Ben Margolis (April 23, 1910 – January 27, 1999) was an American attorney, best known for defending the

Hollywood Ten The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

and the Sleepy Lagoon murder suspects and for helping to draft the

United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...

Career

Margolis had a law partnership for half a century with John T. McTernan. In the early years of the Second Red Scare Margolis testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on September 30, 1952, and refused to answer questions or name names. He told the committee that he had "no intention of becoming one of your stool pigeons," and he told them that they had "terrorized ... the people of the United States."

Personal life

Margolis commissioned a noteworthy home by architect

Gregory Ain Gregory Samuel Ain (March 28, 1908 – January 9, 1988) was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium- ...

which was built by his partner James Garrott in 1951. The two architects had been partners for 11 years at the time, and were alternately "Garrott & Ain" or "Ain & Garrott," depending on who was responsible for design, while on other projects they simply assisted each other's solo work without credit. Ain drew the preliminary drawings for the Margolis house in February 1951, but as Garrott later recalled Ain "got cold feet because of the McCarthy hearings." Garrott took over the project, executed the working drawings, and supervised the construction. Garrott is the only architect named on the original building permits and also the only architect named in a 2004 book titled African American Architects, but Ben Margolis' son Ken, who was ten years old at the time the house was built, knew Ain to be the architect.

References

Additional Sources

*University of California, Special Collections (1984). "Law and Social Conscience, Ben Margolis". Interview with Margolis conducted by Michael S. Balter. Availabl
online

1946 photo of Ben Margolis
at Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection 1910 births 1999 deaths California lawyers American communists 20th-century American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub