DOCSLIB.ORG

4 11"C. C(5-,,I/V-V--"-.1--• - Caa El-Dt4- 4 I K -

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
4 11 ALBERT MALTZ 9120 ST. IVES DRIVE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90069 A, I g 5 '73 wtereik des, (Li- I • 3 3 rt....J. -I- 1/4 11"C. C(5-,,i/v-v--"-.1--• - cAA el-dt4- 4 i k - , d- c FR wut 1— (TO. d / Iti-43we-sfe-N i fIrsfl 4. --(i. q 1..),I,, ..,,,,„_ --(.-_, Fn. (1., du a...„,„i Zw-LA-4 s A,,,,r-..- LA.L ik h k 'F- c..." L kva...-a , v.rErt 4 c-,.. A 14. GLAA ..), 4-ed J zi.,,e-y-. (k R_ v' t7 ce.,_444 .L.„. I vLA7 ,7721la, 4— tt,,a. (-1L/—t 4 cr-c- ii(F„ Witzit lowed began to disintegrate with the discovery those they accused of being Communists.' Robert The Hollywood 10 recalled in 1957 that the "Robert Rich" who won an Vaughn, who came to prominence as "The Man Academy Award for "The Brave One" was actually from 1.1.N,C.L.E.," has published his doctoral dtseer- Dalton Trumbo, perhaps the most rambunctious of tatleri, 3 study of thaw business blacklisting, as a the original 10, who used to earn 54,000 a week hook entitled "Only Victims." Stefan Ranier, aaso- To name before he was blacklisted. And yet many of abate editor of Time magazine, has written the the surviving victims of the blacklist—whether forthcoming "A Journal of the Plague Years," they are successful like Ring tardner Jr., who which, Like the Defoe novel of the same name, or not won an Oscar for "IWA"VH," or are on hard times shows how a disease—blacklisting—can infect an Like Alvah Bessie, who never made it back to entire society. Arthur Laureate's blacklisting novel. Hollywood--seern to define themselves and their "The Way We Were," Is soon to be released its to name peers less by what they have become than by hew a movie starring Barbra Streisand. The Canadian they behaved a generation ago. and British Broadcasting Corporations have inde- Moreover, Issues like "naming names' are not pendently put together TV documentaries on those merely the preoccupation of the blacklist alumni bleak days, And Conrad Bromberg. whose father, By Victor S. Wavasity but have suddenly emerged at the center of an S. Edward Bromberg, Is one of the martyrs of the avalanche of revisiting. Eric Bentley's 1971 honk, blacklist, having died of heart disease after testi- "Thirty Years of Treason," a hefty documentary fying under committee compulsion against doctor's A few weeks ago, David Riotels. a Hollywood history primarily about the entertainment investi- Orders, has written a play, "The Dream of a Black- screenwriter In his tate 30's, turned in his script gations, had barely been published when his play listed Actor," which has already been produced about a blacklisted writer to his agent. A secretary "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" opened in the ANTA, matinee series and, when last heard in her 50's read it and dissolved into tears, while to controversial notices In New Haven. Harper & from, was headed for Off-Broadway. a secretary in her 211rs said, "1 !Ike it, but there's Row, which has published the Bentley play, and Gee thing 1 don't understand. Why didn't he just reissued Alger Hiss's answer to Whittaker Chem of HUAC movieland is name the names and go back to work?' bers, "In the Court of Public Opinion," has also THEquickly told. J. Parnell Thomas It is more than a quarter of a century since just reprinted Dalton Trumbo's 'The Time of the brought his committee to Hollywood In October, the so-called Hollywood 10 (also known as 'the Toad," a polemical pamphlet first published in 1947, ostensibly to discover evidence of Communist Unfriendly 10"), a group of screenwriters, direc- 1949, which argued that many of HDAC's most subversion in the mation-picture industry, Critics tors end producers, refused to "name names" or cooperative witnesses "wanted the jobs held by said the committee wanted to bask in the reflected cooperate In any other way with the House Com- mittee on Un-...anent:an Activities itTUAC) investi- gation of Communism in Hollywood. And it is more than 15 years Mace the blacklist which fill- Victor S. Nayasky, a freelance writer and author of -Kennedy Justice," teaches a coarse In N. V- Media Ecology program on the rubject of film propaganda The "Unfriendly JO": Pictured oath their lawyers at a U.S. District Court in 1048 were the 10 writers, producers and directors who defied the House Corn- mittes on UmArnerloan Activates at hearings in Hollywood. They are—with photos of the six surviving neemhers at top—(1) Herbert Biherrnan, . publicity which Hollywood personalities provide: vocal support, each of the 10 arrived with a pre- hunt-line critics have observed that if you want in eared itate.MIT denouncing the committee, which The moral choices posed scare a country you attack its royalty, and Holly- all but one were not permitted to rend the ex- a quarter of a century wood is America's royalty. ception, for reasons that were never clear, being First come the "friendly" witnesses, who pro- Albert Maltz), and challenged the committee's right ago in Hollywood are by vided little evidence of subversion, but lots of to ask questions relating to political affiliations. no means forgotten- laughs. Walt Disney said same attempts had been They based their stand—after much preliminary made to have Mickey Mouse follow the party line. discussion—on the First Amendment's guarantee least of all by those Ayn Rand found Communist propaganda in the against incursions an free speech, rather than the smiling faces of Russian children in "Sting of Fifth Amendment's protection against self- who were forced to choose. Russia." Mrs. Isla Rogers told the committee incrimination. proudly that her daughter Ginger had refused to Ten days later Congress voted to cite them all speak the line, "Share and shore alike—that's for contempt, and in November, Eric Johnston, democracy!" in a picture called 'Tender Cam. president of the Motion Picture ASMieiation of td's case worked its way through the fades" by Dalton Truneho. And Lester Cole was America (li/LP.A.A.), who had earlier assured the courts, was reopened, with Representative John fingered as the screenwriter who had a football 10, "As long as I live, f will never be a party S. Wood at the helm, and the first wit- coach instruct his players, after the fashion of to anything as ureArne.rican as a blacklist." an- ness, Larry Perks, was called an the day the Spanish Communist, Ia Pasionaria. that it is nounced, after a two-day meeting of 50 top execu- Alger Rise went TO prison. Parks, who had starred better to die on your feet than live on your knees. tives at the Waldorf, that the Ill would be sus- as Al Johton in "The Jolson Story," mouthing the words which Jolson himself sang, was more than The following week came the "unfriendlies," pended without pay, and that thereafter no wilting to tell the committee about himself, but he Only 11 of la who had announced that they Communists or other subversives would "know- pleaded that he not be forced to implicate others! wound not cooperate were called, and the 11th, ingly" be employed in Hollywood. "Don't present me with the choice of either being Bermit Brecht, when asked if he had ever made In the summer of l949, the liberal Supreme in contempt of this committee and going to jail, or application to jinn the Communist party, answered, Court Justices Murphy and Rutledge died, and forcing me to really crawl through the mud and to "No. no, no, no, no, never!" and the nest day he the following spring their conservative successors, be an informer. For what purpose? 1 would prefer, flew to East Germany, never to return. And then Justices Burton and Minton, were In the 5-to-4 if you would allow me, not to mention other peo- there were 10. Backed by a planeload of stars who majority which refused to review the l0's con- ple's MMES." had flown in for the occasion, with Bogey and Baby victions. The 10 went to prison for sentences of up and Graucho and Frankie all providing visible end to a year, us did the chairman of the committee, But In Rogers v. U.S., decided not long after Thomas, who was convicted of taking kickbacks in the 10 went to prison, the Supreme Court had 1149, and ended up at the Federal Correctional ruled that once a witness admitted his own party Institution in Danbury, Conn., with fellow inmates membership, he had waived his right to invoke the Ring Lardner Jr. and Lester Cole. In 1951 the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer questions Hollywood investigation, suspended while the about other people's party membership; therefore, the committee would not allow Parks to remain silent—by talking about himself he had waived this right—and the ground rules for the decade wereset. There was some uneasiness as Representative Francis Walter asked, "How can it be material to the purpose of this inquiry to have the names of people when we already know them?" But the view of Representative Donald Jackson prevailed: 'The ultimate test of the credibility of a witness before the committee in in giving-full details as to not only the place and activities but also the names of those who participated with him in the Communist party." From that point on, witnesses were advised by their attorneys that they had three choices: to (Continued on Page LEO) .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Creative Process
    The Creative Process THE SEARCH FOR AN AUDIO-VISUAL LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE SECOND EDITION by John Howard Lawson Preface by Jay Leyda dol HILL AND WANG • NEW YORK www.johnhowardlawson.com Copyright © 1964, 1967 by John Howard Lawson All rights reserved Library of Congress catalog card number: 67-26852 Manufactured in the United States of America First edition September 1964 Second edition November 1967 www.johnhowardlawson.com To the Association of Film Makers of the U.S.S.R. and all its members, whose proud traditions and present achievements have been an inspiration in the preparation of this book www.johnhowardlawson.com Preface The masters of cinema moved at a leisurely pace, enjoyed giving generalized instruction, and loved to abandon themselves to reminis­ cence. They made it clear that they possessed certain magical secrets of their profession, but they mentioned them evasively. Now and then they made lofty artistic pronouncements, but they showed a more sincere interest in anecdotes about scenarios that were written on a cuff during a gay supper.... This might well be a description of Hollywood during any period of its cultivated silence on the matter of film-making. Actually, it is Leningrad in 1924, described by Grigori Kozintsev in his memoirs.1 It is so seldom that we are allowed to study the disclosures of a Hollywood film-maker about his medium that I cannot recall the last instance that preceded John Howard Lawson's book. There is no dearth of books about Hollywood, but when did any other book come from there that takes such articulate pride in the art that is-or was-made there? I have never understood exactly why the makers of American films felt it necessary to hide their methods and aims under blankets of coyness and anecdotes, the one as impenetrable as the other.
    [Show full text]
  • Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre: Bodies, Voices, Words Julia A
    Cambridge University Press 0521847478 - Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre: Bodies, Voices, Words Julia A. Walker Frontmatter More information Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre Although often dismissed as a minor offshoot of the better-known German movement, expressionism on the American stage represents a critical phase in the development of American dramatic modernism. Situating expressionism within the context of early twentieth-century American culture, Walker demonstrates how playwrights who wrote in this mode were responding both to new communica- tions technologies and to the perceived threat they posed to the embodied act of meaning. At a time when mute bodies gesticulated on the silver screen, ghostly voices emanated from tin horns, and inked words stamped out the personality of the hand that composed them, expressionist playwrights began to represent these new cultural experiences by disarticulating the theatrical languages of bodies, voices, and words. In doing so, they not only innovated a new dramatic form, but re- defined playwriting from a theatrical craft to a literary art form, heralding the birth of American dramatic modernism. julia a. walker is Assistant Professor of English and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has published articles in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Nineteenth Century Theatre, and the Yale Journal of Criticism in addition to several edited volumes. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521847478 - Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre: Bodies, Voices, Words Julia A. Walker Frontmatter More information CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN AMERICAN THEATRE AND DRAMA General Editor Don B.
    [Show full text]
  • Completeandleft
    MEN WOMEN 1. BA Bryan Adams=Canadian rock singer- Brenda Asnicar=actress, singer, model=423,028=7 songwriter=153,646=15 Bea Arthur=actress, singer, comedian=21,158=184 Ben Adams=English singer, songwriter and record Brett Anderson=English, Singer=12,648=252 producer=16,628=165 Beverly Aadland=Actress=26,900=156 Burgess Abernethy=Australian, Actor=14,765=183 Beverly Adams=Actress, author=10,564=288 Ben Affleck=American Actor=166,331=13 Brooke Adams=Actress=48,747=96 Bill Anderson=Scottish sportsman=23,681=118 Birce Akalay=Turkish, Actress=11,088=273 Brian Austin+Green=Actor=92,942=27 Bea Alonzo=Filipino, Actress=40,943=114 COMPLETEandLEFT Barbara Alyn+Woods=American actress=9,984=297 BA,Beatrice Arthur Barbara Anderson=American, Actress=12,184=256 BA,Ben Affleck Brittany Andrews=American pornographic BA,Benedict Arnold actress=19,914=190 BA,Benny Andersson Black Angelica=Romanian, Pornstar=26,304=161 BA,Bibi Andersson Bia Anthony=Brazilian=29,126=150 BA,Billie Joe Armstrong Bess Armstrong=American, Actress=10,818=284 BA,Brooks Atkinson Breanne Ashley=American, Model=10,862=282 BA,Bryan Adams Brittany Ashton+Holmes=American actress=71,996=63 BA,Bud Abbott ………. BA,Buzz Aldrin Boyce Avenue Blaqk Audio Brother Ali Bud ,Abbott ,Actor ,Half of Abbott and Costello Bob ,Abernethy ,Journalist ,Former NBC News correspondent Bella ,Abzug ,Politician ,Feminist and former Congresswoman Bruce ,Ackerman ,Scholar ,We the People Babe ,Adams ,Baseball ,Pitcher, Pittsburgh Pirates Brock ,Adams ,Politician ,US Senator from Washington, 1987-93 Brooke ,Adams
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Gold & Dalton Trumbo on Spartacus, Blacklist Hollywood
    LH 19_1 FInal.qxp_Left History 19.1.qxd 2015-08-28 4:01 PM Page 57 Michael Gold & Dalton Trumbo on Spartacus, Blacklist Hollywood, Howard Fast, and the Demise of American Communism 1 Henry I. MacAdam, DeVry University Howard Fast is in town, helping them carpenter a six-million dollar production of his Spartacus . It is to be one of those super-duper Cecil deMille epics, all swollen up with cos - tumes and the genuine furniture, with the slave revolution far in the background and a love tri - angle bigger than the Empire State Building huge in the foreground . Michael Gold, 30 May 1959 —— Mike Gold has made savage comments about a book he clearly knows nothing about. Then he has announced, in advance of seeing it, precisely what sort of film will be made from the book. He knows nothing about the book, nothing about the film, nothing about the screenplay or who wrote it, nothing about [how] the book was purchased . Dalton Trumbo, 2 June 1959 Introduction Of the three tumultuous years (1958-1960) needed to transform Howard Fast’s novel Spartacus into the film of the same name, 1959 was the most problematic. From the start of production in late January until the end of all but re-shoots by late December, the project itself, the careers of its creators and financiers, and the studio that sponsored it were in jeopardy a half-dozen times. Blacklist Hollywood was a scary place to make a film based on a self-published novel by a “Commie author” (Fast), and a script by a “Commie screenwriter” (Trumbo).
    [Show full text]
  • The Inventory of the Albert Maltz Collection #150
    The Inventory of the Albert Maltz Collection #150 Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Albert Maltz Manuscripts Box 1 1.) This Gun for Hire (1942) by Albert Maltz & Wo R. Burnett Movie script, dated October 5, 19/41. Typescript, carbon, holograph corrections, 150p. a9x 1 2.) "Husband and Wife" Short story s·econd draft, typescript with holograph corrections, 44P• Final draft, typescript, heavily corrected, 33p. / C/·. \..c. Box 1 J.) The Underground Stream (1940) Novel 11 Final draft with ms. changes" Typescript, carbon, holograph corrections and additions, 373p. '"' Maltz, Albert - Addenda Box:-:- 2 Folder "Material from the magazine 1F.quality1 published in New York, 1939-4011 11 holograph articles Folder "Anonymous Writings and Ghost Writings" 6 articles: 5 holograph, 1 typed Folder "Miscellaneous Non-Fiction Pieces" 17 articles: 13 holograph, 4 typed. Folder "Public lectures and Addresses" 7 articles: 5 holograph, 1 mimeo, l typed Folder "Short Stories" Season of Celebration Notes and discards. Holograph. Sunday Morning .Q!l 25th Street First notes. Holograph. Happiest Man Q!l Earth Notes and discards, holograph. Typescript of one drafto Way Things Are Notes for first draft, holograph. Discards from first and second version, holograph. Notes for revision, holograph, Second draft typescript with holograph corrections. Final version type8cript, last 2 rages missing. (Each folder contains typed list by.Albert Maltz identifying articles and giving number of pages of each piece.) Mi.ltz, Albert Addenda, October., 1967 SCBEENPLAY .-- . THE BOBE . A. Second draft of the screenplay, typed script with holograph changes ·on ~bi~type~cent of the pages. :.~2S pages. · .· ::,;:~:: ·<·: i; l · ;' . • • ;.:• B. Third' (final) draf.t, mimeographed ·224 pages.
    [Show full text]
  • Ronald Reagan and Albert Maltz, Testimony Before HUAC, 1947
    dominate the guild? Ronald Reagan and Albert Maltz, Mr. Reagan: Well, sir, by attempting to put over their own particular views on various issues, I guess you Testimony before HUAC, 1947 would have to say that our side was attempting to dominate, too, because we were fighting just as The House Un-American Activities Committee began to investigate hard to put over our views, and I think we were charges of alleged Communist influence in the movie industry in the proven correct by the figures—Mr. Murphy gave the fall of 1947. The hearings attracted an enormous amount of press figures—and those figures were always attention due to the glamour associated with Hollywood celebrities. approximately the same, an average of ninety HUAC began with a group of so-called “friendly” witnesses. They percent or better of the Screen Actors Guild voted cooperated with the investigation for a variety of reasons, including a in favor of those matters now guild policy. desire to settle old political scores. The Committee then moved to the Mr. Stripling: Mr. Reagan, there has been testimony to the effect “unfriendly” witnesses. These included some who were or had been here that numerous Communist-front organizations members of the Communist Party, but all of whom rejected HUAC’s have been set up in Hollywood. Have you ever been intrusion into their political beliefs. solicited to join any of those organizations or any Ronald Reagan, a friendly witness, was President of the Screen organization which you considered to be a Actors Guild. Albert Maltz, an unfriendly witness, was active in the Communist-front organization? Screen Writers Guild.
    [Show full text]
  • Blacklisting: Anatomy of a Scandal Relations Labour
    CRI Industry practice Industry practice Blacklisting: anatomy of a scandal Labour relations The blacklisting scandal that erupted in 2009 is only now coming to a head. In April a decision is expected on whether four separate lawsuits against the UK’s largest contractors can be combined into one – lawsuits that together could be worth hundreds of millions pounds. Separately, the contractors’ attempt to limit their liability with a compensation scheme foundered in February amid acrimonious talks with representatives of the blacklisted workers. As the battle lines continue to form, David Rogers interviewed the whistleblowers to uncover how the scandal came to light. Here he explains what it means, what happens next, and asks what it is about the UK construction industry that gave rise to blacklisting in the first place For 40 years and more it had been rumoured that employers in In most cases, it was the board director in charge of HR. Nobody the British construction industry maintained and shared a list of else in the subscriber company could be called. As Kerr later told people to be kept off their sites. The evidence was plentiful, but it a parliamentary select committee: “Everybody recognised that this was anecdotal and circumstantial. In any case, some people were was secret, sensitive information.” known to be troublemakers. Construction is a big industry but What follows is the story of how the blacklist came to light, a closed world, and word gets around. Just because some people the way it operated, and what happened after its existence was couldn’t get a job no matter how many hundreds they applied for, exposed.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Film and Critical Pedagogy in the Standards-Based Classroom
    AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF John D. Divelbiss for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on April 28, 2014. Title: Re-Viewing the Canon: Using Film and Critical Pedagogy in the Standards-based Classroom Abstract approved: __________________________________________________________________ Jon R. Lewis This thesis analyzes the efficacy of emancipatory (critical) pedagogical practices in an educational climate of standards-based reform. Using two films noir of the blacklist era—Body and Soul and Crossfire—as the core texts of a unit in a secondary school curriculum, I argue that an emphasis on student agency and a de-centering of curriculum and instruction is not only compatible with national reforms like the Common Core State Standards but is essential for English/language arts classrooms in the 21st century. In addition to a scholarly review of critical pedagogy and media literacy, and close readings of the two films themselves, this thesis also ends with an informal case study in which both films-as-texts were taught to 9th grade students. By combining theory and practice, I was able to model the praxis at the heart of critical pedagogy, what Paulo Freire calls in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” The films of the blacklist match current national mandates for relevant texts, for media and visual literacy, and for authentic and emancipatory pedagogy. Narrowing down even further on two highly-regarded films released in 1947, the same year the blacklist was initiated, allows for an analysis of the artistic and aesthetic complexities of the texts as well as the high-stakes terms of the political engagements of the blacklist.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Document: from the BELLY of the HUAC: the RED PROBES of HOLLYWOOD, 1947-1952 Jack D. Meeks, Doctor of Philos
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: FROM THE BELLY OF THE HUAC: THE RED PROBES OF HOLLYWOOD, 1947-1952 Jack D. Meeks, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Dr. Maurine Beasley, Journalism The House Un-American Activities Committee, popularly known as the HUAC, conducted two investigations of the movie industry, in 1947 and again in 1951-1952. The goal was to determine the extent of communist infiltration in Hollywood and whether communist propaganda had made it into American movies. The spotlight that the HUAC shone on Tinsel Town led to the blacklisting of approximately 300 Hollywood professionals. This, along with the HUAC’s insistence that witnesses testifying under oath identify others that they knew to be communists, contributed to the Committee’s notoriety. Until now, historians have concentrated on offering accounts of the HUAC’s practice of naming names, its scrutiny of movies for propaganda, and its intervention in Hollywood union disputes. The HUAC’s sealed files were first opened to scholars in 2001. This study is the first to draw extensively on these newly available documents in an effort to reevaluate the HUAC’s Hollywood probes. This study assesses four areas in which the new evidence indicates significant, fresh findings. First, a detailed analysis of the Committee’s investigatory methods reveals that most of the HUAC’s information came from a careful, on-going analysis of the communist press, rather than techniques such as surveillance, wiretaps and other cloak and dagger activities. Second, the evidence shows the crucial role played by two brothers, both German communists living as refugees in America during World War II, in motivating the Committee to launch its first Hollywood probe.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Adapted Screenplays
    Absorbing the Worlds of Others: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Adapted Screenplays By Laura Fryer Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD degree at De Montfort University, Leicester. Funded by Midlands 3 Cities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. June 2020 i Abstract Despite being a prolific and well-decorated adapter and screenwriter, the screenplays of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala are largely overlooked in adaptation studies. This is likely, in part, because her life and career are characterised by the paradox of being an outsider on the inside: whether that be as a European writing in and about India, as a novelist in film or as a woman in industry. The aims of this thesis are threefold: to explore the reasons behind her neglect in criticism, to uncover her contributions to the film adaptations she worked on and to draw together the fields of screenwriting and adaptation studies. Surveying both existing academic studies in film history, screenwriting and adaptation in Chapter 1 -- as well as publicity materials in Chapter 2 -- reveals that screenwriting in general is on the periphery of considerations of film authorship. In Chapter 2, I employ Sandra Gilbert’s and Susan Gubar’s notions of ‘the madwoman in the attic’ and ‘the angel in the house’ to portrayals of screenwriters, arguing that Jhabvala purposely cultivates an impression of herself as the latter -- a submissive screenwriter, of no threat to patriarchal or directorial power -- to protect herself from any negative attention as the former. However, the archival materials examined in Chapter 3 which include screenplay drafts, reveal her to have made significant contributions to problem-solving, characterisation and tone.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political History of Classical Hollywood: Moguls, Liberals and Radicals in The
    The political history of Classical Hollywood: moguls, liberals and radicals in the 1930s Professor Mark Wheeler, London Metropolitan University Introduction Hollywood’s relationship with the political elite in the Depression reflected the trends which defined the USA’s affairs in the interwar years. For the moguls mixing with the powerful indicated their acceptance by America’s elites who had scorned them as vulgar hucksters due to their Jewish and show business backgrounds. They could achieve social recognition by demonstrating a commitment to conservative principles and supported the Republican Party. However, MGM’s Louis B. Mayer held deep right-wing convictions and became the vice-chairman of the Southern Californian Republican Party. He formed alliances with President Herbert Hoover and the right-wing press magnate William Randolph Hearst. Along with Hearst, Will Hays and an array of Californian business forces, ‘Louie Be’ and MGM’s Production Chief Irving Thalberg led a propaganda campaign against Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California (EPIC) gubernatorial election crusade in 1934. This form of ‘mogul politics’ was characterized by the instincts of its authors: hardness, shrewdness, autocracy and coercion. 1 In response to the mogul’s mercurial values, the Hollywood community pursued a significant degree of liberal and populist political activism, along with a growing radicalism among writers, directors and stars. For instance, James Cagney and Charlie Chaplin supported Sinclair’s EPIC campaign by attending meetings and collecting monies. Their actions reflected the economic, social and political conditions of the era, notably the collapse of US capitalism with the Great Depression, the New Deal, the establishment of trade unions, and the emigration of European political refugees due to Nazism.
    [Show full text]
  • Doherty, Thomas, Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, Mccarthyism
    doherty_FM 8/21/03 3:20 PM Page i COLD WAR, COOL MEDIUM TELEVISION, McCARTHYISM, AND AMERICAN CULTURE doherty_FM 8/21/03 3:20 PM Page ii Film and Culture A series of Columbia University Press Edited by John Belton What Made Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic Henry Jenkins Showstoppers: Busby Berkeley and the Tradition of Spectacle Martin Rubin Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II Thomas Doherty Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy William Paul Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s Ed Sikov Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema Rey Chow The Cinema of Max Ophuls: Magisterial Vision and the Figure of Woman Susan M. White Black Women as Cultural Readers Jacqueline Bobo Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style, National Identity, Japanese Film Darrell William Davis Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectatorship in Classic Horror Cinema Rhona J. Berenstein This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age Gaylyn Studlar Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond Robin Wood The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music Jeff Smith Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture Michael Anderegg Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, ‒ Thomas Doherty Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity James Lastra Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts Ben Singer
    [Show full text]