James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.
McCarthyism, also known as the Second Red Scare, was the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United States during the late 1940s through the 1950s. After the mid-1950s, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had spearheaded the campaign, gradually lost his public popularity and credibility after several of his accusations were found to be false. The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren made a series of rulings on civil and political rights that overturned several key laws and legislative directives, and helped bring an end to the Second Red Scare. Historians have suggested since the 1980s that as McCarthy's involvement was less central than that of others, a different and more accurate term should be used instead that more accurately conveys the breadth of the phenomenon, and that the term McCarthyism is, in the modern day, outdated. Ellen Schrecker has suggested that Hooverism, after FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover, is more appropriate.
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. was an American screenwriter. A member of the "Hollywood Ten", he was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studios during the late 1940s and 1950s after his appearance as an "unfriendly" witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) leading to Lardner being found guilty of contempt of Congress.
The Front is a 1976 American comedy drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s, when artists, writers, directors, and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of being Communists themselves. It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Michael Murphy.
John Howard Lawson was an American playwright, screenwriter, arts critic, and cultural historian. After enjoying a relatively successful career writing plays that were staged on and off Broadway in the 1920s and '30s, Lawson relocated to Hollywood and began working in the motion picture industry. In 1933, he helped to organize the Screen Writers Guild and became its first president. In the ensuing years, he was credited with a number of notable screenplays including Blockade (1938), Action in the North Atlantic (1943), and Counter-Attack (1945).
Herbert J. Biberman 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' strike in Grant County, New Mexico. His membership in the Directors Guild of America was posthumously restored in 1997; he had been expelled in 1950.
Alvah Cecil Bessie was an American novelist, screenwriter and journalist. He was one of nearly 3,000 American volunteers who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He is perhaps best known as a member of the "Hollywood Ten", the group of film artists blacklisted by the entertainment industry for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Lester Cole was an American screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted for their refusal to testify regarding their alleged involvement with the Communist Party.
Michael Wilson was an American screenwriter known for his work on Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Planet of the Apes (1968), Friendly Persuasion (1956), A Place in the Sun (1951), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). The latter two screenplays won him Academy Awards. His career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist, during which time he wrote numerous uncredited screenplays.
Paul Jarrico was an Oscar-nominated American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios during the era of McCarthyism.
Albert Maltz 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 involvement with the Communist Party USA. They and many other US entertainment industry figures were subsequently blacklisted, which denied Maltz employment in the industry for many years.
Arnold Manoff was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
Jean Rouverol was an American actress, screenwriter and author who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
The Hollywood Ten is a 1950 American short documentary film. Shot in 16mm with a runtime of 15 minutes, it was created quickly to raise public awareness and legal funds for the ten screenwriters and directors who comprised the "Hollywood Ten". At the time of filming in April 1950, the ten blacklisted men were facing prison sentences for contempt of Congress stemming from their non-cooperation with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Irving Pichel was an American actor and film director, who won acclaim both as an actor and director in his Hollywood career.
Alfred Lewis Levitt was an American film and television screenwriter. He attended New York University, and served in a camera unit of the United States Air Force during the Second World War. Following the war, Levitt was the screenwriter for such films as The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Mrs. Mike (1950), and The Barefoot Mailman (1951).
John Berry was an American film director. He went into exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist.
Trumbo is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach and written by John McNamara. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and David James Elliott as John Wayne. The film follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and is based on the 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook.
George Pepper, known also as George P. Werker was a blacklisted Hollywood organizer and producer who collaborated with the Spanish film director Luis Buñuel and writer Hugo Butler.
Edward Huebsch, AKA "Eddie Huebsch" and "Ed Huebsch," (1914-1982) was a 20th-century American Communist screenwriter whose career was cut short by the Hollywood blacklist.
Informational notes
Thomas: Are you a member of the Communist Party, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Lawson: It is unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of American—
Thomas: (pounding gavel) That is not the question. That is 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 a question which absolutely invades his rights.
Thomas: Then you refuse to answer that question; is that correct?
Lawson: I have told you that I will offer my beliefs, affiliations, and everything else to the American public, and they will know where I stand.
Thomas: (pounding gavel) Excuse the witness—
Lawson: As they do from what I have written.
Thomas: (pounding gavel) Stand away from the stand—
Lawson: I have written Americanism for many years, 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—
[Applause and boos.] [261] [262]
Citations
In the early days of the Martin Dies Committee ... the question had simply been, Are you a member of the Communist Party of the United States? As a countermeasure, the Party adopted a rule that automatically cancelled a Communist's membership the moment the question was asked. He could then answer 'No' without perjuring himself. The final wording ... was adopted to circumvent the Party's tactic.
the anti-communist frenzy of the 1950s ... crippled artistic and intellectual life in the US for decades. The film industry still suffers from the purge of left-wing and critical spirits.
These absurdities ['red influence' over film content] were endorsed by stoolpigeon witnesses such as Dmytryk and Kazan, who eagerly testified about left-wing interference with their 'artistic integrity.'
Bernstein is mentioned by his real name in a single Venona message from 1944, which states that he has 'promised to write a report on his trip.'
Bibliography
Further reading