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Home , Adrian Scott, Albert Maltz, Budd Schulberg, John Howard Lawson, Lester Cole, The Blacklist (season 1)

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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- , perhaps the most rambunctious of tatleri, 3 study of thaw business , 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 —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 , 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 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

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 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)

. (2) Attorney Martin Popper, (3) Attorney Robert Kenny, (9) Albert Mate, (5) Lester Cole, (8) Dalton Trumbo, (7) , (8) Alvah Beanie. (9) Samuel Drafts. (10) Ring Lindner Jr.. (II) Edward Ontyrryh end (12) .

THE TIMES MAGAZINE/MARCH 25, 1873 35 Lilly subversive affIllatloms test was expected to testify might have concerted the ex- (which meant naming names istence of a blacklist But no. in public session), denounce To name or they were a sort of political the party at union meetings credit-rating service, "lace and, if he was prominent Dun & Bradstreet." said one enough, make some kind of not to name Legionnaire, and nobody ever statement for the press . . . accused Dun & Bradstreet of or In some other way publicly running a blacklist. In other express his new feelings...." The committee called them The less fortunate went to words, the blacklist was jest cooperative witnesses; the (Continued from Page 35) alcohol, mental inslitirtione, an ugly armor started by left called them "informers." divorce court; and a few went movie, radio and TV people Whatever their motives, the take the First Amendment, to their graves. who couldn't get work be- and risk going to jail like the cause of past (and sometimes lines seemed clearly drawn. 10; to take the Fifth Amend- Such was life under the present) political assneiations- , , ment and lose their jobs be- blacklist. The Motion Picture Clifford Odett, Lee J. Cobh Fortunately for those will- cause of the blacklist; or to Association denied there was and others took the position, ing to pay the moral price cooperate with the committee such a thing, but said no as Kazan wrote in a news- of getting off the nonexistent and name names. Fifth Amendment-takers who paper ad, "that Communist list. an ancillary service— hadn't purged themselves be- activities confront the people Although only about 30 of what might be called the fore the committee (or First of this country with an un- the 90 witnesses called in clearance industry — had connection with the 1951-52 Amendment-takers either, for precedented and exception- that matter) could work In sprung up. There were "clear- investigations actually named ally tough problem." It was, Hollywood; the Screen Actors ance" lawyers, like Martin names, for a while if seemed after all, a time when Alger Guild, president Ronald Rea- Gang; "clearance" columnists, as though everyone was do- Hiss had been convicted for gan speaking, said, "We will like George Sokoisky; "clear- ing it. Sterling Hayden perjury. the Rosenberge for not be party to a black- ance" unionists, like Roy named his mistress. Screen- conspiracy to commit es- list," but banned Communists Brewer, and "clearance" tal• writer Melvin Levy ("The pionage, and 11 Commu- and noncooperative witnesses eat consultants, like Vincent Bandit of Sherwood Forest") nist party officials for from SAG. membership. Hartnett A prototype of named a collaboenter. Rich- conspiring to advocate the Even HUAC said the idea that how it worked is available in ard Collins, who wrote overthrow of the Government it was compiling a blacklist John Cogley's "Report on "Song of Russia," named a by force and violence. The was "absurd," since any good Blacklisting": creditor. And Clifford Gams, British scientist Klaus Fuchs American could come before who had given the eulogy at "When a former member had confessed to violating the committee and clear his J. Edward Bromberg's memo- of the party came to Brewer Britain's Official Secrets Act. name, One would have rial service (where he blamed for help, the first thing [Brew- And we were at war in thought that the publisher; HIJAC for Bromberg's death). er! insisted on was that the Korea. It followed, as the co- of The American Legion Mag- named J. Edward Bromberg. ex-Communist go to the F.B.I. operative witnesses saw azine- Counterattack, Red Martin Berkeley, a screen- with all the information he that it was wrong to with- Channels, which was called writer specializing In animal had. Then the ex-Communist hold names because, on "the bible of blacklisting," pictures ("He couldn't write was put in touch with the K22211'9 ad put it, "secrecy human dialogue," says Ring and other publications that House committee •and some serves the Communists, and ran long lists of indi- Lardner Jr.) named 112 kind of public repentance was is exactly what they want. viduals and their alleg- names. Some named only worked out. The ex-Commu- The American people need those previously named, per- haps on the theory that a man could not be blacklisted more than once, although as one actor named many times told me, "Every time I thought I wall off the lint someone new would name me. It was like being in one of those old comedies where every rime you come up for air you get hit in the face with another pie." For the most part, the namers went hack to work and the named either weal before the committee and "cleared" themselves by nam- ing others. or they found an- other line of work, Academy Award winner Sidney Buch• man (who wrote "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington") went Into the parking business: became a stockbroker; Alvah Bessie got a job working the lights at a nightclub in ; Lester Cole worked as a ware- houwenen, Zero moatel took up painting; character-actor Jeff Corey become an acting teacher. Where they could. writers went into the black In 1948, J. Purnell Thoines, right, Medias testimony given his House Urt-AMartC01 Activities market and worked for cut- Committee. With him, a young Congressman. Richard M. Nixon. Who sat on the committee rate prices tinder pseudonyms. at the time of the Hollywood hearings, and chief inveatigator Robert Stripling.

the facts and all the facts to have reported it to the critical acclaim. many awards about all aspects of Com- proper authorities. But to and commercial success. Both munism in order to deal with hurt innocent people whom of these men were members it wisely and effectively." I know nanny years ago in of the Hollywood 10, opposed The cooperative witnesses order to save myself is, to the practices of the House believed — or rationalized - me. Inhuman and indecent Cornnottee on Un-American that while the committee's and dishonorable. 1 cannot Activities and refused to co- procedures might bo arbitrary and will not cut my con- operate with Its attempted and antidemocratic, they science to fit this year's fash- invasion of their civil rights. were no more so than those ions . . . ." Both were held In contempt 3( the Communist party they As much of the libertarian of the committee and sub- tad quit years before, and left saw it, the Issue was sequently went to jail. When why should they sacrifice simple: Either you were or Drnytryk emerged from his their careers for something in you weren't an "informer." prison term he did so with which they no longer be- And so in 1970, when Trurobo a new set of principles. He Ileved? Vide: Roy Huggins was presented the Laurel suddenly saw the heavenly light, testified as a friend of Good Humor Men," Award for Achieverneett from WM... LAST S.W. 1.1.1101. Herk. 34 Po. The Fuller Brush Man" the Wnters Guild of Amer- the committee, praised its nor, hsary curran.nn.n4 aaaaaa purposes and practices and ll .1.14, and other screenplays), who ica/West, be told his such. "'SIP P■ro .ft" " thought he had an under- ence that "the blacklist was denounced all who opposed S it. Dmytrvk immediately II casarrra tan Inman atom a ..ana cat.e,•• standing with FRIAC that be- a Ume of evil and no one on ~l e. tow obn found work as a director, and tny 1.110n1 aml 04. cause he didn't have any new either side who survived It ".ritzts.• . 1,1 mimes to offer, he would not came through untouched by has worked all down the an required to go through evil. . It will do no good years since. Adrian Scott. C...5414-111 tart suave unman. I. Ems, unr, who came out of prison with 31. Lip An 111....11 bes. 11=altbSEIVMMINMPISSI the name-naming ritual. Hog- to search for villains or Paw. •1.4 .111.....••••••■ 7ININS1111=11.---.1 ,tins took the stand—only to heroes because there were his principles intact, could .a won amel. 6111117•1=3111/1=1Etlealeell ie asked, after preliminary none. There were only vic- not produce a film for a 111=111•11=allThaM1311 .1.11.1110...514 552 Palau St sok 'ormalities, whether he knew tims." M=Itia7=lbatM11111E1117131 .loran warn; ROLL .5811htir (e) 13,1.95 io-anti-so. it is a sign of his maNi• Who would want to take One actor named ww nental anguish that he paused exception to such a noble and r4 17:Z (or five minutes to think perhaps profound sentiment, many times said, 5904 ..eloal $24.95 about it before he finally a generous view made pos- "Every time I J Watson •11.5.• .Ofinfn allowed as how, yes, he knew sible only by the passage of thought I was off so-and-so. but when asked to the years? Well, Albert Malta. nem.. DO. Nionnt ;pelt the name, he drew the SWA ...1111 $24-95 for one. When 1 walked into the list, someone 539.95 fine and said he didn't the Laurel Canyon home of ./Woug CASSrat WALL .inninen Neu. KG new named me." 14. Rae. a*. es know how. "in retrospect," Mr. Maltz, Ca Henry Award 11.1. hnon u. • ....IV he told me. "In the hindsight winner. novelist, playwright 5SCII • . ihrts.1 $3995 ~ studio again until 1970. He if 20 years, it Is ap- and the most literary of the AT LEADING RADIO. MAIL ,ORDE R and DEPARTMENT STORES was blacklisted for 21 years palling to me that I coop- 10, he handed me two pieces !rated with them in any way. To assert that he and Dmy- ES M 0 N D INDUSTRIES INC of paper, each reflecting his Sae FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10019 • But that wasn't obvious 20 deep commitment to his own tryk were equally victims is iltiSt 3- 3442 beyond my comprehension. ALSO AVAILABLE AT T: EATON .n CANADA. years ago. especially when idea of what a writer's in- had long, long since decided tegrity requires. The first "He did not advance this that one of the great errors was a copy of his now- doctrine In private or public if my life had been that of famous letter assignee.] the during the years In which he relieving that the Soviet ruble royalties due him on the was blacklisted, or at the intim represented the glori- two million copies of his time he wrote his magnificent 27 Leisure Homes nu future. I was caught um books published in the pamphlet, 'The Time of the Built on youc site from $15,000 irepared and had a failure U.S.S.R. to Alexander Sol- Toad.' How he can in the if nerve. I said to myself, you zhenitsyn, the Soviet novelist. same period republish "The mow, I'd love to he a hero, The second—well, the second Time of the Toad' and pre- 'd have to go to jail, except he fell in strongly about that sent the doctrine that there 'or one thing: Who the hell he asked if t could publish it were 'only victims,' I cannot 5 going to take care of two in full, for if not, he was say—but he does not speak imall children, a mother and thinking of taking nut an ad for me or many others. Let wife, all of whom are m- in Variety. Here is what he it he noted, however, that his olly dependent on me? If I'm had typed out: ethic of 'equal victims' has ;Ding to go [to jail I want been ecstatically embraced o go far something that I'm "There is currently in vague a thesis pronounced by all who cooperated with ictually guilty of " the Committee on Un-Ameri- first by Dalton Trurnfin which Uncooperative witnesses declares that everyone during can Activities when there zither rook the Fifth and de- were penalties for not doing the years of blacklist was munced the committee, or, In so." he cases of a few like Arthur equally a victim. This is fac- It is not surprising that the Ir Allier (who risked prison in tual nonsense and represents a bewlldenng mural position. blacklisting subculture should 10513 by taking the First, still be preoccupied with such "To put the point sharply: en got off on a techni- esoteric issues as what is the :alltvl and Lillian Hellman. If an informer in the French You pick the bile we take SPACKMAKERS Pay proper attitude to take toward 3are ol hie mac lop Will Itagti)b:,,/1,:aft. Man Wail I made it clear that while they underground who sent a Complete 'gum Key" Swabs friend to the torture cham- an "informer." And, indeed. Send Ion bruin new were willing to talk about the question is, on one level, F.I.nnIng XII , with tr tordesell item an ter Amami at I bers of the Gestapo was beautifully hemselves, their consciences a matter of social etiquette. &anima home!. sane could not permit them to equally a victim, then there Ohotocraphecl in lull taint. Helen Levitt, whose lip !ant plan tanahonY can be tin tight or wrong in writer- Spetlficallona interns newt alk about others. In a much. hueband Al Levitt was black- uhy tooted letter to the commit- life that I understand. Sand Ion Iros fact-packed kit; listed, says cheerfully, "We Ind we will show you huts you sot. ee, Miss Hellman wrote: "I cant. in you/ new been by the Poona "Adrian Scott was the pro- were the first in our group Sets late or inoonlinntklo. Jo not like subversion ur dis- ducer of the notable film to speak to stool pigeons. 11001,01 than amt .vne .oyalty in any form, and if 'Crossfire' in 1947, and Ed- You know, the Informers' Would lie ascuoancy had ever seen any, I would ward Dmytryk was its direc- lives were loused up, too." punts m,r IMO $1, lave considered It my duty SPACEMAKERS 1 Ert“..E tor. 'Crossfire' won wide Others, like Lester Cole, will met teptetes.1.1.. 'ACRIC

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE/MARCH 25, 1973 1 f tell you, "I feel reindeed by situation. 1 can't do it There these people. ff I find myself are many of them that I do in the Berne room with them, not want to see, that l find I ignore them and won't it embarrassing to see. Most "We're judged by a different standard" greet them. and if they seek of them in fact. But, ynu to greet me I refuse my hand know, to concentrate on ED DINVIRY1( had directed 24 films be- and turn my back." them is to forget the enemy. tween 1928 and 1949 ("Till the Feel of Alvah Bessie, as militant as The enemy was the god- Time," "Crossfire," which dealt with anti- any member of the 10, was damned eornmittee. That's Semitism and "Hitler's Children") before put to the test when, after what I'm against." drawing his contempt sentence. In prieon. same post•prisern hard times, Oa a mare substantive lie told fellow eonviet Albert Malta, 'I'm he finally landed a job as level. Trurnbo asks, "What never going to prison again." Afterward. Fit director of San Fran- were you going to do about a he appeared as a friendly wiliness before cisco's film festival—only to homosexual caught by the irunc, named 50117e names and went back discover that he had been Fill_ and given the choice to work. mostly in Europe. When I told recommended for the lob by of informing re' being exposed him what I was writing about hr said, "I Ed Dmytryk, the one member in a time when homosexuality prefer to stay away from that," and he of the 14 who had defected was regarded differently? did, RING LARDNER JR. is the author and named names. It never What were you going to say of the most famous line of the beatings: occurred to Bessie to quit the to that man? It's a choice I "I could answer [your question but I job, but one day Dmytryk wouldn't have wanted to would hate myself in the morning." He walked In the door, put out make, and I'm not prepared Is also author of two Academy Award- his hand and said, "Hello. to damn him. You know Lil- winning screenplays, "Woman of the Year" Alvah." Bossier jaw dropped, lian Hellman said, 'Forgive- and "M`A°5°F1," as well as the recently re- he stared anti, speechless, left ness is God's job, not mine.' A scene from "M.A 5' H" (Donald Suther- published novel with a growing cult fol- the room. Well, Si) is vengeance, you land, left, and Elliott Gould), which won an lowing, "The Ecstasy of Owen Muir.". Mr. and Mrs Ring Lardner know. 1 really are not con- Oscar for writer Ring Lardner Jr JOHN HOWARD LAWSON, first presi- Jr. have something of a cerned about it. hems lived dent of the Screenwriters Guild when it social problem since it is Mrs. with it for 25 years I think was organized in 1933, later head of the 1-aniner's policy not to talk hate is just naturally an un- "Of the Unfriendly 10, only two had any talent," director once said, Hollywood section of the Cornmunisi party, with informers and it is Mr. healthy thing." Group Theater playwright ("Processional"), Lardnees policy to say hello To muddy the moral "the ether eight were lust unfriendly." The famous remark was mare quip than author, critic and theoretician ("The The• to anybody. ("I dime_ believe waters further, it turns out Dry and Technique of Playwriting" is in black/biting: he says.) Ian that homosexuality was only factual commentary. The truth is that some a standard text), wrote two of the more Hunter, a blacklisted writer one of many things the of the more talented people in Hollywood celebrated movies coming out of World who co-authored the Broad- committee used for behind- were in the small band that defied the War 0, "Action in the North Atlantic" way musical "Foxy" with the-scenes tilacioneil, to en- House Un-American Activities Committee and "Sahara." Lawson- who says he is stilt Lardner, is credited with courage potential witnesses. in the Law forties. blacklisted, is at work an Iris mem- originating a whole set of John aright. who wrote "Pub- To take them alphabetically, ALVAH oirs. . , , ALBERT MALTZ, who wrote rules of thumb on haw to lic Enemy," In which James BF_SS1E (whose screenplays include "The for leftist journals of opinion in the thir- treat an informer—the cardi- Cagney obeyed a grapefruit Very Thought of You" and "Hotel "), ties and forties, Is an 0. Henry Award win- nal one being to treat hint as in Mae Clarke% face, was had fought in Spain, screed as drama ner. His short stories have been widely though he doesn't exist. A told by a committee function- critic of The , received a Gug- anthologized. His movies included "This tasty. perhaps apocryphal, is ary that if he would name genheim Fellowship for creative writing. Gun for Hire," "" and told about the day during the Edward G. Robinson there Among his poet-prison works was a novel "." . .. SAM ORNITZ, blacklisting era, when Hunter was a producer ready to put called 'The Symbol," based on the Marilyn who died in 1957, had written 25 films was standing on the unem. him under contract at 51,500 Monroe story, which he is trying to adapt between 1929 and 1999, none particularly ploymcnt line and who a week. 'There was only one for television. Bessie describes himself as notable. He published "Bride of the Sab- should show up behind him problem,- says Blight, who an "unaffiliated radical." and probably bath." the first novel of a trilogy, after he but Len Townsend. Townsend took the Fifth. "As far as 1 considers himself a Marxist, although "1 was released from prison. ... hod named 28 former com- knew, Robinson wasn't a would not say that un pain of losing rades when he testified before Communist." Helen l_eirtit, a my work." . . . HERBERT BrautmAN ADRIAN SCOTT, a producer, died a few HUAC in the fall of 1951 (and former secretary of John Gar- directed such movies as "Meet Ner0 months ago. At a memorial service, Albert since that time has gone field's, was told that her Wolfe" and 'The Master Rare," After he get Malta said, "He died unfulfilled." The con- on to write such films as husband would be taken off nut of prison, he organized and directed the sensus is that Scort, whose first wife left "Beach Blanket Bingo," "Bi- the blacklist if she would controversial but highly praised "Salt of him while he was in prisme never really kini Beach" and "How to testify about a statement the Earth." independently produced and recovered from the ravages of the black- Stuff a Wild Bikini"), Hunter Garfield had made which written by blacklisted screenwriter Mi- list- He had produced such films as "Cross- is said to have clone his best could have subjected Garfield chael Wilson. Hibernian died in 1971. His fire" and "Cornered." His last production to treat Townsend as though to a possible perjury indict- widow, Gale Sondergearel, who bad also was a television play, "The Great Man's he wasn't there until finally ment. She wouldn't, and her been blacklisted, appeared moat recently Whiskers." which was seen last month. he couldn't resist the tempta- husband's promising screen- In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" in Los . . DALTON TRUMBO'S latest film, tion_ He turned around and writing mice' was converted Angeles, . . . "Johnny Got His Gun." based on his novel said, "I know what rm doing to a pseudonymous television LESTER COLE had written ae films of the same name, won the Nix Specie! here, hutwhat the hell are career. Garfield, incidentally, ("Objective Burma." "High Wail") be. du Jury and the International Critics you doing here?" who took the position that fore he was subpoenaed by the com- Award at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. Tremble who says he does heciame he had never been a mittee. He remits that as late as 1965, In his heyday ("Kitty Foyle," an Academy not want to get into a public Communist he had no names when he wrote a screenplay for "Born Award nominee, "A Guy Named Joe," dispute with Mattz, did talk to give, was at the time of Free' for Columbia, his lack of perform- "Thirty Seconds Over Tnkyn." "Our Vines a little about those occasions his death hoping to clear ance before the committee was an issue. Have Tender Grapes"), he was in such when be hod arrived as dinner himself by publishing an ar- He aeya Mike Frank:wick, Columbia's pees• demand that his contract contained a stip- guest of a host and hnstem ticle in took magazine called Went, "was so fearful that he wanted to ulatien that story conferences be held at who did not knew that he "1 Was a Sucker for a Left throw my screenplay OM and start over, his house. where he preferred to sleep and another guest were on Hook." but this the producer refused to do, so days and work nights in a bathtub with opposite sides: "1 can tell you "Another thing." adds we ended up with a pseudonym." He has a special cross-board to hold his type- wee unable net to eeknowl. Trurnho. "the 10 were virgins, Joel fIrdebed writing a political comedy Trumbu was the unly member of edge that person's presence. We went info an unprece- and points nut, "When you write a non- the 10 with a working-class background: and I am physically unable to dented situation which had political play or flint, there's little prob- he Wan employed as a baker for eight insult him in front of the results that we could not lem now. but when one of us writes any- years. "1 never considered the working host and hostess who have predict. As a matter of fact thing political, it's harder. We're judged class anything ether than something to unwittingly presented both we felt we were going to win by a different standard." . get out of," he told me.—V.S.N. him and me with an awkward (Continued no Page I I8)

112 -,attinued (root Page 112) when she left were now pub- argued that they and the licly accepted. "When I left," committee deserved each on the constitutional issue. she recalls, "1 respected all other And yet it was the Now, it's quite a different the people who were willing 10 whose belligreent First- situation to enter into a to take a beating for a point Amendment posture consti- course of conduct which you of view. I accepted the fact tuted the most direct attack feel to be right, the punish- that informers were danger- on the committee's right to ment for which you do not ous. and irresponsible people ask these questions in the know. No one had ever been as a class. They had demon- First place, the 10 who went blacklisted. nor were they strated that they sold out to prison far their beliefs and until two nr three weeks cheap when the chips were the 10 whose black-market after those hearing& So we down. I felt there was value work ultimately became the could not he certain we in holding them responsible symbol of the defeat of the would lase our jobs; neither for what they had done, ex- blacklist. What. 1 wondered, could we have been certain pressing that view to them did the remaining members we would to to jail; neither and regarding them as dan- of the In feel has been most could we have been cerhun gerous people to associate consistently misunderstood that we would become so with. t still feel that way. A about their experience? notorious that there would be point of view Fve come to A number spontaneously no way we could clean our- is that it's terribly Important mentioned the "Afterword" selves up for a decade. Now for people to act upon their in Eric Bentley's collection, cut to two yearn later and own convictions and to do so 'Thirty Years of Treason." everybody else who comes in such a way that there's no In what is perhaps the mast before the committee knows doubt about what the con- articulate condemnation of exactly what the penalty is. victions are. In times like the II) for posing as classical All the people who took the ours, the only security one libertarians when in fact they First and the Fifth after ua has is to make oneself were Stalinists and/or Marx- knew something that we had known. That's what t under- ists, Bentley writes: "They not known—namely, that they stand the phrase 'eternal lacked candor, and if that, hu- would not work for years. vigilance' to mean. Ynu have manly speaking, is quite a Now, I say that those people com- to stay ahead of the stereo- mon lack, it is an impossible are in a better position to typed thinking of your own lack for real radicals. For, to make moral judgment on in- time by making known your radicalism, candor O no formers than are we who deepest feelings about what's adornment, it is the essence. went in without knowing... - right and what's wrong." .. So, in the HtlAC hearings, There comes a point, of Ring Lardner Jr. adds, the rhetoric of John Howard course, et which etiquette "There is some historical val- Lawson merely counterbal- blurs into substance, diplo- ue in remembering how de- ances that of the commit- macy becomes policy Sylvia graded some people got Juries (the former wife of through being scared. A lot -Where Bentley got the Paul Jerrie°, the screen- of people behaved badly. idea that candor is a hall- writer who, when asked what That's the sense in which mark of the true revolution- he would do if subpoenaed, Dalton means there were only ary is beyond me," says John told the press, "If t have to victims " Hinvard Lawson, who was choose between crawling head of the Hollywood through the mud with Larry section of the party at the Parks or going to }all like my ECAUSE the 10 time of the hearings but who courageous friends of the were obstreper- refused to answer the com- Hollywood 10, I shall cer- B ous witnesses and because mittee's $64 question. "The tainly choose the latter") is they were not open with the idea that reel radicals are quite eloquent on the subject, committee or the public about obligated to adhere to the having left the country in the nature of their involve- rules of on en disclosure: Un- 1957 and returned in 1964 ment with the Communist posed by their oppressors surprised to find that ideas party, balanced observers seems too fantastic to merit which were "unspeakable" such as Richard Revere have serious discussion. I have al. ways taken pride in having given a good part of my life to the struggle against Solutions to Last Week's Puzzles thought control." There you have it. Can it be that John Howard Lawson, the rigid cultural commissar of Hollywood legend, whom I would have thought was himself in the (ALEX) GRONEJe thought-control business for (THE HISTORY many years, is now. at OF) AMERICAN age SI, rewriting history BUSINESS (& IN- and claiming in have been in the civil-libertarian vanguard? DUS.-11tY1 — Gen- Toclarify matters. I asked him erations of Yankee about his role in attacking shipbuilders had Albeit Malta's New Masses learned how to dr- plea in 1948 for less doc- _'n1 oho.. .. trinaire judgments on writers siseeesa erns. sot, orao nm, as well as maximum ullitzetton at sail. sere, oeiser was ilt- The culmination of their art came in the fabled clipper nnunced, Maltz recanted, con- ships, . . . a logical outgrowth of the packet era. ceding that he had "severed the fundamental connection between art and ideology.") • wr-0 Lawson 'have to The Ring Lardner Jr.'s have a social problem since it is Mrs. Lardner's policy not to talk to informers, while Mr. Lardner talks to anybody.

say about Budd Schulherg's made in your work." Alvah detailed and lairrowing ac- Benin told me Lawson turned count, in his testimony. of how down an opportunity to work Lawson and other members on the screenplay of Kurt of a "study group" put the Vonnegut's "Mother Night" pressure on him to make because lie didn't see any "hu- "What Makes Sammy Run?" man" values in the script. The toe the party line? issue of the relationship of Whatever he once was. John propaganda to popular culture Howard Lawson today is ar- is older than Plato, more cur- thritic In tone, humble in rent than Maltz's protest over claim, but crystal clear in his the "blacklisting" of Solzhenit- recollection of what he was syn: When feminists judge the and wasn't in the old days. work of other feminists. "As a matter of fact." he told blacks that of other blacks. me, "them was a minimum rf should they bend literary interference with members of standards to meet politi- the Communist party, and a cal requirements? One can great deal of emphasis on disagree with Lawson's reso- creative problems rather than lution of these dilemmas solutions. The Maltz discus- and suspect the rigidity of his sion in my opinion has been incenparty role, yet still honor totally misunderstood because the integrity of his claim that it has been regarded as a dis- in refusing to tell HUAC any- pute about freedom of expres- thing about his politics, he. sion solely. whereas what was was fighting "thought con- involved was the whole ques- trol" as best he knew how. tion of artistic integrity. I was I myself happen to believe concerned with a deeper un- that whatever the relation of derstanding of the nature of their art to their politics, had the artistic experience. The the JO talked fully and freely whole problem of the artist is nutside the committee room to deepen and strengthen the about their involvement in the character of his work." party, its nature and quality, On Schulberae "rye never they might Lave helped un- questioned a writer's right to dermine one of the mast dam- write what he pleases. Rut I aging confusions of the cold also have the right to say war—the assumption that to what I think about it, and I be a member of a Memelt thought 'What Makes Sammy study group was the eqUiVa, Run?' was not u great Holly- tent of joining a Communist wood novel, not a great prole- spy ring. But I respect the tarian novel and not a great point made by Trunibo and novel. In fact, I thought it was others; "There's a differ- a piece of junk. 1 thought that ence between public exprea- then, and I think that now, mon of opinion on the one and I think history has proven hand. and confession of affili- me correct" ation on the ether. It's be- cause of our public expression OW much was of opinion an every conceiv- H dialogue and able Issue that can were how much Offetra? We can't caught Now you can argue know until all the mem- that we could have said, 'Yes, oirs are published and even rm a member of the- Commu- then there will be questions. nist party anti to hell with But we can know that the you.' but to do that was to stereotype of Lawson as agit- imperil the whole principle of on:fp-director is insufficient to the right of political privacy, capture the senous-nees with because by throwing it away which this man set about al. in public you do not really tempting to reconcile the per. preserve it, you see, you set a haps competing demands of pattern for others who are go- art, polities and what he came- ing to have to conform." to regard as the•. imperatives And given his outspoken of monopoly capitalism. Law- current polities. Albert Mahn son quit writing For the black is certainly not mouthing any- market, he told me, "because body's dogma when he states it corrupted everything and his conviction: "We en- everybody it touched. You terer] this as an opportunity took jobs you didn't want, and to rid the country not only of you didn't even have an op- this committee, but it would poreunity to talk over story rid the country of every one points or changes that were of these inquisitorial commit- Friendlier

Director testifies before the House _Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee in 1951. One of the "Unfriendly 10," he became a cooperative witness after serving time in prison.

tees because they all stood on tic tributary of McCarthyism. the same platform. And if we "We all feel we are headed had won our case the Mc- for another repression." Ring Carthy era would not have Lardner Jr. says. "Maybe it occurred ... because the whole has something to do with the era was based on this type of fact that Richard Nixon sat thing . . the bludgeon of on the committee which sent blacklist, which is precisely us to prison. It's the only time what the is do- I've ever been in the same ing today. They are precisely room with him." using blacklist. A Jew applies to them to go to Israel, he VVHEN all the gets fired from his job—like shouting was that]—no matter what his po- over, MAC had turned up the sition. And the purpose of that names of fewer than 300 Hol- is to intimidate 10.000 lywood Communists or, as from applying to go to Israel." Murray Kempton once com- Lawson believes that the puted, a little over of 1 per 10's resistance postponed Mc- cent of the industry. And as Carthyism for three years John Cogley's report, prepared (while their case worked ita for the Fund for the Republic way through the courts) and in 1956, pointed out, not only that the importance of this had the committee come up cannot be underestimated. with no evidence of Commu- That's a little apocalyptic far nist propaganda in the films, me, but I do think the 10 and but "the concern Parnell many of those who came after Thomas felt in 1947 was so made a difference. A writer remote by the summer of friend of mine puts it this 1955 that George E. Sokoisky, way: "They taught us how to in a lapse of memory, could behave," he says, "They re- assert in his nationally syndi- sisted and prevailed and be- cated column that Congres- cause of that it will be harder sional investigators had never for Nixon or anyone else to believed they would find Com- do it again." The fear of his- munist content in the films." tory's repeating itself is the Oh, the committee did col- popular explanation on the left lect some information on dues for the unprecedented revival paid and funds raised, and of interest in the blacklisting heard testimony on party at- period, which had once been tempts to gain a stronghold in written off as an anachronis- Hollywood's craft unions, but it was nothing to justify the lished. In tact, Walter Lipp- scare HUAC put in the indus- mann wrote a book at some try. Ironically, the one con- point in the twenties exposing tribution the committee did the journalistic lies that had make to our understanding of been told about the Soviet the Hollywood Communists Union in the first years. And undercuts the conventional there was every reason to anti-Communist wisdom of the think that when people spoke day, best articulated in 1949 of millions in concentration by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who camps that they were also wrote in "The Vital Center": lying. It seems incompatible "The Hollywood writer, like with the picture of a govern- the radio writer and the pulp- ment dedicated to improving fiction writer, tends to have a the welfare of its people, and pervading sense of guilt. He indeed there were improve.. feels he has sold himself out, ments," he has abandoned his serious work in exchange for large The impact of the blacklist weekly pay checks and he re- on our culture is, of course, sents a society which corrupts impossible to measure, since him. . . He has qualms of part of the calculation has to conscience, moreover, for do with scripts unwritten, making so much while others ideas not pursued, careers on- make so little. Su he believes begun or unfulfilled, industry- he can buy indulgences by wide potentials unrealized. participating in the Commu- Television, for instance, was nist movement, just as men horn, and defined itself and in the Middle Ages bought re- its structure, amid blacklist mission for sins from wander- assumptions. But David Rin- ing monks." tels, who is chairman of the If the hearings deinon- committee on censorship of strated anything, it was that the Writers Guild, says. "No men like Odets and Kazan, major studio production I can and presumably Lawson and think of in the last five years Maltz — early activists in has been critical of Adminis- the theater of social protest tration policy. The industry —had come to the party be- is a propaganda arm of the fore they came to Hollywood. Government. The worst thing And, like other writers and is that TV not only adheres intellectuals involved in radi- to official prejudices—it fos- cal movements of the day, ters and reinforces them. In they had come in response to my view, Hollywood has never the condition of Depression at really recovered from the home and Fascism abroad. A blacklist. The horns were more interesting question than pulled in, the chilling effect how they got there is why it is still felt." took them so long to leave. On the trip back to New _ Guilt may have been part of York from . I it, but Albert Maltz, who al- found it a happy omen ways saw film-writing as a that my in - flight "Jeta- way of subsidizing novel-writ- roma Theater" movie. "The ing, and who didn't give up Deadly Trap," was co-authored on socialist realism until 1951 and co-produced by' Sydney and on Communism Russian- Buchman, a once-blacklisted style until the Khrushchev writer-producer who escaped revelations of 1956, provides imprisonment for his 1952 another explanation: testimony. (Like the 10, he "We didn't know that mil- refused either to name names lions were being arrested and or take the Fifth Amendment, tortured and put in jail and but he had the luck to retain executed and sent to concen- as counsel a relatively un- tration camps. Now, there known young Washington at- were some who did know and torney named Edward Ben- who wrote articles and books nett Williams, who discovered about it. but like many others there was no quorum at the I brushed them aside. And the time he was cited for con- reason why is several-fold: tempt.) The film was O.K., First, there was this classic but f would rather have seen idealistic literature to which a revival of Buchman's Oscar- we clung. I never believed that winning "Mr. Smith Goes to any friend I knew who was Washington," in which Jimmy working sincerely lo stop Fas- Stewart singlehandesily de- cism would turn around at any feats graft and corruption in given point and frame and the Senatorial-industrial com- torture me. It was unthink- plex. I was saddened to think able, preposterous, to believe that neither Mr. Buchman nor that the Bolshevists would. do anyone else will ever write a this to one another. Secondly, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washing- the enmity of the capitalist ton" again, not because it is nations toward the Soviet so political, but because it is Government was well-estab- so innocent. ■