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) .
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