

THE COMMITTEE

J. PARNELL THOMAS, Republican, New Jersey; Chairman KARL E. MUNDT, Republican, South Dakota JOHN MCDOWELL, Republican, Pennsylvania RICHARD M. NIXON, Republican, California RICHARD B. VAIL, Republican, Illinois JOHN S. WOOD, Democrat, Georgia JOHN E. RANKIN, Democrat, Mississippi J. HARDIN PETERSON, Democrat, Florida HERBERT C. BONNER, Democrat, North Carolina ROBERT E. STRIPLING, Chief Investigator and Permanent Secretary

THE NINETEEN SUBPOENAED WITNESSES

ALVAH BESSIE, screenwriter*HERBERT BIBERMAN, screenwriter*BERTOLT BRECHT, playwright, director LESTER COLE, screenwriter*RICHARD COLLINS, screenwriter EDWARD DMYTRYK, director*GORDON KAHN, screenwriter HOWARD KOCH, screenwriter RING LARDNER JR., screenwriter*JOHN HOWARD LAWSON, screenwriter*ALBERT MALTZ, screenwriter*LEWIS MILESTONE, director SAMUEL ORNITZ, screenwriter*LARRY PARKS, actor IRVING PICHEL, director ROBERT ROSSEN, director WALDO SALT, screenwriter ADRIAN SCOTT, producer*DALTON TRUMBO, screenwriter*

*denotes one of the Hollywood Ten

ATTORNEYS FOR THE NINETEEN

BARTLEY C. CRUMCHARLES J. KATZROBERT W. KENNYBEN MARGOLISMARTIN POPPERSAMUEL ROSENWEIN

On October 20, 1947, the city of Washington was tense as the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) prepared to begin its investigation into alleged subversive influence in Americas motion-picture industry. Screenwriter Gordon Kahn, an eyewitness to the HUAC hearings, described the atmosphere in the District of Columbia as like that on the eve of a coronationor an important hanging. By nine oclock that fall morning, a long line of spectators crowded into the rotunda on the second floor of the Cannon House Office Building. They were waiting to be admitted to the Caucus Room, where the hearings would be held, and perhaps to catch sight of a Hollywood celebrity.