New York — The central query in 1947, because the Home Un-American Actions Committee investigated alleged Communist affect in Hollywood, was: “Are you a member of the Communist Get together?”
Chaired by Republican Rep. John Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, the committee ultimately led to a Hollywood blacklist, now the main focus of a new exhibit on the New York Historic Society.
“The exhibit actually tells the story of the Hollywood Ten,” Louise Mirrer, president of the New York Historic Society, instructed CBS Information, of a bunch of 10 Hollywood writers and administrators. “And the cost was for the Hollywood Ten, that they had been making films that espoused the Communist viewpoint.”
The Hollywood Ten refused to reply the committee’s questions. They had been held in contempt of Congress, every sentenced from anyplace between six months to a 12 months in jail, and blacklisted by studio executives.
“I feel it had an unlimited impact,” Anne Lessy, who helped curate the exhibit, instructed CBS Information of the influence of the blacklist. “When you needed to be part of the movie business, you basically forfeited your privateness and your proper to your personal political concepts and affiliations.”
Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of many Hollywood Ten, spent 10 months in jail. His daughter, Mitzi, was 5 years outdated on the time. Her drawings and letters to him are on show within the exhibit, in addition to testimony from those that named suspected Communists.
“In an effort to save lots of themselves, their careers and their reputations, many, you understand, creatives felt compelled to call names, which is what the committee needed,” Lessy mentioned.
Even Walt Disney famously testified earlier than the committee.
“Walt Disney very a lot objected to labor organizing that had taken place in his studios and blamed it on Communist infiltration,” Lessy mentioned. “And you then even have Ronald Reagan, who on the time, was president of the Display Actors Guild. Whereas he did not identify names in public, he did to the committee’s investigator. And he went on to very a lot endorse the anti-Communist campaign.”
The blacklist later expanded to incorporate classically educated pianist Hazel Scott, the primary Black entertainer to have a nationally syndicated TV present. However the present was canceled after she was named in an anti-Communist pamphlet.
As soon as out of jail, Trumbo used pseudonyms to write down the Academy Award-winning movies “The Courageous One” and “Roman Vacation.”
“So it took about 4 a long time…for the Academy Awards to lastly acknowledge Dalton Trumbo,” Lessy mentioned. “And…that was seen as the start of eroding of the committee’s energy.”
The influence of the Crimson Scare additionally prolonged past Hollywood.
“Numerous common Individuals received caught up on this anti-Communist fervor, members of labor unions, highschool lecturers,” Lessy mentioned. “School professors additionally got here beneath scrutiny. There was a widely known publication known as Crimson Channels that would supply very detailed info on a variety of creatives. And so even simply your identify showing in one among these publications was sufficient to get you blacklisted.”
By the Sixties, as the Red Scare had light, so too did the blacklist’s energy. And in 1975, the Home Un-American Actions Committee was abolished.
“I feel it [the Hollywood blacklist] raises vital questions on find out how to defend a sturdy democracy,” Lessy mentioned. “How can we defend our rights and freedoms, significantly freedom of speech…When you maintain unpopular views, do you have to be punished? Must you lose your job? These are all questions we ought to be wrestling with.”
