.of having betrayed their colleagues. to demonstrate their patriotism, the *. Those who were blacklisted suffered in moguls agreed not to employ • the shadows, yet many clung to a "Communists or a member of any party or bankrupt system of beliefs long after group which advocates the overthrow of communism's excesses were exposed. the U.S. government by force." Today, some caught in this drama are The blacklist was born. hailed as martyrs. Others are remem- As a result, hundreds of the bered for making ringing declarations entertainment industry's most gifted they did not believe in order to save actors, directors, screenwriters, musicians their jobs. There are still whispers and technicians—many Communist Party about "fronts" who built their profes- members, some merely sympathizers— sional careers on the work of their were shut out of their chosen profession. blacklisted peers. There are still stories Dozens were subpoenaed by the House of those who turned in their colleagues Un-American Activities Committee because they coveted their wives, their (HUAC) and asked if they were, or had jobs, their houses. ever been, Communists. The first 10 Half a century is long enough for the writers and directors refused to answer, guilty to die off, for memories to fade, claiming protection under the First for apologies to start. And that's just Amendment. They were cited for contempt what has happened, In an Oct. 27 ceremony in Hollywood, the four major of Congress and sent to jail. Those who •entertainment talent guilds—for writ- followed claimed protection under the Fifth ers, directors, actors and producers— Amendment, they were blacklisted. formally apologized for their complicity Indeed, all those who did not "confess" and in perpetuating the blacklist The Writ- name names before the HUAC suffered a ers Guild of America this year has similar fate. restored the proper credits to 55 films To survive, some blacklistees moved written by blacklisted writers. But doz- abroad and started over, learning new ens more such movies remain, and a languages and working on substandard great number of such films—not to productions. Others, mainly screenwriters, mention TV shows—are probably un- FILE PHSITOASSOCIP TED PRESS were able to work under or traceable. For those no longer living, In 1950, writer and producer Adrian Scott through "fronts"—people who served as remorse and reparation comes too late. was led away in cuffs to serve a one-year stand-ins for the outcasts. But many others • The blacklist was broken in 1960 sentence for contempt of Congress. lived hand to mouth, sold insurance, fell •When the producers of "Spartacus" into depression. Among those who lost ' gave the screenplay credit to blacklist- hope after years on the blacklist was actor . ed writer . But it took REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Phil Loeb, who checked himself into a New •many more years for others to share York hotel and took an overdose of the privilege. And the anguish caused sleeping pills in 1955. . by the blacklist endures among those Blacklist: See NOTEBOOK, G6, Col. 1

• G6 Hollywood's SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1997 R Raw Wound Hollywood's Ruined Artists Finally Get Measure of Respect

By Sharon Waxman Special to The Woolliness Past Darkest Hour -it '1,3 1 611 LOS ANGELES Nov. 24, i947, executives from Hollywood's major studios held a NOTEBOOK, From G1 meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in . The proceeding Even today the complicated web of was secret, the mood ominous and the falsehood and hypocrisy created by the outcome devastating. blacklist taints friendships and stirs Under intense pressure from Congress animosity. Those who named names and continued to work retain the stain •

- 'who survived it ships and had two more kids. No one To Mexico talked politics for fear of provoking the • Mexican government Besides, revela- Jean Rouverol Butler looked '', dons about Stalin's terror and the through the peephole of her front door -Soviet invasion of Hungary had compli- and she knew. Outside, two men, cated their political beliefs. "Hugo was strangers in suits and hats, stood on the • • never well cast as an activist," Butler front porch asking for her husband, 1 says. "And I was so bloody busy. Hugo. The hats gave it away; nobody Survival became uppermost. Just plain wore them in Southern , even survival." They went to Italy to work on in 1951. One man had an envelope that "Sodom and Gomorrah" and stayed for contained the end of their careers as ▪ 'three years before returning to Mexi- screenwriters. co. By the end of the '60s Butler sold It was a subpoena 4, two short stories to magazines under "My husband isn't here," she told ' her own name. Life went on. them, her voice cracking in fear. She "Everything about our lives, al- improvised. "We've had a disagree- ,: though we worried economically, was ment and I don't know where he is." •exciting and kind of wonderful," Butler "Well be back," they said. now says. Back in the States, she went Jean Butler left that night, leaving on to write historical biographies for four kids to the care of her parents and -children about Harriet Beecher Stowe in-laws. She and her husband, both and Pancho Villa, and to script soap Communist Party members, never operas—"," "As the , • ; again returned to their house in Holly- World Turns" and "Search for Tomor- ,. wood for fear of the envelope aid the row." men in hats. They stayed with friends, Asked as for her politics, Butler :• ;in mangy motels, in Palm Springs, Then one day as she was driving down '7. Sunset Boulevard, Butler heard the 'RED SCARE • radio announcer read a list of people • whom HUAC had been unable to sub- poena Hugo Butler was one of them. ;-; They fled to Newport Beach. They •hid in Ensenada, Mexico, for the sum- '. mer, then set out—with the kids, some ; • clothes and a Siamese cat—for Mexico • City. The trip took two weeks. They stayed 12 years. , • In the colony of exiled Americans, Hugo Butler worked under the pseud- onyms Hugo Mozo, or H.B. Addis. - Sometimes a friend in Hollywood - would front for him. He wrote two films for famed director Luis Bunuel, "The • Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" and "The Young One." His docudrama about bullfighting, 'Torero," won an Oscar nomination—for Hugo Mom. Jean Butler wrote "Autumn Leaves" based on her novella; a friend, Jack Jevne, fronted for her. Joan Crawford starred. She co-wrote 'The Miracle" with her father-in-law, Frank Buder; she got no credit. Roger Moore COURTESY OF THE ETC. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER The Hollywood 10 and their supporters In a photo from the exhibit. starred. "We could've come back, but we Old-movie fans and recent - would have been blacklisted anyway," features live clips from the students of the blacklist will enjoy congressional hearings of October • says Butler, 81. She now lives in Santa a small exhibit currently on view at Monica Hugo died in 1968, four years 1947, and the exhibit chronicles the D.C. Jewish Community both the development of the . after returning to the United States Center, The one-room gallery at • with a debilitating mental illness; the House Committee on the JCC's 16th Street Un-American Activities and the •• * autopsy showed he had arterial brain headquarters features posters and disease. "We loved Mexico, but we careers of the Hollywood 10. The stills from the great films of the exhibit notes that 11 writers and never saved any money. I wouldn't "Red Scare" era of the '40s and change our lives—except that it killed directors were actually called. The '50s: "Force of Evil," "Body and 1Ith was Bertolt Brecht, who Hugo young," she says. "He had long Soul," "Woman of the Year" and periods between his jobs, and he'd immediately denied his affiliation "Casablanca," to name but a few. been used to things just dropping in his with the Communist Party and It's more an educational exhibit fled to his native Germany. LIP." than an artistic experience, but it's In Mexico they formed close friend- The exhibition is up through worth checking out. A short video Feb. 15. remains faithful to what she calls her "socialist ideals." "Capitalism is a dynamic force that desperately needs a little humanity mixed in,' she says. "I don't like what I THE WASHINGTON POST see here. I think it's a beastly time. An 'I got mine' philosophy does not do us credit" A few years ago she requested her FBI file. It took two years, but the agency finally released 350 of the 800 pages it had on her. All of the relevant information had been blacked out. it doesn't give me one damn bit of information,' she says. A Fateful Hour Composer David Raksin should have known a subpoena was coming. He had mouthed off one too many times about his former membership in the Communist Party, which had kicked him out in 1940 after he voiced some iconoclastic views. But then, he always had trouble keeping his mouth shut Night after night, he tossed in his

8. OK, NUL. 11/ FOR 114 JfAslIN .1131

DO scarf E 40EFILM TOR IRE INASHNCTOM POST Banned In Hollywood: front row, Alfred Levitt, Alfred Palca, Ring Lardner Jr. and Jean Butler; back row, , Frank Tarloff. Robert Lees. 's widow, Norma, and Adrian Scott's widow, Joan, at luncheon honoring blacklisted writers. Butler. top, still remembers when lawmen came to her door. Jarrico, left, died the day after the luncheon. bed. No way would he rat out his friends. No way would he name names. He was no fink. But then. There was his wife and his 2-year-old son. How would they live? Raksin made a splash in Hollywood in 1935 when he wrote the score to "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin, then scored the hit mystery "Laura" in on dozens of films, including "The Bad 1944. By the time of his subpoena in today and subject to party discipline can and the Beautiful,' "Apache" and "AI 1951, the composer was red-hot He at the same time be a loyal American?" Capone." But his own private torture had scored "ForeverAmber"—winning Raissin: Well, I would say that any- over an hour of public testimony has an Oscar nomination—plus 'Mae Se- body who accepts that word for word lasted half a lifetime. cret life of Walter Mitty" and "Daisy cannot be a loyal American, but I just "Unless you have been through this, Kenyon" in a single year. don't see anybody accepting anything you may not know how humiliating it can Now what? Tice that" be, how dreadful it is," Raskin says. Raksin sought the advice of two men It didn't matter much. The right He debates himself endlessly. He hates he respected; one said something wing found him not terribly convincing that it still bothers him. about a "ritual." Raksin seized on this; as an anti-communist and be was black- He says: "I'm not saying I've lived an sure, he thought. It was merely a ritual. listed for about six months. Raksin's exemplary life. But I have, except for A charade. A necessary evil He felt former friends on the left shunned his that one time." He amends an earlier he'd found a way out. company. There were nasty phone statement it wasn't a major sin. It was a middling sin." Pause. "Why should I "Originally my thought was the only calls, threats, talk behind his back At be saddled with it?" honorable thing to do was not to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he testify," says Raskin, now 85. "But 1 heard an orchestra member brush past He says: "What I did was the best a man like me—imperfections and all— began to think about it I was rist and hiss, 'Don't worry, you'll get unaware that I had no money, a brand- yours." At a beach party the hostess could do in a situation like that Some people remained my friends. It is one of new child, a wife. I'd lose everything I whispered in the ear of a newcomer, the things that ifl needed reassuring— had, my career would he at end." who avoided him. It continues to this and maybe I do—substantiates my He decided to testify, but in his own day. At a dinner party just a few years ago, Raksin heard a friend across the belief that some people knew it was not way. He would name only people who abject capitulation." had been named before. He would not table say to his wife, "He was an And then: All that hell I went grovel He would try. informer, wasn't he?" Eventually Raksin went back to work through, and it really was hell—I said, Rep. Charles Potter (R-Mich.): 1 Why am I being victimized?' And there assume you probably weren't a very good member of the Communist Party because you did question certain prin- ciples ... " Raksin; "Well, I just don't think that most of the people I knew were good members because they used to ques- tion them all the time." Potter "Would you say that a person who is active in the Communist Party of

ERA OF THE PURGE: A TIMELINE

1917—Bolshevik Revolution. accusations of Communists working in State 1919—American Communist Party founded. Department, continues for four years. 1924—American Communist Party 1951—Second round of HUAC hearings into candidate William Z. Foster wins 33,000 Hollywood Communists. American votes in presidential election. Communist Party outlawed by Supreme 1939—German invasion of Poland; World Court decision upholding the Alien War II begins. Registration Act, which bans any group 1941—German invasion of Soviet Union. conspiring to "advocate violent overthrow 1945—German surrender, end of World War of the Government." II in Europe. 1960—Blacklist broken with "Spartacus" 1947—Unofficial start of Cold War. screenwriting credit to Dalton Trumbo. 1947—October: House Committee on Un-American Activities begins hearings on 1975—The Un-American Activities Hollywood subversives. Committee (the Internal Affairs Committee 1947—November: Hollywood studios adopt in later years) dissolved. blacklist_ 1997—Writers Guild of America restores 1950—Sen. Joseph McCarthy era begins with credits of blacklisted writers on 55 films. the Board to consider the implications was nothing I could do. I'd go and work. of the forthcoming hearing. It may now That was the only thing I could do, was be widened. It may ultimately be ex- compose music." tended to include any freedom-loving And then: "I had it wrong. I was nonconformist or any member of a thinking only of myself. And how this particular race or any member of a [expletive] wound never closed." union--or anyone.... Testimony "I can find no reason in my conduct as an actress or as a union member • "I was blacklisted for eight years, but I why I should have to contemplate a worked using different fronts. People severing of the main artery of my life: fronted for different reasons. Some did my career as a performer." it for money. Others refused to take ■ March 20, 1951, response from the money. Some did it to try to get a career Screen Actors Guild to Sondergaard, because they were aspiring writers and who was subsequently blacklisted: they were getting credits, which is what "Like the overwhelming majority of a career in this business is based on. the American people, we believe that a Some did it out of friendship, or because 'clear and present danger to our nation they felt the blacklist was bad. But even exists. The Guild Board believes that today I feel I couldn't expose them.' all participants in the international —TV and film writer Walter Bern- Communist Party conspiracy against stein ("You Are There," "The Front," our nation should be exposed for what "Semi-Tough," "Miss Evers' Boys"). they are—enemies of our country and • "I was working on a weekly in New of our form of government York City, the Chief, covering City "If any actor by his own actions and one day Walter called me and outside of union activities has so offend- I could help. He was in trouble, and ed American public opinion that he has made himself unsaleable at the box could he use my name. I said absolutely. office, the Guild cannot and would not I did it as a favor to a friend. I wouldn't want to force any employer to hire him." take any money at all. His brother • "Screen Actors Guild would like to Stanley was my best friend, and Walter express how deeply we regret that the was our hero; he went to Dartmouth poison of fear so paralyzed our organi- before the war, he was on the fencing zation, when courage and conviction team. He went into the service very were needed to oppose the blacklist early one of the first draftees.... Only our sister union, Actors Equity "One time I had to go to a producer's Association, had the courage to stand meeting they wanted to meet the behind its members and help them to writer. I dressed up like a writer, I wore continue their creative lives in the a tweed sports jacket, smoked a pipe, theater." and apparently I pulled it off very well." —Richard Masur, president, Screen —Leslie Slote, front for Walter Bern- Actors Guild, Oct 27, 1997. stein and other blacklistees. • " hired me and used 'Project Lawrence' his name on some of the pictures I wrote. It depends on how you look at it In 1988, Hollywood reporter David Either he was doing me a favor by Robb found what he was looking for in letting me work and paying me and not a cardboard box abandoned in a UCLA giving me credit, or he was exploiting film school archive: the unsorted pa- me because I was blacklisted and pers of blacklisted screenwriter Mi- worked for less money and could do chael Wilson, one of the great talents of work without demanding credit A lot of his time. people are very critical of him I consid- Robb could barely believe his eyes er him a friend. For which people are as he sifted through letters, telegrams critical of me." and memorandums. Here was incon- —Blarklisted screenwriter Bernard trovertible evidence that Wilson, who Gordon ("The Law vs. Billy the IGd," died in 1978, was the original screen- "," "Escape From writer of the epic "Lawrence of Arabia." San Quentin"). A telegram from "Lawrence of Ara- • "I'm 82 years old, I don't talk about bia" director to Wilson, that stuff anymore. I just sell my old dated Feb. 3, 1960: re "a proto-treat- pictures." ment for next project Lawrence," it —Writer-producer Philip Yordan, read. "What a masterly job you are front for Gordon and other blacklisted doing. Your extraordinary grasp and writers. inventive appreciation of complex sub- • March 13, 1951, letter from Oscar- ject and character fills me with admira- winning actress Gale Sondergaard, tion and excitement" who was subpoenaed to appear before Then a letter dated Nov. 29. 1962, the Un-American Activities Committee, from Wilson to , who re- appealing to the Screen Actors Guild ceived sole screenwriting credit for the for support; film: "If I were 'clean,' "—as in, not "I must earnestly and fraternally ask blacklisted--my name would already haven't nailed it down yet: Yordan declined to comment be alongside yours as co-author of this picture. Anyone who takes the trouble And Now? to read my stuff chronologically—from Where has Congress been as all this the time I wrote my first notes on remembering unfolds? People in Holly- `Lawrence' in 1959 until I wrote my third wood want to know. draft screenplay in 1961—will see where "After all, it was a congressional and how the basic ideas and overall committee that instituted these investi- conception of this picture germinated." gations. It was the f Un-American Activi- Robb called Lean in London black ties) committee and Congress who cited about these documents, and the prickly people for contempt and was responsi- director denied that Michael Wilson ble for sending them to jail," Reisman deserved any credit He said he was says. "I would have thought that Con- "absolutely astounded" that anyone gress or a representative of Congress— would think so. The credit remained someone in office—would have re- unchanged until Lean died, when the ferred to this committee's origins and Writers Guild added Michael Wilson's the nature of the investigations: name to the screenplay. House members, however, say they That was two years ago. have better things to do. And besides, Last year Robb found 30 other unat- they weren't even invited to the official tributed credits by matching the Social event on Oct. 27. Security numbers of pseudonyms to "The only reason I was aware of [the those of blacklisted writers—like Ger- anniversary] is because Fm in Los ald L.C. Copley for screenwriter Lester Angeles and I heard something on Cole on "Born Free," or Raymond T public radio," says Rep. Howard Ber- Marcus for blacklistee Bernard Gor- man (D-Calif), a Judiciary Committee don on "Chicago Confidential" and member. "." Their "How the hell are we supposed to credits were restored this year. know about this event?" says Barney The credits on many other such Frank (Mass.), another Judiciary films remain unchanged; the topic is Committee member. "Congress has still too sensitive. Blacklisted writer unfortunately more than one such mo- Ben Barzinan is now known to have ment HUAC did a lot of bad things, not written the script of "El Cid," the just to these people. Should we com- medieval Spanish epic starring Charl- memorate every anniversary?" ton Heston and Sophia Loren, but He adds, "I'm not in favor of having Philip Yordan has refused to have his contemporary politicians make formal own name removed, according to pronouncements about history be- Robb. Del Reisman, a past Writers cause it will be politicized. It won't be Guild president who has helped to good history. And it's a diversion from restore credits, says: "It's in midair. We changing public policy"