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KF5JRV > TODAY 20.10.18 12:32l 43 Lines 2158 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 23399_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 20
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<N9PMO<NS2B<KF5JRV
Sent: 181020/1128Z 23399@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.16
On October 20, 1947, the notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in
Washington, as a Congressional committee begins investigating Communist
influence in one of the world’s richest and most glamorous communities:
Hollywood.
After World War II, the Cold War began to heat up between the world’s
two superpowers—the United States and the communist-controlled Soviet
Union. In Washington, conservative watchdogs worked to out communists in
government before setting their sights on alleged “Redsö in the famously
liberal movie industry. In an investigation that began in October 1947,
the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) grilled a number of
prominent witnesses, asking bluntly “Are you or have you ever been a
member of the Communist Party?ö Whether out of patriotism or fear, some
witnesses—including director Elia Kazan, actors Gary Cooper and Robert
Taylor and studio honchos Walt Disney and Jack Warner—gave the committee
names of colleagues they suspected of being communists.
A small group known as the “Hollywood Tenö resisted, complaining that
the hearings were illegal and violated their First Amendment rights.
They were all convicted of obstructing the investigation and served jail
terms. Pressured by Congress, the Hollywood establishment started a
blacklist policy, banning the work of about 325 screenwriters, actors
and directors who had not been cleared by the committee. Those
blacklisted included composer Aaron Copland, writers Dashiell Hammett,
Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker, playwright Arthur Miller and actor
and filmmaker Orson Welles.
Some of the blacklisted writers used pseudonyms to continue working,
while others wrote scripts that were credited to other writer friends.
Starting in the early 1960s, after the downfall of Senator Joseph
McCarthy, the most public face of anti-communism, the ban began to lift
slowly. In 1997, the Writers’ Guild of America unanimously voted to
change the writing credits of 23 films made during the blacklist period,
reversing—but not erasing—some of the damage done during the Red Scare.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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