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The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry
blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a 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 Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
. The blacklist involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
s or sympathizers.
Actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...
s,
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...
s, directors,
musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wr ...
s, and other American entertainment professionals were barred from work by the studios. This was usually done on the basis of their membership in, alleged membership in, or sympathy with the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...
, or on the basis of their refusal to assist Congressional investigations into the party's activities. Even during the period of its strictest enforcement, from the late 1940s through to the late 1950s, the blacklist was rarely made explicit or easily verifiable, as it was the result of numerous individual decisions by the studios and was not the result of official legal action. Nevertheless, it quickly and directly damaged or ended the careers and income of scores of individuals working in the film industry.


Hollywood Ten

The first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on November 25, 1947, the day after ten writers and directors were cited for
contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of C ...
for refusing to testify before the
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...
(HUAC). These personalities were subpoenaed to appear before HUAC in October. The contempt citation included a criminal charge, which led to a highly publicized trial and an eventual conviction with a maximum of one year in jail in addition to a $1,000 fine. The Congressional action prompted a group of studio executives, acting under the aegis of the
Association of Motion Picture Producers The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade association based in Sherman Oaks, California, that represents over 350 American television and film production companies in collective bargaining negotiations with ent ...
, to fire the artists – the "Hollywood Ten" – and make what has become known as the
Waldorf Statement The Waldorf Statement was a two-page press release issued on 24 November 1947, by Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, following a closed-door meeting by forty-eight motion picture company executives at New York ...
. It was announced via a news release after the major producers met at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schult ...
and it included a condemnation of the personalities involved, effectively ostracizing those named from the industry. These producers instituted compulsory oaths of loyalty from their employees with the threat of a blacklist.


Blacklist

On June 22, 1950, a pamphlet entitled ''
Red Channels ''Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' was an anti-Communist document published in the United States at the start of the 1950s. Issued by the right-wing journal ''Counterattack'' on June 22, 1950, the pamphle ...
'' was published. Focused on the field of broadcasting, it identified 151 entertainment industry professionals in the context of "Red Fascists and their sympathizers". Soon, most of those named, along with a host of other artists, were barred from employment in most of the entertainment field. The blacklist lasted until 1960, when Dalton Trumbo, a Communist Party member from 1943 to 1948 and member of the Hollywood Ten, was credited as the screenwriter of the film ''
Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * E ...
'' (1960), and publicly acknowledged by actor
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...
for writing the screenplay for ''
Spartacus Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprisin ...
'' (also 1960). Many of those blacklisted, however, were still barred from work in their professions for years afterward.


History


Background

The Hollywood blacklist was rooted in events of the 1930s and the early 1940s, encompassing the height of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and World War II. Two major
film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, ...
strikes during the 1930s increased tensions between the Hollywood producers and the unions, particularly the
Screen Writers Guild The Screen Writers Guild was an organization of Hollywood screenplay authors, formed as a union in 1933. In 1954, it became two different organizations: Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East. Founding Screenwrite ...
. The
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...
(CPUSA) lost substantial support after the Moscow show trials of 1936–1938 and the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg , image_width = 200 , caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...
of 1939. The U.S. government began turning its attention to the possible links between Hollywood and the party during this period. Under then-chairman
Martin Dies, Jr. Martin Dies Jr. (November 5, 1900 – November 14, 1972), also known as Martin Dies Sr., was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and after ...
, the
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...
(HUAC) released a report in 1938 claiming that
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
was pervasive in Hollywood. Two years later, Dies privately took testimony from a former Communist Party member, John L. Leech, who named forty-two movie industry professionals as Communists. After Leech repeated his charges in supposed confidence to a Los Angeles grand jury, many of the names were reported in the press, including those of stars
Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
,
James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
,
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
,
Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchk ...
and
Fredric March Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, ...
, among other Hollywood figures. Dies said he would "clear" all those who co-operated by meeting with him in what he called "executive session". Within two weeks of the grand jury leak, all those on the list except for actress
Jean Muir Jean Elizabeth Muir ( ; 17 July 1928 – 28 May 1995) was a British fashion designer. Early life and career Jean Muir was born in London, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father ...
had met with the HUAC chairman. Dies "cleared" everyone except actor
Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series '' Hart to Hart''. Early ...
, who was fired by the movie studio,
Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...
, where he was under contract. In 1941, producer
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
took out an ad in ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', the industry trade magazine, declaring his conviction that "Communist agitation" was behind a cartoonists and animators' strike. According to historians Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, "In actuality, the strike had resulted from Disney's overbearing paternalism, high-handedness, and insensitivity."Ceplair and Englund (2003), pp. 157–158. Inspired by Disney, California State Senator
Jack Tenney Jack Breckinridge Tenney (April 1, 1898 – November 4, 1970) was an American politician who was noted for leading anti-communist investigations in California in the 1940s and early 1950s as head of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee ...
, chairman of the state legislature's Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, launched an investigation of "Reds in movies". The probe fell flat, and was mocked in several ''Variety'' headlines. The subsequent wartime alliance between the United States and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
brought the CPUSA newfound credibility. During the war, membership in the party reached a peak of 50,000. As World War II drew to a close, perceptions changed again, with communism increasingly becoming a focus of American fears and hatred. In 1945,
Gerald L. K. Smith Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. A leader of the populist Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depressi ...
, founder of the
neofascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration ...
America First Party, began giving speeches in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
assailing the "alien minded Russian Jews in Hollywood".
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
congressman
John E. Rankin John Elliott Rankin (March 29, 1882 – November 26, 1960) was a Democratic politician from Mississippi who served sixteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1921 to 1953. He was co-author of the bill for the Tennessee Valley A ...
, a member of HUAC, held a press conference to declare that "one of the most dangerous plots ever instigated for the overthrow of this Government has its headquarters in Hollywood ... the greatest hotbed of subversive activities in the United States". Rankin promised, "We're on the trail of the tarantula now". Reports of Soviet repression in Eastern and Central Europe in the war's aftermath added more fuel to what became known as the "
Second Red Scare McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...
". The growth of conservative political influence and the
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
triumph in the 1946 Congressional elections, which saw the party take control of both the
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...
and
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, led to a major revival of institutional anticommunist activity, publicly spearheaded by HUAC. The following year, the
Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPAPAI, also MPA) was an American organization of high-profile, politically conservative members of the Hollywood film industry. It was formed in 1944 for the stated purpose of d ...
(MPA), a political action group cofounded by Walt Disney, issued a pamphlet advising producers on the avoidance of "subtle communistic touches" in their films. Its counsel revolved around a list of ideological prohibitions, such as "Don't smear the free-enterprise system ... Don't smear industrialists ... Don't smear wealth ... Don't smear the profit motive ... Don't deify the 'common man' ... Don't glorify the collective".


Beginning (1946–1947)

On July 29, 1946, William R. Wilkerson, publisher and founder of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...
'', published a "TradeView" column entitled "A Vote For Joe Stalin". It named as Communist sympathizers Dalton Trumbo,
Maurice Rapf Maurice Harry Rapf (May 19, 1914 – April 15, 2003) was an American screenwriter and professor of film studies. His work includes the screenplays for early Disney live-action features ''Song of the South'' (1946) and '' So Dear to My Heart'' (19 ...
, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, Harold Buchman,
John Wexley John Wexley (1907 – February 4, 1985) was an American writer, best known for his play '' The Last Mile''. Early life and career Wexley was born in New York City. His early career involved acting as part of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Th ...
, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Meyers, Theodore Strauss, and John Howard Lawson. In August and September 1946, Wilkerson published other columns containing names of numerous purported Communists and sympathizers. They became known as "Billy's List" and "Billy's Blacklist". In 1962, when Wilkerson died, his ''THR'' obituary stated he had "named names, pseudonyms and card numbers and was widely credited with being chiefly responsible for preventing communists from becoming entrenched in Hollywood production – something that foreign film unions have been unable to do." In a 65th-anniversary article in 2012, Wilkerson's son apologized for the paper's role in the blacklist, stating that his father was motivated by revenge for his own thwarted ambition to own a studio. In October 1947, drawing upon the list named in ''The Hollywood Reporter'', the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed a number of persons working in the Hollywood film industry to testify at hearings. The committee had declared its intention to investigate whether Communist agents and sympathizers had been planting propaganda in American films. The hearings began with appearances by
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
and
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, then president of the
Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...
. Disney testified that the threat of Communists in the film industry was a serious one, and named specific people who had worked for him as probable Communists. Reagan testified that a small clique within his union was using "communist-like tactics" in attempting to steer union policy, but that he did not know if those (unnamed) members were communists or not, and that in any case he thought the union had them under control. (Later his first wife, actress
Jane Wyman Jane Wyman ( ; born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007)"Actress, P ...
, stated in her biography written with Joe Morella
985 Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...
that Reagan's allegations against friends and colleagues led to tension in their marriage, eventually resulting in their divorce.) Actor
Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley K ...
declared: "I am a witch hunter if the witches are Communists. I am a Red-baiter. I would like to see them all back in Russia." In contrast, other leading Hollywood figures, including director
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
and actors
Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
,
Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary ...
,
Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
and
Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
, organized the
Committee for the First Amendment The Committee for the First Amendment was an action group formed in September 1947 by actors in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). It was founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, ...
to protest the government's targeting of the film industry. Members of the committee, such as
Sterling Hayden Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for mos ...
, assured Bogart that they were not Communists. During the hearings, a local Washington paper reported that Hayden was a Communist. After returning to Hollywood, Bogart shouted at Danny Kaye, "You fuckers sold me out." The group came under attack as being naive or foolish. Under pressure from his studio, Warner Bros., to distance himself from the Hollywood Ten, Bogart negotiated a statement that did not denounce the committee, but said that his trip was "ill-advised, even foolish".
Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holly ...
told the group that "we oughta fold". Many of the film industry professionals in whom HUAC had expressed interest were alleged to have been members of the Communist Party USA. Of the 43 people put on the witness list, 19 declared that they would not give evidence. Eleven of these 19 were called before the committee. Members of the Committee for the First Amendment flew to Washington ahead of this climactic phase of the hearing, which commenced on Monday, October 27. Of the eleven "unfriendly witnesses", one, émigré playwright
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
, ultimately chose to answer the committee's questions (following which he left the country).Dick (1989), p. 7. The other ten refused, citing their
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
rights to
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
and assembly. Included among the questions they refused to answer was one now generally rendered as "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
?". The Committee formally accused these ten of
contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of C ...
, and began criminal proceedings against them in the full
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
. In light of the "Hollywood Ten"'s defiance of HUAC – in addition to refusing to testify, many had tried to read statements decrying the committee's investigation as unconstitutional – political pressure mounted on the film industry to demonstrate its "anti-subversive" bona fides. Late in the hearings,
Eric Johnston Eric Allen Johnston (December 21, 1896 – August 22, 1963) was a business owner, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, a Republican Party activist, president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and a U.S. governm ...
, president of the
Association of Motion Picture Producers The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade association based in Sherman Oaks, California, that represents over 350 American television and film production companies in collective bargaining negotiations with ent ...
(AMPP) (and
Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...
(MPAA)), declared to the committee that he would never "employ any proven or admitted Communist because they are just a disruptive force, and I don't want them around". On November 17, the Screen Actors Guild voted to make its officers swear a pledge asserting each was not a Communist. The following week, on November 24, the House of Representatives voted 346 to 17 to approve citations against the Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress. The next day, following a meeting of film industry executives at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, AMPP President Johnston issued a
press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
that is today referred to as the
Waldorf Statement The Waldorf Statement was a two-page press release issued on 24 November 1947, by Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, following a closed-door meeting by forty-eight motion picture company executives at New York ...
. Their statement said that the ten would be fired or suspended without pay and not re-employed until they were cleared of contempt charges and had sworn that they were not Communists. The first Hollywood blacklist was in effect.


Growth (1948–1950)

The HUAC hearings failed to turn up any evidence that Hollywood was secretly disseminating Communist propaganda, but the industry was nonetheless transformed. The fallout from the inquiry was a factor in the decision by
Floyd Odlum Floyd Bostwick Odlum (March 30, 1892 – June 17, 1976) was an American lawyer and industrialist. He has been described as "possibly the only man in the United States who made a great fortune out of the Depression". Life and career After strug ...
, the primary owner of
RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...
, to leave the industry. As a result, the studio passed into the hands of
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in t ...
. Within weeks of taking over in May 1948, Hughes fired most of RKO's employees and virtually shut the studio down for six months as he had the political sympathies of the rest investigated. Then, just as RKO swung back into production, Hughes made the decision to settle a long-standing federal antitrust suit against the industry's Big Five studios. This was one of the crucial steps in the collapse of the
studio system A studio system is a method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios. It is most often used in reference to Hollywood motion picture studios during the Golden Age of Hol ...
that had governed Hollywood for a quarter-century. In early 1948, all of the Hollywood Ten were convicted of contempt. Following a series of unsuccessful appeals, the cases arrived before the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
; among the submissions filed in defense of the ten was an
amicus curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision o ...
brief signed by 204 Hollywood professionals. After the court denied review, the Hollywood Ten began serving one-year prison sentences in 1950. One of the Ten, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, stated in the documentary film ''Hollywood On Trial'' (1976): In September 1950, one of the Ten, director
Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for '' Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywoo ...
, publicly announced that he had once been a Communist and was prepared to give evidence against others who had been as well. He was released early from jail; following his 1951 HUAC appearance, in which he described his brief membership in the party and named names, his career recovered. The others remained silent and most were unable to obtain work in the American film and television industry for many years.
Adrian Scott Robert Adrian Scott (February 6, 1911 – December 25, 1972) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses. Life and career Early life Scott was born ...
, who had produced four of Dmytryk's films – ''
Murder, My Sweet ''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The film ...
''; '' Cornered''; ''
So Well Remembered ''So Well Remembered'' is a 1947 British drama film starring John Mills, Martha Scott, and Trevor Howard. The film was based on James Hilton's 1945 novel of the same title and tells the story of a reformer and the woman he marries in a fictional ...
''; and ''
Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. S ...
'' – was one of those named by his former friend. Scott's next screen credit did not come until 1972 and he never produced another feature film. Some of those blacklisted continued to write for Hollywood or the broadcasting industry surreptitiously, using
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
s or the names of friends who posed as the actual writers (those who allowed their names to be used in this fashion were called "fronts"). Of the 204 who signed the amicus brief, 84 were themselves blacklisted. There was a more general chilling effect: Humphrey Bogart, who had been one of the most prominent members of the Committee for the First Amendment, felt compelled to write an article for ''
Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...
'' magazine denying he was a Communist sympathizer. The Tenney Committee, which had continued its state-level investigations, summoned songwriter
Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...
to testify about his participation in the committee. A number of non-governmental organizations participated in enforcing and expanding the blacklist; in particular, the
American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...
, the conservative war veterans' group, was instrumental in pressuring the entertainment industry to exclude communists and their sympathizers. In 1949, the Americanism Division of the Legion issued its own blacklist – a roster of 128 people whom it claimed were participants in the "Communist Conspiracy". Among the names on the Legion's list was that of the playwright
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
. Hellman had written or contributed to the screenplays of approximately ten motion pictures up to that point; she was not employed again by a Hollywood studio until 1966. Another influential group was American Business Consultants Inc., founded in 1947. In the subscription information for its weekly publication ''Counterattack'', "The Newsletter of Facts to Combat Communism", it declared that it was run by "a group of ''former'' FBI men. It has no affiliation whatsoever with any government agency." Notwithstanding that claim, it seems the editors of ''Counterattack'' had direct access to the files of both the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...
and HUAC; the results of that access became widely apparent with the June 1950 publication of ''
Red Channels ''Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' was an anti-Communist document published in the United States at the start of the 1950s. Issued by the right-wing journal ''Counterattack'' on June 22, 1950, the pamphle ...
''. This ''Counterattack'' spinoff listed 151 people in entertainment and broadcast journalism, along with records of their involvement in what the pamphlet meant to be taken as Communist or pro-Communist activities. A few of those named, such as Hellman, were already being denied employment in the motion picture, TV, and radio fields; the publication of ''Red Channels'' meant that scores more were placed on the blacklist. That year,
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
instituted a loyalty oath which it required of all its employees.
Jean Muir Jean Elizabeth Muir ( ; 17 July 1928 – 28 May 1995) was a British fashion designer. Early life and career Jean Muir was born in London, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father ...
was the first performer to lose employment because of a listing in ''Red Channels''. In 1950, Muir was named as a
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
sympathizer in the pamphlet, and was immediately removed from the cast of the television sitcom ''
The Aldrich Family ''The Aldrich Family'', a popular radio teenage situation comedy (July 2, 1939 – April 19, 1953), was also presented in films, television and comic books. In the radio series' opening exchange, awkward teen Henry's mother called, "Hen-''reeeee ...
'', in which she had been cast as Mrs. Aldrich. NBC had received between 20 and 30 phone calls protesting her being in the show.
General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...
, the sponsor, said that it would not sponsor programs in which "controversial persons" were featured. Though the company later received thousands of calls protesting the decision, it was not reversed.


HUAC return (1951–1952)

In 1951, with the U.S. Congress now under Democratic control, HUAC launched a second investigation of Hollywood and Communism. As actor
Larry Parks Samuel Lawrence Klausman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975) was an American stage and film actor. His career arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing, before it was virtually ended when he admitted to having once been ...
said when called before the panel,
Don't present me with the choice of either being in contempt of this committee and going to jail or forcing me to really crawl through the mud to be an informer. For what purpose? I don't think it is a choice at all. I don't think this is really sportsmanlike. I don't think this is American. I don't think this is American justice.
Parks ultimately testified, becoming, however reluctantly, a "friendly witness", and found himself blacklisted, nonetheless. In fact, the legal tactics of those refusing to testify had changed by this time; instead of relying on the First Amendment, they invoked the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination (although, as before, Communist Party membership was not illegal). While this usually allowed a witness to avoid "naming names" without being indicted for contempt of Congress, "taking the Fifth" before HUAC guaranteed one's membership on the industry blacklist. Historians at times distinguish between the relatively official blacklist – the names of those who (a) were called by HUAC and, in whatever manner, refused to co-operate and/or (b) were identified as Communists in the hearings – and the graylist – those others who were denied work because of their political or personal affiliations, real or imagined; the consequences, however, were largely the same. The graylist also refers more specifically to those who were denied work by the major studios, but could still find jobs on
Poverty Row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...
: Composer
Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...
, for instance, was called by HUAC when it was discovered that he had written some music reviews for a Communist newspaper. After he refused to name names, pointing out that he had never attended a Communist Party meeting, he found himself composing music for movies such as ''
Cat Women of the Moon ''Cat-Women of the Moon'' is an independently made 1953 American black-and-white three-dimensional science-fiction film, produced by Jack Rabin and Al Zimbalist, directed by Arthur Hilton, that stars Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, and Marie Windsor ...
''. Like Parks and Dmytryk, others also co-operated with the committee. Some friendly witnesses gave broadly damaging testimony with less apparent reluctance, most prominently director
Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
and screenwriter
Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...
. Their co-operation in describing the political leanings of their friends and professional associates effectively brought a halt to dozens of careers and compelled a number of artists to depart for Mexico or Europe. Others were also forced abroad in order to work. Director
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
was among the best known of these. Briefly a Communist, Dassin had left the party in 1939. He was immediately blacklisted after Edward Dmytryk and fellow filmmaker
Frank Tuttle Frank Wright Tuttle (August 6, 1892 – January 6, 1963) was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 (''The Cradle Buster'') to 1959 ('' Island of Lost Women''). Biography Frank Tuttle was educated at Yale Universi ...
named him to HUAC in 1952. Dassin left for France, and spent much of his remaining career in Greece. Scholar Thomas Doherty describes how the HUAC hearings swept onto the blacklist those who had never even been particularly active politically, let alone suspected of being Communists:
March 21, 1951, the name of the actor
Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series '' Hart to Hart''. Early ...
was uttered by the actor Larry Parks during testimony before HUAC. "Do you know Lionel Stander?" committee counsel Frank S. Tavenner inquired. Parks replied he knew the man, but had no knowledge of his political affiliations. No more was said about Stander either by Parks or the committee – no accusation, no insinuation. Yet Stander's phone stopped ringing. Prior to Parks's testimony, Stander had worked on ten television shows in the previous 100 days. Afterwards, nothing.
When Stander was himself called before HUAC, he began by pledging his full support in the fight against "subversive" activities:
I know of a group of fanatics who are desperately trying to undermine the Constitution of the United States by depriving artists and others of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness without due process of law ... I can tell names and cite instances and I am one of the first victims of it ...
his is His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, in ...
a group of ex-Fascists and America-Firsters and anti-Semites, people who hate everybody, including Negroes, minority groups, and most likely themselves ... ese people are engaged in a conspiracy outside all the legal processes to undermine the very fundamental American concepts upon which our entire system of democracy exists.
Stander was clearly speaking of the committee itself.Belton (1994), p. 203. The hunt for subversives extended into every branch of the entertainment industry. In the field of animation, two studios in particular were affected:
United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio active from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Picture ...
(UPA) was purged of a large portion of its staff, while New York-based Tempo was entirely crushed. HUAC investigations effectively destroyed families. Screenwriter Richard Collins, after a brief period on the blacklist, became a friendly witness and dumped his wife, actress
Dorothy Comingore Mary Louise Comingore (August 24, 1913 – December 30, 1971), known professionally as Dorothy Comingore, was an American film actress. She starred as Susan Alexander Kane in ''Citizen Kane'' ( 1941), the critically acclaimed debut film o ...
, who refused to name names. Divorcing Comingore, Collins took the couple's young son, as well. The family's story was later dramatized in the film ''
Guilty by Suspicion ''Guilty by Suspicion'' is a 1991 American drama film about the Hollywood blacklist, McCarthyism, and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Written and directed by Irwin Winkler, it stars Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, and ...
'' (1991), in which the character based on Comingore "commits suicide rather than endure a long mental collapse".Buhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 21. In real life, Comingore succumbed to alcoholism and died of a pulmonary disease at the age of fifty-eight. In the description of historians
Paul Buhle Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is a (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series ...
and David Wagner, "premature strokes and heart attacks were fairly common mong blacklistees along with heavy drinking as a form of suicide on the installment plan". For all that, evidence that Communists were actually using Hollywood films as vehicles for subversion remained hard to come by. Schulberg reported that the manuscript of his novel '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' (later a screenplay, as well) had been subject to an ideological critique by Hollywood Ten writer John Howard Lawson, whose comments he had solicited. The significance of such interactions was questionable. As historian
Gerald Horne Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iris ...
describes, many Hollywood screenwriters had joined or associated with the local Communist Party chapter because it "offered a collective to a profession that was enmeshed in tremendous isolation at the typewriter. Their 'Writers' Clinic' had 'an informal "board" of respected screenwriters' – including Lawson and Ring Lardner Jr. – 'who read and commented upon any screenplay submitted to them. Although their criticism could be plentiful, stinging, and (sometimes) politically dogmatic, the author was entirely free to accept it or reject it as he or she pleased without incurring the slightest "consequence" or sanction.'" Much of the onscreen evidence of Communist influence uncovered by HUAC was feeble at best. One witness remembered Stander, while performing in a film, whistling the left-wing "
Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of th ...
" as his character waited for an elevator. "Another noted that screenwriter Lester Cole had inserted lines from a famous pro-
Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British C ...
speech by La Pasionaria about it being 'better to die on your feet than to live on your knees' into a pep talk delivered by a football coach." Others disagree about how Communists affected the film industry. The author Kenneth Billingsley, writing in ''
Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
'' magazine, said that Trumbo wrote in ''
The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...
'' about films which he said communist influence in Hollywood had prevented from being made: among them were proposed adaptations of
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
's anti-
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
works ''
Darkness at Noon ''Darkness at Noon'' (german: link=no, Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried ...
'' and ''
The Yogi and the Commissar ''The Yogi and the Commissar'' (1945) is a collection of essays of Arthur Koestler, divided in three parts: Meanderings, Exhortations and Explorations. In the first two parts he has collected essays written from 1942 to 1945 and the third part was ...
'', which described the rise of communism in Russia. Authors Ronald and Allis Radosh, writing in ''Red Star over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance with the Left'', said that Trumbo bragged about how he and other party members stopped anti-communist films from being produced.


Height (1952–1956)

In 1952, the
Screen Writers Guild The Screen Writers Guild was an organization of Hollywood screenplay authors, formed as a union in 1933. In 1954, it became two different organizations: Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East. Founding Screenwrite ...
– which had been founded two decades before by three future members of the Hollywood Ten – authorized the movie studios to "omit from the screen" the names of any individuals who had failed to clear themselves before Congress. Writer Dalton Trumbo, for instance, one of the Hollywood Ten and still on the blacklist, had received
screen credit Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...
in 1950 for writing, years earlier, the story on which the screenplay of
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
' ''
Emergency Wedding ''Emergency Wedding'' (titled ''Jealousy'' in the UK) is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Larry Parks, Barbara Hale and Willard Parker. It is a remake of '' You Belong to Me'', a film in which Parks appeared in ...
'' was based. There was no more of that until the 1960s. The name of
Albert Maltz Albert Maltz (; October 28, 1908 – April 26, 1985) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their invo ...
, who had written the original screenplay for ''
The Robe ''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later ...
'' in the mid-1940s, was nowhere to be seen when the movie was released in 1953. As William O'Neill describes, pressure was maintained even on those who had ostensibly "cleared" themselves:
On December 27, 1952, the American Legion announced that it disapproved of a new film, ''
Moulin Rouge Moulin Rouge (, ; ) is a cabaret in Paris, on Boulevard de Clichy, at Place Blanche, the intersection of, and terminus of Rue Blanche. In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Ol ...
'', starring
José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...
, who used to be no more progressive than hundreds of other actors and had already been grilled by HUAC. The picture itself was based on the life of
Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the l ...
and was totally apolitical. Nine members of the Legion had picketed it anyway, giving rise to the controversy. By this time, people were not taking any chances. Ferrer immediately wired the Legion's national commander that he would be glad to join the veterans in their "fight against communism".
The group's efforts dragged many others onto the blacklist: In 1954, " reenwriter Louis Pollock, a man without any known political views or associations, suddenly had his career yanked out from under him because the American Legion confused him with Louis Pollack, a California clothier, who had refused to co-operate with HUAC."Ceplair and Englund (2003), p. 388.
Orson Bean Orson Bean (born Dallas Frederick Burrows; July 22, 1928 – February 7, 2020) was an American film, television, and stage actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a game show and talk show host and a "mainstay of Los Angeles’ small ...
recalled that he had briefly been placed on the blacklist after dating a member of the party, despite his own politics being conservative. During this same period, a number of influential newspaper columnists covering the entertainment industry, including
Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and ...
,
Hedda Hopper Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...
,
Victor Riesel Victor Riesel (; March 26, 1913 – January 4, 1995) was an American newspaper journalist and columnist who specialized in news related to labor unions. At the height of his career, his column on labor union issues was syndicated to 356 newspape ...
,
Jack O'Brian John Dennis Patrick O'Brian (August 16, 1914 – November 5, 2000) was an entertainment journalist best known for his longtime role as a television critic for ''New York Journal American''. Career After the death of Dorothy Kilgallen, his co ...
, and
George Sokolsky George Ephraim Sokolsky (1893–1962) was a weekly radio broadcaster for the National Association of Manufacturers and a columnist for the ''New York Herald Tribune'', who later switched to ''The New York Sun'' and other Hearst newspapers. He was ...
, regularly offered up names with the suggestion that they should be added to the blacklist. Actor
John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...
received an out-of-court settlement to end a 1954 lawsuit against the
Young & Rubicam VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Young & Rubica ...
advertising agency, which had ordered him dropped from the lead role in a television series it sponsored. ''Variety'' described it as "the first industry admission of what has for some time been an open secret – that the threat of being labeled a political non-conformist, or worse, has been used against show business personalities, and that a screening system is at work determining these ctors'availabilities for roles".Doherty (2003), p. 236. The Hollywood blacklist had long gone hand in hand with the Red-baiting activities of
J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation  ...
's FBI. Adversaries of HUAC such as lawyer
Bartley Crum Bartley Crum (November 28, 1900 – December 9, 1959) was an American lawyer who became prominent as a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, his book on that experience, and for defending targets of HUAC, particularly the Hollywood Te ...
, who defended some of the Hollywood Ten in front of the committee in 1947, were labeled as Communist sympathizers or subversives and targeted for investigation themselves. Throughout the 1950s, the FBI tapped Crum's phones, opened his mail, and placed him under continuous surveillance. As a result, he lost most of his clients and, unable to cope with the stress of ceaseless harassment, committed suicide in 1959. Intimidating and dividing the left is now seen as a central purpose of the HUAC hearings. Fund-raising for once-popular humanitarian efforts became difficult, and despite the sympathies of many in the industry there was little open support in Hollywood for causes such as the
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
and opposition to
nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...
. The struggles attending the blacklist were played out metaphorically on the big screen in various ways. As described by film historian James Chapman, "
Carl Foreman Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' and ''High Noon'', among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were black ...
, who had refused to testify before the committee, wrote the western ''
High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense ...
'' (1952), in which a town marshal (played, ironically, by friendly witness
Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...
) finds himself deserted by the good citizens of Hadleyville (read: Hollywood) when a gang of outlaws who had terrorized the town several years earlier (read: HUAC) returns." Cooper's lawman cleaned up Hadleyville, but Foreman was forced to leave for Europe to find work. Meanwhile, Kazan and Schulberg collaborated on a movie widely seen as justifying their decision to name names. ''
On the Waterfront ''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...
'' (1954) became one of the most honored films in Hollywood history, winning eight
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Oscars for Best Film, Kazan's direction, and Schulberg's screenplay. The film featured Lee J. Cobb, one of the best known actors to name names. ''Time Out Film Guide'' argues that the film is "undermined" by its "embarrassing special pleading on behalf of informers". After his release from prison,
Herbert Biberman Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed '' Salt of the Earth'' (1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' st ...
of the Hollywood Ten directed '' Salt of the Earth'' (also 1954), working independently in New Mexico with fellow blacklisted Hollywood professionals – producer
Paul Jarrico Paul Jarrico (January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. Biography Early years Paul Jarrico was born in Los An ...
, writer Michael Wilson, and actors
Rosaura Revueltas Rosaura Revueltas Sánchez (August 6, 1910 – April 30, 1996) was a Mexican actress of screen and stage, and a dancer, author and teacher. Early life Rosaura Revueltas was born in Lerdo, Durango, Mexico to the famously artistic Revueltas famil ...
and
Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In C ...
. The film, concerning a strike by Mexican-American mine workers, was denounced as Communist propaganda when it was completed in 1953. Distributors boycotted it, newspapers and radio stations rejected advertisements for it, and the projectionists' union refused to run it. Nationwide in 1954, only around a dozen theaters exhibited it.


Break (1957–present)

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
was one of the first to break the blacklist. Although he was named by
Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for '' Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywoo ...
and
Frank Tuttle Frank Wright Tuttle (August 6, 1892 – January 6, 1963) was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 (''The Cradle Buster'') to 1959 ('' Island of Lost Women''). Biography Frank Tuttle was educated at Yale Universi ...
in spring 1951, he directed in December 1952 the Broadway Play '' Two's Company'' with
Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...
. In June 1956, his French film production ''
Rififi ''Rififi'' (french: Du rififi chez les hommes) is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Ton ...
'' opened at the Fine Arts Theater and stayed for 20 weeks. A key figure in bringing an end to blacklisting was
John Henry Faulk John Henry Faulk (August 21, 1913 – April 9, 1990) was an American storyteller and radio show host. His successful lawsuit against the entertainment industry helped to bring an end to the Hollywood blacklist. Early life John Henry Faulk ...
. Host of an afternoon comedy radio show, Faulk was a leftist active in his union, the
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording a ...
. He was scrutinized by AWARE, Inc., one of the private firms that examined individuals for signs of Communist sympathies and "disloyalty". Marked by the group as unfit, he was fired by CBS Radio. Almost alone among the many victims of blacklisting, Faulk decided to sue AWARE in 1957. Though the case dragged through the courts for years, the suit itself was an important symbol of the building resistance to the blacklist. The initial cracks in the entertainment industry blacklist were evident on television, specifically at CBS. In 1957, blacklisted actor
Norman Lloyd Norman Nathan Lloyd (' Perlmutter; November 8, 1914 – May 11, 2021) was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, including ...
was hired by
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
as an associate producer for his anthology series ''
Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was r ...
'', then entering its third season on the network. On November 30, 1958, a live CBS production of ''
Wonderful Town ''Wonderful Town'' is a 1953 musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of two sisters who aspire to be a writer and act ...
'', based on short stories written by then-Communist
Ruth McKenney Ruth Marguerite McKenney (November 18, 1911 – July 25, 1972) was an American author and journalist, best remembered for '' My Sister Eileen'', a memoir of her experiences growing up in Ohio and moving to Greenwich Village with her sister Eilee ...
, appeared with the proper writing credit of blacklisted
Edward Chodorov Edward Chodorov (April 17, 1904 – October 9, 1988), was a Broadway playwright, and the writer or producer of over 50 motion pictures. Filmography * ''Kind Lady (1951 film), Kind Lady'' (1951, writer) * ''Road House (1948 film), Road House'' ...
, along with his literary partner, Joseph Fields. The following year, actress
Betty Hutton Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 11, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. Early life and education Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 2 ...
insisted that blacklisted composer Jerry Fielding be hired as musical director for her new series, also on CBS.Burlingame (2000), p. 74. The first main break in the Hollywood blacklist followed soon after. On January 20, 1960, director
Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
publicly announced that Dalton Trumbo, one of the best known members of the Hollywood Ten, was the screenwriter of his forthcoming film ''
Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * E ...
''. Six and a half months later, with ''Exodus'' still to debut, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' announced that
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
would give Trumbo screen credit for his role as writer on ''
Spartacus Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprisin ...
'', a decision now recognized as being largely made by star/producer
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...
. On October 6, ''Spartacus'' premiered – the first movie to bear Trumbo's name since he had received story credit on ''Emergency Wedding'' in 1950. Since 1947, he had written or co-written approximately seventeen motion pictures without credit. ''Exodus'' followed in December, also bearing Trumbo's name. The blacklist was now clearly coming to an end, but its effects continue to reverberate even until the present. John Henry Faulk won his lawsuit in 1962. With this court decision, the private blacklisters and those who used them were put on notice that they were legally liable for the professional and financial damage they caused. This helped to bring an end to publications such as ''Counterattack''. Like Adrian Scott and Lillian Hellman, however, a number of those on the blacklist remained there for an extended period – Lionel Stander, for instance, could not find work in Hollywood until 1965. Some of those who named names, like Kazan and Schulberg, argued for years after that they had made an ethically proper decision. Others, like actor Lee J. Cobb and director Michael Gordon, who gave friendly testimony to HUAC after suffering on the blacklist for a time, "concede with remorse that their plan was to name their way back to work". Others were haunted by the choice they had made. In 1963, actor
Sterling Hayden Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for mos ...
declared,
I was a rat, a stoolie, and the names I named of those close friends were blacklisted and deprived of their livelihood.Buhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 251.
Scholars Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner state that Hayden "was widely believed to have drunk himself into a near-suicidal depression decades before his 1986 death". Into the 21st century, the Writers Guild pursued the correction of screen credits from movies of the 1950s and early 1960s to properly reflect the work of blacklisted writers such as
Carl Foreman Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' and ''High Noon'', among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were black ...
and
Hugo Butler Hugo Dansey Butler (4 May 1914 – 7 January 1968) was a Canadian-born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s. Biography Born on 4 May 1914 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his father, Frank Russel ...
. On December 19, 2011, the guild, acting on a request for an investigation made by his dying son
Christopher Trumbo Christopher Trumbo (September 25, 1940 – January 8, 2011) was an American television writer, screenwriter and playwright. Trumbo was considered an expert on the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist. His father, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, wa ...
, announced that Dalton Trumbo would get full credit for his work on the screenplay for the romantic comedy ''
Roman Holiday ''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actres ...
'' (1953), almost sixty years after the fact.


Blacklisted


The Hollywood Ten

The following ten individuals were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted after refusing to answer questions about their alleged involvement with the Communist Party: * Alvah Bessie, screenwriter *
Herbert Biberman Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed '' Salt of the Earth'' (1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' st ...
, screenwriter and director * Lester Cole, screenwriter *
Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for '' Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywoo ...
, director * Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter * John Howard Lawson, screenwriter *
Albert Maltz Albert Maltz (; October 28, 1908 – April 26, 1985) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their invo ...
, screenwriter * Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter *
Adrian Scott Robert Adrian Scott (February 6, 1911 – December 25, 1972) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses. Life and career Early life Scott was born ...
, producer and screenwriter * Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter In late September 1947, HUAC subpoenaed 79 individuals on a claim that they were subversive and the supposition that they injected Communist propaganda into their films. Although never substantiating this claim, the investigators charged them with contempt of Congress when they refused to answer the questions about their membership in the Screen Writers Guild and Communist Party. The Committee demanded they admit their political beliefs and name names of other Communists. Nineteen of those refused to co-operate, and due to illnesses, scheduling conflicts, and exhaustion from the chaotic hearings, only 10 appeared before the Committee. These men became known as the Hollywood Ten. Belonging to the Communist Party did not constitute a crime, and the Committee's right to investigate these men was questionable in the first place. These men relied on the First Amendment's right to privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, but the Committee charged them with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions. Later defendants – except
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
– tried different strategies. Acknowledging the potential for punishment, the Ten still took bold stands, resisting the authority of HUAC. They yelled at the Chairman and treated the Committee with open indignation, emanating negativity and discouraging outside public favor and help. Upon receiving their contempt citations, they believed the Supreme Court would overturn the rulings, which did not turn out to be the case, and as a result, they were convicted of contempt and fined $1,000 each (or, over $10,700 USD in 2016 dollars, when adjusted for inflation), and sentenced to six-months to one-year prison terms. HUAC did not treat the Ten with respect either, refusing to allow most of them to speak for more than just a few words at a time. Meanwhile, witnesses who had arranged to co-operate with the Committee (such as the anti-Communist screenwriter
Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
) were allowed to speak at length. Martin Redish suggests that, at this time, the First Amendment's right of free expression in these cases was used to protect the powers of the government accusers instead of the rights of the citizen-victims. After witnessing the well-publicized ineffectiveness of the Ten's defense strategy, later defendants chose to plead the Fifth Amendment (against self-incrimination), instead. Public support for the Hollywood Ten wavered, as everyday citizen-observers were never really sure what to make of them. Some of these men later wrote about their experiences as part of the Ten. John Howard Lawson, the Ten's unofficial leader, wrote a book attacking Hollywood for appeasing HUAC. While mostly criticizing the studios for their weakness, Lawson also defends himself/the Ten and criticizes Edward Dmytryk for being the only one to recant and eventually co-operate with HUAC. In his 1981 autobiography, ''Hollywood Red'', screenwriter Lester Cole stated that all of the Hollywood Ten had been Communist Party USA members at some point. Other members of the Hollywood Ten, such as Dalton Trumbo and
Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for '' Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywoo ...
, publicly admitted to being Communists while testifying before the Committee. When Dmytryk wrote his memoir about this period, he denounced the Ten, and defended his decision to work with HUAC. He claimed to have left the Communist Party before having been subpoenaed, defining himself as the "odd man out". He condemned the Ten's legal tactic of defiance, and regretted staying with the group for as long as he did.


Others in 1947

*
Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...
, composer * Bernard Gordon, screenwriter * Joan LaCour Scott, screenwriter *
Irving Lerner Irving Lerner (March 7, 1909, New York City – December 25, 1976, Los Angeles) was an American filmmaker. Biography Before becoming a filmmaker, Lerner was a research editor for Columbia University's Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, getting h ...
, editor and director


Between January 1948 and June 1950

(an asterisk after the entry indicates the person was also listed in ''Red Channels'') *
Ben Barzman Ben Barzman (October 12, 1910 – December 15, 1989) was a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, and novelist, blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and best known for his screenplays for the films ''Back to Bataan'' (1945), ''El Cid'' (1961), and ''Th ...
, screenwriter * Paul Draper, actor and dancer* *
Sheridan Gibney Sheridan de Raismes Gibney (June 11, 1903 – April 12, 1988) was a writer and producer in theater and film. He attended Amherst College and received an honorary M.A. from it. He later served as an instructor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. ...
, screenwriter * Paul Green, playwright and screenwriterWard and Butler (2008), pp. 178–179. *
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
, playwright and screenwriter* *
Canada Lee Canada Lee (born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata; March 3, 1907 – May 9, 1952) was an American professional boxer and then an actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. After careers as a jockey, boxer and musician, he became an actor ...
, actor *
Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...
, actor and singer *
Edwin Rolfe Edwin Rolfe (September 7, 1909 – May 24, 1954) was an American poet and journalist. His first collected poetry appeared in an anthology of four poets called ''We Gather Strength'' (1933). Three more collections followed, none of which were con ...
, screenwriter and poet *William Sweets, radio personality* *
Richard Wright Richard Wright may refer to: Arts * Richard Wright (author) (1908–1960), African-American novelist * Richard B. Wright (1937–2017), Canadian novelist * Richard Wright (painter) (1735–1775), marine painter * Richard Wright (artist) (born 19 ...
, writer


''Red Channels'' list

(see, e. g., Schrecker 002 p. 244; Barnouw
990 Year 990 ( CMXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Al-Mansur, ''de facto'' ruler of Al-Andalus, conquers the Castle of Montemor-o-Velho (mode ...
pp. 122–124) * Larry Adler, actor and musician *
Luther Adler Luther Adler (born Lutha Adler; May 4, 1903 – December 8, 1984) was an American actor best known for his work in theatre, but who also worked in film and television. He also directed plays on Broadway. Early life and career Adler was born on ...
, actor and director *
Stella Adler Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher.
''
Edith Atwater Edith Atwater (April 22, 1911 – March 14, 1986) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Career Born in Chicago, Atwater made her Broadway debut in 1933. In 1939, she starred in ''The Man Who Came to Dinner''. Her film career i ...
, actress * Howard Bay, scenic designer *Ralph Bell, actor *
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
, composer and conductor *
Walter Bernstein Walter Bernstein (August 20, 1919 – January 23, 2021) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s because of his views on communism. Some of his notable works included ''The ...
, screenwriter, mentioned in Venona intercepts of Soviet Agents *
Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro- union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the W ...
, composer *
Millen Brand Millen Brand (January 19, 1906 – March 19, 1980) was an American writer and poet. His novels, ''The Outward Room'' (1938) and ''Savage Sleep'' (1968), addressed mental health institutions and were bestsellers in their day. Personal life B ...
, writer * Oscar Brand, folk singer * Joseph Edward Bromberg, actor * Himan Brown, producer and director * John Brown, actor *
Abe Burrows Abe Burrows (born Abram Solman Borowitz; December 18, 1910 – May 17, 1985) was an American humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage. He won a Tony Award and was selected for two Pulitzer Prizes, only one of which was awarded. Ear ...
, playwright and lyricist *
Morris Carnovsky Morris Carnovsky (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1992) was an American stage and film actor. He was one of the founders of the Group Theatre (1931-1940) in New York City and had a thriving acting career both on Broadway and in films un ...
, actor *
Cliff Carpenter Clifford A. Carpenter (March 2, 1915 – January 9, 2014) was an American actor who appeared in radio, television and films. Career In 1937, Carpenter began his professional career on the radio serial ''Terry and the Pirates''. The show was ada ...
, actor *
Vera Caspary Vera Louise Caspary (November 13, 1899 – June 13, 1987) was an American writer of novels, plays, screenplays, and short stories. Her best-known novel, '' Laura'', was made into a successful movie. Though she claimed she was not a "real" myste ...
, writer *
Edward Chodorov Edward Chodorov (April 17, 1904 – October 9, 1988), was a Broadway playwright, and the writer or producer of over 50 motion pictures. Filmography * ''Kind Lady (1951 film), Kind Lady'' (1951, writer) * ''Road House (1948 film), Road House'' ...
, screenwriter and producer *
Jerome Chodorov Jerome Chodorov (August 10, 1911 – September 12, 2004) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He co-wrote the book with Joseph A. Fields for the original Broadway musical ''Wonderful Town'' starring Rosalind Russell. The musi ...
, writer *
Mady Christians Marguerita Maria "Mady" Christians (January 19, 1892 – October 28, 1951) was an Austrian actress who had a successful acting career in theatre and film in the United States until she was blacklisted during the McCarthy period. Biography She ...
, actress * Lee J. Cobb, actor *
Marc Connelly Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. Biogra ...
, playwright *
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
, composer *
Norman Corwin Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the ...
, writer *
Howard Da Silva Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...
, actor *Roger De Koven, actor *
Dean Dixon Charles Dean Dixon (January 10, 1915November 3, 1976) was an American conductor. Career Dixon was born in the upper-Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem in New York City to parents who had earlier migrated from the Caribbean. He studied conducting ...
, conductor *
Olin Downes Edwin Olin Downes, better known as Olin Downes (January 27, 1886 – August 22, 1955), was an American music critic, known as "Sibelius's Apostle" for his championship of the music of Jean Sibelius. As critic of ''The New York Times'', he ex ...
, music critic *
Alfred Drake Alfred Drake (October 7, 1914 – July 25, 1992) was an American actor and singer. Biography Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Broo ...
, actor and singer * Paul Draper, actor and dancer *
Howard Duff Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
, actor *
Clifford J. Durr Clifford Judkins Durr (March 2, 1899 – May 12, 1975) was an Alabama lawyer who played an important role in defending activists and others accused of disloyalty during the New Deal and McCarthy eras. He also was the lawyer who represented ...
, attorney *
Richard Dyer-Bennet Richard Dyer-Bennet (6 October 1913 in Leicester, England – 14 December 1991 in Monterey, Massachusetts) was an English-born American folk singer (or his own preferred term, "minstrel"), recording artist, and voice teacher. Biography He was bo ...
, folk singer *
José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...
, actor * Louise Fitch (Lewis), actress *
Martin Gabel Martin Gabel (June 19, 1911 – May 22, 1986) was an American actor, film director and film producer. Life and career Gabel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Rebecca and Isaac Gabel, a jeweler, both Jewish immigrants. He married Arlen ...
, actor * Arthur Gaeth, radio commentator *
William S. Gailmor William S. Gailmor (28 April 1910 – 14 November 1970) was a medical writer A medical writer, also referred to as medical communicator, is a person who applies the principles of clinical research in developing clinical trial documents that ...
, journalist and radio commentator *
John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
, actor *
Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In C ...
, actor *
Jack Gilford Jack Gilford (born Jacob Aaron Gellman; July 25, 1908 – June 4, 1990) was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Save the Tiger'' (1973). Early life Gilf ...
, actor and comedian *
Tom Glazer Thomas Zachariah Glazer (September 2, 1914 – February 21, 2003) was an American folk singer and songwriter known primarily as a composer of ballads, including: "Because All Men Are Brothers", recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and M ...
, folk singer * Ruth Gordon, actress and screenwriter * Lloyd Gough, actor * Morton Gould, pianist and composer *
Shirley Graham Shirley Graham Du Bois (born Lola Shirley Graham Jr.; November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes, among others. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes f ...
, writer *
Ben Grauer Benjamin Franklin Grauer (June 2, 1908 – May 31, 1977) was a US radio and TV personality, following a career during the 1920s as a child actor in films and on Broadway. He began his career as a child in David Warfield's production of ''The Retur ...
, radio and TV personality * Mitchell Grayson, radio producer and director * Horace Grenell, conductor and music producer *
Uta Hagen Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...
, actress and teacher *
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
, writer * E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, lyricist * Robert P. Heller, television journalist *
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
, playwright and screenwriter * Jon Hering, intern *
Nat Hiken Nathan Hiken (June 23, 1914 – December 7, 1968) was an American radio and television writer, producer, and songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1950s. Early years Hiken was born on June 23, 1914, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jewish p ...
, writer and producer *
Rose Hobart Rose Hobart (born Rose Kefer; May 1, 1906 – August 29, 2000) was an American actress and a Screen Actors Guild official. Early years Born in New York City, Hobart was the daughter of a cellist in the New York Symphony Orchestra, Paul Ke ...
, actress * Judy Holliday, actress and comedian * Roderick B. Holmgren, journalist *
Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...
, singer and actress *
Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, H ...
, writer * Marsha Hunt, actress *
Leo Hurwitz Leo Hurwitz (June 23, 1909 – January 18, 1991) was an American documentary filmmaker. Among the films he directed were '' Native Land'' (1942) and ''Verdict for Tomorrow'' (1961), the Emmy Award- and Peabody Award-winning film of the Eichmann ...
, director * Charles Irving, actor *
Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...
, folk singer and actor * Sam Jaffe, actor *
Leon Janney Leon Janney (April 1, 1917 – October 28, 1980) was an American actor and radio personality from 1920 to 1980. Career Leon Elbert Janney was born in Ogden, Utah, to Nathan Haines Janney and Bernice Rebecca Kohn. The names of his parents are co ...
, actor *
Joe Julian Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...
, actor * Garson Kanin, writer and director * George Keane, actor * Donna Keath, radio actress *
Pert Kelton Pert or PERT may refer to: Ships * - see List of United States Navy ships: P * , a World War II corvette, originally HMS ''Nepeta'' * ''Pert'' (sidewheeler), a 19th-century steamboat that operated in British Columbia, Canada Statistics * PE ...
, actress *
Alexander Kendrick Alexander Kendrick (July 6, 1910 in Philadelphia – May 17, 1991) was a broadcast journalist. He worked for CBS during World War II and was part of a second generation of reporters known as Murrow's Boys. Before partnering with Edward R. Murrow ...
, journalist and author *
Adelaide Klein Adelaide Klein (July 8, 1900 – March 18, 1983) was an American actress who performed on radio, television, films, and the stage. She was best known for her dialects as a radio performer. Over the course of her thirty-year career, Klein performed ...
, actress * Howard Koch, screenwriter *
Tony Kraber Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
, actor * Millard Lampell, screenwriter * John La Touche, lyricist *
Arthur Laurents Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II ...
, writer *
Gypsy Rose Lee Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette famous for her striptease act. Also an actress, author, and playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted in ...
, actress and ecdysiast * Madeline Lee, actress * Ray Lev, classical pianist *
Philip Loeb Philip Loeb (March 28, 1891 – September 1, 1955), was an American stage, film, and television actor, director and author. He was blacklisted under McCarthyism and committed suicide in response. Early life Philip Loeb was born March 28, 1891, ...
, actor *
Ella Logan Ella Logan (born Georgina Armour Allan; 6 March 1913 – 1 May 1969) was a Scottish-American actress and singer who appeared on Broadway, recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally. Early years Logan was bo ...
, actress and singer *
Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...
, folklorist and musicologist *
Avon Long Avon Long (June 18, 1910 – February 15, 1984) was an American Broadway actor and singer. Biography Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Frederick Douglass High School, where he was especially influenced by the Latin teacher and ...
, actor and singer *
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted ...
, director *Peter Lyon, television writer *
Aline MacMahon Aline Laveen MacMahon (May 3, 1899 – October 12, 1991) was an American actress. Her Broadway stage career began under producer Edgar Selwyn in ''The Mirage'' during 1920. She made her screen debut in 1931 and worked extensively in film, thea ...
, actress *
Paul Mann Paul Mann (December 2, 1913 – September 24, 1985) was a Canadian film and theater actor, as well as founder of the Paul Mann Actor's Workshop. His brother was the actor Larry D. Mann. Biography Mann was influential in developing the concept of ...
, director and teacher * Margo, actress and dancer *
Myron McCormick Myron McCormick (February 8, 1908 – July 30, 1962) was an American actor of stage, radio and film. Early life and education Born in Albany, Indiana, in 1908, Walter Myron McCormick was the middle child of Walter P. and Bessie M. McCormick ...
, actor * Paul McGrath, radio actor *
Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...
, actor *
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
, playwright *
Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming we ...
, actor *
Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...
, actor and comedian *
Jean Muir Jean Elizabeth Muir ( ; 17 July 1928 – 28 May 1995) was a British fashion designer. Early life and career Jean Muir was born in London, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father ...
, actress *
Meg Mundy Margaret Anne Mary Mundy (January 4, 1915 – January 12, 2016) was an English-born American actress and model. She was born in London, and in 1921, at the age of six, emigrated to the United States with her family. Personal life Mundy was born ...
, actress *
Lyn Murray Lyn Murray (born Lionel Breeze, August 13, 1909 – May 20, 1989) was a composer, conductor, and arranger of music for radio, film and television. Early years Born in London, Murray was the son of a violinist. Before entering a career in music ...
, composer and choral director * Ben Myers, attorney *
Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...
, screenwriter * Arnold Perl, producer and writer *
Minerva Pious Minerva Pious (March 5, 1903 – March 16, 1979) was an American radio, television and film actress. She was best known as the malaprop-prone Pansy Nussbaum in Fred Allen's famous " Allen's Alley" current-events skits. In his book, ''Treadmill ...
, actress *
Samson Raphaelson Samson Raphaelson (March 30, 1894 – July 16, 1983) was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an advertising executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called ' ...
, screenwriter and playwright * Bernard Reis, accountant *
Anne Revere Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a progressive member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her film portrayals of mothers in a series of critical ...
, actress * Kenneth Roberts, writer *
Earl Robinson Earl Hawley Robinson (July 2, 1910 – July 20, 1991) was a composer, arranger and folk music singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is remembered for his music, including the cantata " Ballad for Americans" and songs such as " ...
, composer and lyricist *
Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
, actor *
William N. Robson William N. Robson (October 8, 1906 – April 10, 1995) was a director and producer of radio programs. Early life Robson was born William N. Robson II in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of William N. Robson and Gertrude Brehm Robson. His father ...
, radio and TV writer *
Harold Rome Harold Jacob "Hecky" Rome (May 27, 1908 – October 26, 1993) was an American composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater. Biography Rome was born in Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from Hartford Public High School. Originally, he c ...
, composer and lyricist *
Norman Rosten Norman Rosten (January 1, 1913 – March 7, 1995) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. Life Rosten was born to a Polish Jewish family in New York City and grew up in Hurleyville, New York. He was graduated from Brooklyn College and New ...
, writer *
Selena Royle Selena Royle (November 6, 1904 – April 23, 1983) was an American actress (of stage, radio, television and film), and later, an author. Early life and career Actress Royle was born in New York City to playwright Edwin Milton Royle and actress ...
, actress *
Coby Ruskin Coby or Koby is a male and female given name, and a surname. Notable people with the name "Coby" include A *Koby Abberton (born 1979), Australian surfer *Koby Altman (born 1982), American basketball executive * Koby Arthur (born 1996), Ghanaian ...
, TV director * Robert William St. John, journalist, broadcaster *
Hazel Scott Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was a Trinidad-born American jazz and classical pianist and singer. She was an outspoken critic of racial discrimination and segregation. She used her influence to improve the representat ...
, jazz and classical musician *
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
, folk singer * Lisa Sergio, radio personality *
Artie Shaw Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...
, jazz musician *
Irwin Shaw Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...
, writer, playwright * Robert Lewis Shayon, former president of radio and TV directors' guild * Ann Shepherd, actress *
William L. Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...
, journalist, broadcaster *
Allan Sloane Allan Everett Sloane (June 14, 1914 – April 29, 2001) was an American writer for radio and television. His career was significantly affected by the Hollywood blacklist. Early life He was born to Benjamin and Rachel Wisansky Silverman in New Yo ...
, radio and TV writer * Howard K. Smith, journalist, broadcaster * Gale Sondergaard, actress *
Hester Sondergaard Hester Sondergaard (July 5, 1903 – February 26, 1994) was an American actress. Early years Born in Litchfield, Minnesota, Sondergaard was the daughter of Hans T. Søndergaard, a dairy instructor at a university, and the sister of actress G ...
, actress *
Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series '' Hart to Hart''. Early ...
, actor * Johannes Steele, journalist, radio commentator * Paul Stewart, actor *
Elliott Sullivan Elliott Sullivan (July 4, 1907 – June 2, 1974) was an American actor. Sullivan was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Rabbi Solomon Solomon. He appeared in the films ''They Won't Forget'', '' Over the Wall'', ''Accidents Will Happen'', ' ...
, actor * William Sweets, radio personality *
Helen Tamiris Helen Tamiris (born Helen Becker; April 24, 1905 – August 4, 1966) was an American choreographer, modern dancer, and teacher. Biography Tamiris was born in New York City on April 23, 1902. She adopted Tamiris, her stage name, from a fragment ...
, choreographer * Betty Todd, director *
Louis Untermeyer Louis Untermeyer (October 1, 1885 – December 18, 1977) was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961. Life and career Untermeyer was born in New Y ...
, poet *
Hilda Vaughn Hilda Vaughn (December 27, 1898 – December 28, 1957) was an American actress of the stage, film, radio, and television. Early years Hilda Weiller Strouse, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Strouse, Vaughn attended Vassar College and the Ame ...
, actress * J. Raymond Walsh, radio commentator *
Sam Wanamaker Samuel Wanamaker, (born Wattenmacker; June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American actor and director who moved to the United Kingdom after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist views. He is credited a ...
, actor *
Theodore Ward James Theodore Ward (September 15, 1902 – May 8, 1983) was a leftist political playwright and theatre educator during the first half of the 20th century and one of the earliest contributors to the Black Chicago Renaissance. Often referred ...
, playwright *
Fredi Washington Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington (December 23, 1903 – June 28, 1994) was an American stage and film actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. Washington was of African-American descent. She was one of the first black American ...
, actor *
Margaret Webster Margaret Webster (March 15, 1905 – November 13, 1972) was an American-British theater actress, producer and director. Critic George Jean Nathan described her as "the best director of the plays of Shakespeare that we have." Life and care ...
, actress, director and producer *
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
, actor, writer and director *
Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...
, blues musician *
Irene Wicker Ireene Wicker (born Irene Seaton, November 24, 1905 – November 17, 1987) was an American singer and actress, best known to young radio listeners in the 1930s and 1940s as “The Singing Lady”, which was the title of her radio program. She a ...
, singer and actress * Betty Winkler (Keane), actress * Martin Wolfson, actor *
Lesley Woods Lesley Woods (August 22, 1910 – August 2, 2003) was an American radio, stage and television actress. She was a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. Personal life Woods was married to actor Richard McMurray. Sam McMurray is her s ...
, actor * Richard Yaffe, journalist, broadcaster


After June 1950

*
Eddie Albert Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and activist. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in ''Roman Holiday'', ...
, actor * Lew Amster, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 28. *
Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Televisi ...
, actor, director and producer * Norma Barzman, screenwriter * Sol Barzman, screenwriter *
Orson Bean Orson Bean (born Dallas Frederick Burrows; July 22, 1928 – February 7, 2020) was an American film, television, and stage actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a game show and talk show host and a "mainstay of Los Angeles’ small ...
, actor * Albert Bein, screenwriter *
Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internati ...
, actor and singer *
Barbara Bel Geddes Barbara Bel Geddes (October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005) was an American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost five decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the te ...
, actress * Ben Bengal, screenwriter * Seymour Bennett, screenwriter *
Leonardo Bercovici Leonardo Bercovici (January 4, 1908, Brooklyn, New York, USA – November 22, 1995, Los Angeles, California, USA) was an American screenwriter, film director and producer. Blacklisting and aftermath Bercovici was called to testify before the Ho ...
, screenwriter *
Herschel Bernardi Herschel Bernardi (October 30, 1923 – May 9, 1986) was an American actor and singer. He is best known for his supporting role in the drama television series ''Peter Gunn'' (1958–1961) and his leading role in the comedy television serie ...
, actor * John Berry, actor, screenwriter and director *
Henry Blankfort Henry Blankfort (December 25, 1902 – June 16, 1993) was an American screenwriter. He wrote the films ''Youth on Parole'', ''Klondike Fury'', ''Rubber Racketeers'', ''Tales of Manhattan'', ''Harrigan's Kid'', ''I Escaped from the Gestapo'', ''Sh ...
, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 31. * Laurie Blankfort, artist *
Roman Bohnen Roman Aloys Bohnen (November 24, 1901 – February 24, 1949) was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939), '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), and ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (194 ...
, actorBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 49. *
Allen Boretz Allen Boretz (1900–1985), was an American songwriter, playwright and screenwriter. The great success of his and John Murray's Broadway hit ''Room Service'' (1937) led to offers from Hollywood, and he wrote and co-wrote screenplays from the la ...
, screenwriter and songwriter *
Phoebe Brand Phoebe Brand (November 27, 1907 – July 3, 2004) was an American actress. Life Brand was born in Syracuse, New York in 1907 and raised in Ilion, Herkimer County, New York. Her father worked for Remington Typewriter Company as a mechanical e ...
, actress *
John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...
, screenwriter * Phil Brown, actor * Harold Buchman, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 22. *
Sidney Buchman Sidney Robert Buchman (March 27, 1902 – August 23, 1975) was an American screenwriter and film producer who worked on about 40 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He received four Oscar nominations and won once for Best Screenplay ...
, screenwriter *
Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
, director * Val Burton, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 17. *
Hugo Butler Hugo Dansey Butler (4 May 1914 – 7 January 1968) was a Canadian-born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s. Biography Born on 4 May 1914 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his father, Frank Russel ...
, screenwriter * Alan Campbell, screenwriter *
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is conside ...
, actor, director and producer *Maurice Clark, screenwriter * Richard Collins, screenwriter * Charles Collingwood, radio commentator *
Dorothy Comingore Mary Louise Comingore (August 24, 1913 – December 30, 1971), known professionally as Dorothy Comingore, was an American film actress. She starred as Susan Alexander Kane in ''Citizen Kane'' ( 1941), the critically acclaimed debut film o ...
, actress *
Jeff Corey Jeff Corey (born Arthur Zwerling; August 10, 1914 – August 16, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s. Life and career Corey attended New Utrecht Hig ...
, actor * George Corey, screenwriter *Irwin Corey, actor and comedian *Oliver Crawford, screenwriter *John Cromwell (director), John Cromwell, director *Charles Dagget, animatorCohen (2004), p. 178. *Danny Dare, choreographer *
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
, director *Ossie Davis, actor *Ruby Dee, actress *Dolores del Río, actress *Karen DeWolf, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 5. *Howard Dimsdale, writerBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 250. *Ludwig Donath, actor *Arnaud d'Usseau, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 83. *P. D. Eastman, Phil Eastman, cartoon writer *Leslie Edgley, screenwriterNavasky (1980), p. 282. *Edward Eliscu, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 7. *Faith Elliott, animator *Cy Endfield, screenwriter and director *Guy Endore, screenwriter *Francis Edward Faragoh, screenwriter *Frances Farmer, actress *Howard Fast, writer *
John Henry Faulk John Henry Faulk (August 21, 1913 – April 9, 1990) was an American storyteller and radio show host. His successful lawsuit against the entertainment industry helped to bring an end to the Hollywood blacklist. Early life John Henry Faulk ...
, radio personality * Jerry Fielding, composer *
Carl Foreman Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' and ''High Noon'', among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were black ...
, producer and screenwriter *Anne Froelick, screenwriter *Lester Fuller, director *Bert Gilden, screenwriter *Lee Gold (screenwriter), Lee Gold, screenwriter *Harold Goldman, screenwriter * Michael Gordon, director *Jay Gorney, screenwriter *Lee Grant, actress *Morton Grant, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 13. *Anne Green (screenwriter), Anne Green, screenwriter *Jack T. Gross, producerBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 37. *Margaret Gruen, screenwriter *David Hilberman, animatorCohen (2004), pp. 172–176. *Tamara Hovey, screenwriter *John Hubley, animator *Edward Huebsch, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 18. *Ian McLellan Hunter, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 86. *Kim Hunter, actress *
John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...
, actor *Daniel Lewis James (screenwriter), Daniel James, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 80. *Walter Elias Disney *
Paul Jarrico Paul Jarrico (January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. Biography Early years Paul Jarrico was born in Los An ...
, producer and screenwriter *Gordon Kahn, screenwriter *Victor Kilian, actor *Sidney Kingsley, playwright *Alexander Knox, actor *Mickey Knox (actor), Mickey Knox, actor *Lester Koenig, film/record producer *Charles Korvin, actor *Hy Kraft, screenwriter *Constance Lee, screenwriter *Will Lee, actor and comic *Robert Lees, screenwriter *Carl Lerner, editor and director *
Irving Lerner Irving Lerner (March 7, 1909, New York City – December 25, 1976, Los Angeles) was an American filmmaker. Biography Before becoming a filmmaker, Lerner was a research editor for Columbia University's Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, getting h ...
, director *Sam Levene, actor *Lewis Leverett, actorSchwartz (1999). *Alfred Lewis Levitt, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 130. *Helen Slote Levitt, screenwriter *Mitch Lindemann, screenwriter *
Norman Lloyd Norman Nathan Lloyd (' Perlmutter; November 8, 1914 – May 11, 2021) was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, including ...
, actor *Ben Maddow, screenwriter *Arnold Manoff, screenwriter *John McGrew, animator *
Ruth McKenney Ruth Marguerite McKenney (November 18, 1911 – July 25, 1972) was an American author and journalist, best remembered for '' My Sister Eileen'', a memoir of her experiences growing up in Ohio and moving to Greenwich Village with her sister Eilee ...
, writer *Bill Melendez, animator *John "Skins" Miller, actor *Paula Miller (actress), actress *Josef Mischel, screenwriter *Karen Morley, actress *Henry Myers (screenwriter), Henry Myers, screenwriter *Mortimer Offner, screenwriter *Alfred Palca, writer and producer *
Larry Parks Samuel Lawrence Klausman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975) was an American stage and film actor. His career arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing, before it was virtually ended when he admitted to having once been ...
, actor *Leo Penn, actorBuhle and Wagner (2003a), p. 45. *George Pepper (film producer) *Jeanette Pepper, economist *Irving Pichel, director *Louis Pollock, screenwriter *Abraham Polonsky, screenwriter and director *William Pomerance, animation executive *Vladimir Pozner (writer), Vladimir Pozner, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 11. *Stanley Prager, directorBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 15. *John Randolph (actor), John Randolph, actor *
Maurice Rapf Maurice Harry Rapf (May 19, 1914 – April 15, 2003) was an American screenwriter and professor of film studies. His work includes the screenplays for early Disney live-action features ''Song of the South'' (1946) and '' So Dear to My Heart'' (19 ...
, screenwriter *
Rosaura Revueltas Rosaura Revueltas Sánchez (August 6, 1910 – April 30, 1996) was a Mexican actress of screen and stage, and a dancer, author and teacher. Early life Rosaura Revueltas was born in Lerdo, Durango, Mexico to the famously artistic Revueltas famil ...
, actress *Robert L. Richards, screenwriter *Frederic I. Rinaldo, screenwriter *Martin Ritt, actor and director *W. L. River, screenwriter *Marguerite Roberts, screenwriter *David Robison (screenwriter), David Robison, screenwriterLerner (2003), pp. 337–338. *Naomi Robison, actress *Louise Rousseau, screenwriterBuhle and Wagner (2003b), p. 6. *Jean Rouverol, Jean Rouverol (Butler), actress and writer *Shimen Ruskin, actor *Madeleine Ruthven, screenwriter *Waldo Salt, screenwriter *John Sanford (1904–2003), John Sanford, screenwriter *Bill Scott (voice actor), Bill Scott, voice actor and producer *Martha Scott, actress *Robert Shayne, actor *Joshua Shelley, actor *Madeleine Sherwood, actress *Reuben Ship, screenwriter *Viola Brothers Shore, screenwriter *Hilda Simms, actress *George Sklar, playwright *Art Smith (actor), Art Smith, actor *Louis Solomon, screenwriter and producer *Ray Spencer, screenwriter *Janet Stevenson, writer *Philip Stevenson, writer *Donald Ogden Stewart, screenwriter *Arthur Strawn, screenwriter *Bess Taffel, screenwriter *Julius Tannenbaum, producer *Frank Tarloff, screenwriter *Shepard Traube, director and screenwriter *Dorothy Tree, actress *Paul Trivers, screenwriter *George Tyne, actor *Michael Uris, writer *Peter Viertel, screenwriter *Bernard Vorhaus, director *John Weber (producer), John Weber, producer *Richard Weil, screenwriter *Hannah Weinstein, producer *
John Wexley John Wexley (1907 – February 4, 1985) was an American writer, best known for his play '' The Last Mile''. Early life and career Wexley was born in New York City. His early career involved acting as part of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Th ...
, screenwriter * Michael Wilson, screenwriter *Nedrick Young, actor and screenwriter *Julian Zimet, screenwriter


See also

* Joseph McCarthy


References

Informational notes
  1. The following transcript of an excerpt from the interrogation of screenwriter John Howard Lawson by HUAC chairman J. Parnell Thomas gives an example of the tenor of some of the exchanges:
    Thomas: Are you a member of the Communist Party or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
    Lawson: It's unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of Americanism.
    Thomas: That's not the question. That's not the question. The question is – have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
    Lawson: I am framing my answer in the only way in which any American citizen can frame his answer to ...
    Thomas: Then you deny it?
    Lawson: ... a question that invades his ... absolutely invades his privacy.
    Thomas: Then you deny ... You refuse to answer that question, is that correct?
    Lawson: I have told you that I will offer my beliefs, my affiliations and everything else to the American public and they will know where I stand as they do from what I have written.
    Thomas: Stand away from the stand ...
    Lawson: I have written for Americanism for many years ...
    Thomas: Stand away from the stand ...
    Lawson: And I shall continue to fight for the Bill of Rights, which you are trying to destroy.
    Thomas: Officer, take this man away from the stand.
  2. At least a couple of recent histories incorrectly give December 3 as the date of the Waldorf Statement: Ross (2002), p. 217; Stone (2004), p. 365. Among the many 1947 sources that establish the correct date, there is the ''New York Times'' article "Movies to Oust Ten Cited For Contempt of Congress; Major Companies Also Vote to Refuse Jobs to Communists – 'Hysteria, Surrender of Freedom' Charged by Defense Counsel; Movies Will Oust Ten Men Cited for Contempt of Congress After Voting to Refuse Employment to Communists", which appeared on the front page of the newspaper November 26.
  3. Blankfort gave co-operative, if uninformative, testimony to HUAC and was not blacklisted.
  4. Madeline Lee – who was married to actor Jack Gilford, also listed by ''Red Channels'' – was frequently confused with another actress of the era named Madaline Lee.
  5. Four months after refusing to co-operate with HUAC, Dagget appeared again before the committee and named names.
  6. In 1951, Dare appeared before HUAC, lied about having never been a Communist, and continued to work in the entertainment industry. He was blacklisted two years later for his involvement in ''Meet the People'', a 1939 theatrical production. Soon afterward, he recanted his earlier testimony and named names.Boyer (1996); Navasky (1980), p. 74; Cogley (1956), p. 124.
Citations Bibliography *Anderson, John (2007). "Old Hollywood", ''Village Voice'', November 20 (availabl
online
. *Andrew, Geoff (2005). "''On the Waterfront''", in ''Time Out Film Guide'', 14th ed., ed. John Pym. London: Time Out. *Barnouw, Erik (1990 [1975]). ''Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television''. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Barzman, Norma (2004). ''The Red And The Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate''. New York: Thunder's Mouth/Nation Books. *Belton, John (1994). ''American Cinema/American Culture'' [excerpt] in Ross (2002), pp. 193–212. *Billingsley, Kenneth Lloyd (2000). ''Hollywood Party''. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing. . *Bogart, Humphrey (1948). "I'm No Communist", ''Photoplay'', March (availabl
online
. *Bosworth, Patricia (1997). ''Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story''. New York: Simon and Schuster. *Boyer, Edward J. (1996). "Danny Dare, 91; Blacklisted Choreographer, Dancer", ''Los Angeles Times'', November 30 (availabl
online
. *Brown, Jared (1989) ''Zero Mostel: A Biography'', New York: Athenium. . *Buhle, Paul, and David Wagner (2003a). ''Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950–2002''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. *Buhle, Paul, and David Wagner (2003b). ''Blacklisted: The Film Lover's Guide to the Hollywood Blacklist''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. *Burlingame, Jon (2000). ''Sound and Vision: 60 Years of Motion Picture Soundtracks''. New York: Billboard/Watson-Guptill. *Ceplair, Larry, and Steven Englund (2003). ''The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960''. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. *Chapman, James (2003). ''Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present''. London: Reaktion. *Charity, Tom (2005). "''Storm Center''", in ''Time Out Film Guide'', 14th ed., ed. John Pym. London: Time Out. *Christensen, Terry and Peter J. Haas (2005). ''Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films''. Armonk, N.Y., and London: M.E. Sharpe. *Cogley, John (1956). "Report on Blacklisting." Collected in ''Blacklisting: An Original Anthology'' (1971), Merle Miller and John Cogley. New York: Arno Press/New York Times. *Cohen, Karl F. (2004 [1997]). ''Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. *Cook, Fred J. (1971). ''The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy''. New York: Random House. *Denning, Michael (1998). ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century''. London and New York: Verso. *Dick, Bernard F. (1982). ''Hellman in Hollywood''. East Brunswick, N.J., London, and Toronto: Associated University Presses. *Dick, Bernard F. (1989). ''Radical Innocence: A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. *Doherty, Thomas (2003). ''Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture''. New York: Columbia University Press. *Everitt, David (2007). ''A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television''. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. *Faulk, John Henry (1963). ''Fear on Trial''. Austin: University of Texas Press. *Fried, Albert (1997). ''McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History''. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Gevinson, Alan (ed.) (1997). ''American Film Institute Catalog – Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911–1960''. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. *Gill, Glenda Eloise (2000). ''No Surrender! No Retreat!: African-American Pioneer Performers of 20th Century American Theater''. New York: Palgrave. *Goldfield, Michael (2004). "Communist Party", in ''Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy'', ed. Gwendolyn Mink and Alice O'Connor. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. *Goldstein, Patrick (1999). "Many Refuse to Clap as Kazan Receives Oscar", ''Los Angeles Times'', March 22 (availabl
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. *Lasky, Betty (1989). ''RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All''. Santa Monica, California: Roundtable. *Lerner, Gerda (2003). ''Fireweed: A Political Autobiography''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. *Lumenick, Lou (2007a). "Father's Footsteps", ''New York Post'', February 22 (availabl

. *Lumenick, Lou (2007b). "Ask the Old Pro", ''New York Post'', November 23 (availabl

. *McGill, Lisa D. (2005). ''Constructing Black Selves: Caribbean American Narratives and the Second Generation''. New York and London: New York University Press. *Murphy, Brenda (2003). ''Congressional Theatre: Dramatizing McCarthyism on Stage, Film, and Television''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Navasky, Victor S. (1980). ''Naming Names.'' New York: Viking. *Nelson, Cary, and Jefferson Hendricks (1990). ''Edwin Rolfe: A Biographical Essay and Guide to the Rolfe Archive at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. *Newman, Robert P. (1989). ''The Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby''. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press. *O'Neill, William L. (1990 [1982]). ''A Better World: Stalinism and the American Intellectuals''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. *Parish, James Robert (2004). ''The Hollywood Book of Scandals: The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of More than 100 American Movie and TV Idols''. New York et al.: McGraw-Hill. *Perebinossoff, Philippe, Brian Gross, and Lynne S. Gross (2005). ''Programming for TV, Radio, and the Internet: Strategy, Development, and Evaluation''. Burlington, Mass., and Oxford: Focal Press/Elsiver. *Ramón, David (1997). ''Dolores del Río''. México: Clío. *''Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' (1950). New York: Counterattack. *Ross, Stephen J. (ed.) (2002). ''Movies and American Society''. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Blackwell. *Schrecker, Ellen (2002). ''The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents''. New York: Palgrave. *Schwartz, Jerry (1999). "Some Actors Outraged by Kazan Honor", Associated Press, March 13 (availabl
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. *Scott, William Berryman, and Peter M. Rutkoff (1999). ''New York Modern: The Arts and the City''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. *Smith, Jeff (1999). "'A Good Business Proposition': Dalton Trumbo, ''Spartacus'', and the End of the Blacklist", in ''Controlling Hollywood: Censorship/Regulation in the Studio Era'', ed. Matthew Bernstein. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. *Stone, Geoffrey R. (2004). ''Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism''. New York: W. W. Norton. *Sullivan, James (2010). ''Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. *Trumbo, Dalton (1970). ''Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo 1942–1962''. Manfull, Helen, ed. New York: Evans and Company. ISBN *"Oliver Crawford: Hollywood Writer", ''Times'' (London), October 8, 2008 (availabl
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. *Verrier, Richard (2011). "Writers Guild Restores Screenplay Credit to Trumbo for 'Roman Holiday'", ''Los Angeles Times'', December 19 (availabl

. *Wakeman, John, ed. (1987). ''World Film Directors-Volume One: 1890–1945''. New York: H. W. Wilson. *Ward, Brian (1998). ''Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations''. London: UCL Press. *Ward, Jerry Washington, and Robert Butler (2008). ''The Richard Wright Encyclopedia''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. *Weigand, Kate (2002). ''Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation''. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. *Weinraub, Bernard (2000). "Blacklisted Screenwriters Get Credits", ''New York Times'', August 5. *Zecker, Robert (2007). ''Metropolis: The American City in Popular Culture''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. Further reading *Berg, Sandra (2006). "When Noir Turned Black" (interview with
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
), ''Written By'' (November) (availabl
onlineArchived version of May 2013
. *Bernstein, Walter (2000). ''Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist''. New York: Da Capo. *Briley, Ronald (1994). "Reel History and the Cold War", ''OAH Magazine of History'' 8 (winter) (availabl

. * Caballero, Raymond. ''McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. *Georgakas, Dan (1992). "Hollywood Blacklist", in ''Encyclopedia of the American Left'', ed. Mari Jo Buhle,
Paul Buhle Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is a (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series ...
, and Dan Georgakas. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press (availabl
online
. *Kahn, Gordon (1948). ''Hollywood on Trial: The Story of the 10 Who Were Indicted''. New York: Boni & Gaer (excerpte

. *Leab, Daniel J., with guide by Robert E. Lester (1991). ''Communist Activity in the Entertainment Industry: FBI Surveillance Files on Hollywood, 1942–1958''. Bethesda, Maryland: University Publications of America (availabl
online
. *Murray, Lawrence L. (1975). "Monsters, Spys, and Subversives: The Film Industry Responds to the Cold War, 1945–1955", ''Jump Cut'' 9 (availabl

. *Nizer, Louis. (1966). The Jury Returns. New York: Doubleday & Co. *"Seven-Year Justice", ''Time'', July 6, 1962 (availabl

. *Vaughn, Robert. (2004). Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting, 2nd ed. New York: Proscenium/Limelight Editions. (Originally published New York: Putnam, 1972). *


External links


Albert Maltz's HUAC Testimony
transcript of the writer's testimony (preceded by excerpts of actor Ronald Reagan's testimony – see below for link to complete Reagan transcript)

detailed examination of legal issues involved in HUAC proceedings by historian Ellen Schrecker
"McCarthy Era Blacklist Victims, Peace Groups, Academics, and Media File Amicus Briefs in CCR Case"
news release focused on 2009 brief filed by former blacklistees including Irwin Corey in ''Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project'' Supreme Court free speech case
Ronald Reagan's HUAC Testimony
transcript of the actor's testimony of October 23, 1947



transcript of excerpts from PBS documentary ''The Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist'' and interview by ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NewsHour'' correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth with two blacklisted artists, writer/producer
Paul Jarrico Paul Jarrico (January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. Biography Early years Paul Jarrico was born in Los An ...
and actress Marsha Hunt
FBI Documents on Communist Infiltration – Motion Picture Industry (COMPIC)Hollywood Blacklist
series of interviews and transcripts (many online) from Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollywood Blacklist Hollywood blacklist, History of Hollywood, Los Angeles History of film McCarthyism Political and cultural purges Political repression in the United States Cinema of Southern California Cinema of the United States Film and video terminology 1940s in American cinema 1950s in American cinema Anti-communism in the United States