a look at history..The House Un-American Activities Committee

[w8liftinglady]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee


HUAC hearingThe House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) or House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC),<1> 1938–1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security". When the House abolished the committee in 1975,<2> its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee's anti-communist investigations are often confused with those of Senator Joseph McCarthy.<3> McCarthy, as a U.S. Senator, had no direct involvement with this House committee.<4> McCarthy was the Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Government Operations Committee of the U.S. Senate, not the House.

The Hollywood Blacklist

In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, the "Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists—including directors, radio commentators, actors and particularly screenwriters—were boycotted by the studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin, left the U.S. to find work. Others wrote under pseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry.

In 1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such as Mission to Moscow, The North Star, and Song of Russia—could be considered pro-Soviet propaganda, but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war effort, and that they were made (in the case of Mission to Moscow) at the request of White House officials. In response to the House investigations, most studios produced a number of anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda films such as John Wayne's Big Jim McLain, Guilty of Treason (about the ordeal and trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty), The Red Menace, The Red Danube, I Married a Communist, Red Planet Mars, and I Was a Communist for the FBI, which was nominated for an Academy Award for the best documentary in 1951 and also serialized for radio.<16> Universal-International Pictures was the only major studio that did not produce such a film

[w8liftinglady]

1. the Hollywood ten...soon to be eleven?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist

The Hollywood Ten and other 1947 blacklistees
The Hollywood Ten
Alvah Bessie, screenwriter
Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director
Lester Cole, screenwriter
Edward Dmytryk, director
Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter
John Howard Lawson, screenwriter
Albert Maltz, screenwriter
Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter
Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter
Others
Hanns Eisler, composer<56>
Bernard Gordon, screenwriter<57>
Joan Scott, screenwriter<58>
Persons first blacklisted between January 1948 and June 1950
(an asterisk after the entry indicates the person was also listed in Red Channels)

Ben Barzman, screenwriter<59>
Paul Draper, actor and dancer*<60>
Sheridan Gibney, screenwriter<61>
Paul Green, playwright and screenwriter<62>
Lillian Hellman, playwright and screenwriter*<63>
Canada Lee, actor<64>
Paul Robeson, actor and singer<65>
Edwin Rolfe, screenwriter and poet<66>
William Sweets, radio personality*<67>
Richard Wright, writer<62>
The Red Channels list
(see, e.g., Schrecker <2002>, p. 244; Barnouw <1990>, pp. 122–24)

Larry Adler, actor and musician
Luther Adler, actor and director
Stella Adler, actress and teacher
Edith Atwater, actress
Howard Bay, scenic designer
Ralph Bell, actor
Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor
Walter Bernstein, screenwriter
Michael Blankfort, screenwriter
Marc Blitzstein, composer
True Boardman, screenwriter
Millen Brand, writer
Oscar Brand, folk singer
Joseph Edward Bromberg, actor
Himan Brown, producer and director
John Brown, actor
Abe Burrows, playwright and lyricist
Morris Carnovsky, actor
Vera Caspary, writer
Edward Chodorov, screenwriter and producer
Jerome Chodorov, writer
Mady Christians, actress
Lee J. Cobb, actor
Marc Connelly, playwright
Aaron Copland, composer
Norman Corwin, writer
Howard Da Silva, actor
Roger De Koven, actor
Dean Dixon, conductor
Olin Downes, music critic
Alfred Drake, actor
Paul Draper, actor and dancer
Howard Duff, actor
Clifford J. Durr, attorney
Richard Dyer-Bennett, folk singer
José Ferrer, actor
Louise Fitch (Lewis), actress
Martin Gabel, actor
Arthur Gaeth, radio commentator
William S. Gailmor, journalist and radio commentator
John Garfield, actor
Will Geer, actor
Jack Gilford, actor
Tom Glazer, folk singer
Ruth Gordon, actress and screenwriter
Lloyd Gough, actor
Morton Gould, pianist and composer
Shirley Graham, writer
Ben Grauer, radio and TV personality
Mitchell Grayson, radio producer and director
Horace Grenell, conductor and music producer
Uta Hagen, actress and teacher
Dashiell Hammett, writer
E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, lyricist
Robert P. Heller, television journalist
Lillian Hellman, playwright and screenwriter
Nat Hiken, writer and producer
Rose Hobart, actress
Judy Holliday, actress
Roderick B. Holmgren, journalist
Lena Horne, singer and actress
Langston Hughes, writer
Marsha Hunt, actress
Leo Hurwitz, director
Charles Irving, actor
Burl Ives, folk singer and actor
Sam Jaffe, actor
Leon Janney, actor
Joe Julian, actor
Garson Kanin, writer and director
George Keane, actor
Donna Keath, radio actress
Pert Kelton, actress
Alexander Kendrick, journalist and author
Adelaide Klein, actress
Felix Knight, singer and actor
Howard Koch, screenwriter
Tony Kraber, actor
Millard Lampell, screenwriter
John La Touche, lyricist
Arthur Laurents, writer
Gypsy Rose Lee, actress and ecdysiast
Madeline Lee, actress
Ray Lev, classical pianist
Philip Loeb, actor
Ella Logan, actress and singer
Alan Lomax, folklorist and musicologist
Avon Long, actor and singer
Joseph Losey, director
Peter Lyon, television writer
Aline MacMahon, actress
Paul Mann, director and teacher
Margo, actress and dancer
Myron McCormick, actor
Paul McGrath, radio actor
Burgess Meredith, actor
Arthur Miller, playwright
Henry Morgan, actor
Zero Mostel, actor
Jean Muir, actress
Meg Mundy, actress
Lyn Murray, composer and choral director
Ben Myers, attorney
Dorothy Parker, writer
Arnold Perl, producer and writer
Minerva Pious, actress
Samson Raphaelson, screenwriter and playwright
Bernard Reis, accountant
Anne Revere, actress
Kenneth Roberts, writer
Earl Robinson, composer and lyricist
Edward G. Robinson, actor
William N. Robson, radio and TV writer
Harold Rome, composer and lyricist
Norman Rosten, writer
Selena Royle, actress
Coby Ruskin, TV director
Robert St. John, journalist
Hazel Scott, jazz and classical musician
Pete Seeger, folk singer
Lisa Sergio, radio personality
Artie Shaw, jazz musician
Irwin Shaw, writer
Robert Lewis Shayon, former president of radio and TV directors' guild
Ann Shepherd, actress
William L. Shirer, journalist
Allan Sloane, radio and TV writer
Howard K. Smith, journalist
Gale Sondergaard, actress
Hester Sondergaard, actress
Lionel Stander, actor
Johannes Steel, journalist
Paul Stewart, actor
Elliott Sullivan, actor
William Sweets, radio personality
Helen Tamiris, choreographer
Betty Todd, director
Louis Untermeyer, poet
Hilda Vaughn, actress
J. Raymond Walsh, radio commentator
Sam Wanamaker, actor
Theodore Ward, playwright
Fredi Washington, actress
Margaret Webster, actress, director and producer
Orson Welles, actor, writer and director
Josh White, blues musician
Irene Wicker, singer and actress
Betty Winkler (Keane), actress
Martin Wolfson, actor
Lesley Woods, actress
Richard Yaffe, journalist

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Trivia: Spartacus - book and screeplay were both written by blacklisted writers.

Howard Fast wrote the book - Dalton Trumbo the screenplay.