Cultural files in groups to understand the situation better.

In the years following World War II (1939-45), the United States and Soviet Union engaged in a tense military and political rivalry that became known as the Cold War. Although the U.S. and its communist rival rarely confronted each other directly, they both attempted to extend their influence and promote their systems of government around the world. A number of Americans believed that their nation's security depended on preventing the spread of communism, and this attitude created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion in many parts of the country.

John F. Kennedy : Senator at the time (elected in 1952); staunch anti-communist.

Robert Kennedy .December 1952, he was appointed by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy as assistant counsel of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Shirley Temple is an American film and television actress, singer and dancer. She was born April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California. She was such an active child that her mother enrolled her in a dancing class. A Hollywood talent agent visited the class and picked 3-year-old Shirley to appear in a series of comedy shorts. In 1934, she became a star in Bright Eyes. At the age of 8, she was suspected of having Communist leanings (not four as is said in the comic), because she autographed a photo for the Hollywood correspondent of an allegedly Communist newspaper in Paris.

Joe McCarthy was an undistinguished Senator from Wisconsin, a Republican, a heavy drinker with a falsified war record. He made a speech on February 1950 in which he claimed he could name 205 members of the Communist party who worked in the State department.

HUAC: the House Un-American Activities Committee. The content of Hollywood films has always been regulated in one form or another, however between 1947 and 1954, the HUAC members considered it their duty to check for any Communist influences. Hollywood became the best known target of the committee.

McCarthyism is called the second Red Scare because the first Scare happened a couple decades earlier following World War I. However, the two Red Scares were not identical. The first Scare had much more to do with worker revolution and political radicalism. The government feared that Americans might become overwhelmingly Communist. During the second Red Scare, people were much more concerned with foreigners infiltrating the government. This is where McCarthy came in. He was appointed to find the Communists that were inside the US government. McCarthy enjoyed using the idea of a blacklist. To be “blacklisted” during this time period, meant that you were positively a Communist and had to be tried as such. McCarthyism is also often called the “Witch Hunt”.

McCarthyism : who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.

He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, his tactics and inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate. The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti- communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents. 1.the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of proCommunist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.

2.the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American Communists who were charged with passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. They were convicted and they were convicted and executed for espionage. It was the first execution of civilians for espionage in American History. They were executed on June 19, 1953. Even to this day, the execution of the Rosenbergs is controversial. There were many others that were convicted of the same crime, and their punishment was no more than a few years in jail. What can be seen here is the dangerous effects of hysteria. When an entire country gets caught up in an event, it can be blown out of proportion and people can get hurt. This is the fate that the Rosenbergs suffered during the Communist scare.

The Hollywood Ten were a group of motion-picture producers, directors and screenwriters who were suspected and accused of subversive Communist activity.

The 10 individuals who defied HUAC were (c. 1904-85), (1900-71), (c. 1904-85), (1908-99), Ring Lardner Jr. (1915-2000), (1894-1977), (1908-1985), (1890-1957), Robert (1912-73) and (1905-76). These men, who became known as , not only refused to cooperate with the investigation but denounced the HUAC anti-communist hearings as an outrageous violation of their civil rights, as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave them the right to belong to any political organization they chose.

In October 1947, they were summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee and questioned about their supposed Communist affiliations. They refused to answer the questions and were convicted and imprisoned for 6 to 12 months for being in contempt of Congress. Following their imprisonment, they were refused work back in Hollywood. Most of these severely blacklisted men were never again employed in the film industry. Only two of them ever wrote again, and not until the list disappeared in the early 1960s.

Alvah Cecil Bessie (1904-1985) was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter who was imprisoned for ten months and blacklisted for being one of the “Hollywood Ten”. He appeared before the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) on 28th October,1947, but he refused to answer any questions. The “Hollywood Ten” claimed that the 1stAmendment to the US Constitution gave them the right not to answer any questions.

Herbert J. Biberman (1900-1971) was an American screenwriter and film director and one of the “Hollywood Ten”. In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee beganinvestigating the film industry, and Biberman became one of ten Hollywood writers and directors cited for contempt of Congress when they refused to answer questions about their affiliation to the American Communist Party. He was sentenced to six months in prison.Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, Biberman was forced to finance his own work.

Lester Cole (1904-1985) was an American screenwriter. He was also one of the “Hollywood Ten” and refused to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was convicted of contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to twelve months in prison. Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, the script that he was working on, Viva Zapata (1952) was completed by John Steinbeck.

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was a British comic actor, film director and composer, who was famous for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. His most famous roles were that of The Tramp and The Dictator, in which he ridiculed Hitler.

J. Edgar Hoover maintained Chaplin was a “Hollywood parlour Bolshevik.” After Charlie Chaplin was labeled a communist by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1952 who maintained Chaplin was a “Hollywood parlour Bolshevik” , the Hollywood icon, who had been traveling abroad in Europe, was not allowed to return to the United States. He said then, “I am a victim of lies and vicious propaganda.” Chaplin settled in Switzerland and was eventually permitted to come back home on April 2, 1972, to receive an honorary Oscar.

Other artists who were blacklisted during the McCarthy era:

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) wrote the music for films including On theWaterfront (1954), West Side Story (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Terms of Endearment (1983).

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) was a German-American actress and singer. In the 1920s in Berlin, she acted on stage and in silent films. Her performance in The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international fame. She became an American citizen in 1939.

Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, screenplay writer, and political activist. He is regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time.

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was an American playwright. His works include plays such as Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953). He was married to .

Orson Welles (1915-1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer whose works include The War of the Worlds (1938), the most famous broadcast in the history of radio, and Citizen Kane (1941), which many critics consider the best film of all time.

Richard Wright (1908-1960) was a novelist whose works include Uncle Tom’s Children (1940), Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945).