Hollywood Blacklist Essay

My response: The Hollywood Blacklist was an event that occurred in America where some people who worked in Hollywood were accused of working with the communists. According to an article published by Online Highways LLC, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) brought in many Hollywood writers, producers, and directors to question (Hollywood Blacklist). Then, according to an article published by A&E Television Networks, a notable group of 10 people who were brought in for questioning directly challenged the HUAC’s authority to question people about communist involvement, which forced them to spend a year in prison, pay a $1,000 fine, and become blacklisted so that they couldn’t work on any future Hollywood projects (“Hollywood Ten”). Their defiance was very controversial, since some people saw them as heroic people who stood up against McCarthyism and the Red Scare, while others felt that they needed to be punished for being admitted communists.

The Hollywood Ten happened in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The Hollywood Ten is where there was a communist influence in the American motion picture business. Screenwriters and Directors in Hollywood Known as the Hollywood Ten received jail time and were blacklisted, meaning they could not work for major Hollywood studios. The ten people include Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Orntiz, Robert Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. These ten people denounced the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) anti-communist hearings as a violation of their civil rights.

During the "Red Scare" of the early 1920s, thousands were deported for their political views. During the McCarthy period, the infamous blacklist ruined lives and careers. Today, the creators, producers and distributors of popular culture are often blamed for the nation's deep social problems. Calls for censorship threaten to erode free speech (American Civil Liberties union).

One 's surroundings ultimately impact their thought process and decisions. In order to spread ideas, people often look to the media. However, individuals ideas can only spread as long as freedom of expression is present and the element of fear is not. When individuals do not have this freedom or they have a fear of sharing their opinions, they filter or censor their work. The idea of censorship is a prominent element of today’s society and is apparent throughout history. Examples of censorship include the banning of books, movie ratings, music lyrics and governmental attempts to control the press and the media. Governments often use censorship with the goal of controlling the

The censorship conflicts in the 1900s were extremely intriguing and intense. Around the end of the 1920s, individuals possessed immense moral shifts powered by religious groups during the Great Depression, which resulted in decisions that created a new revolution that dealt particularly with the regulation of content of films. Consequently, in 1934, at the same time that the “Golden Age of Hollywood” began, the Hollywood Production code was formally implemented. The film

Being a Communist was not a crime so most of the people convicted served sentences for perjury or contempt of Congress. Another tool used to punish citizens suspected of communist affiliations was a practice called the Blacklist. Having one’s name on the Hollywood Blacklist guaranteed that person would be unable to find work in the motion picture industry. Hollywood screenwriter Michael Wilson was called before the HUAC in 1951. When he refused to testify, his name was added to the Hollywood Blacklist. Writing under a pseudonym, Wilson continued to write but after 1951 never received credit, during his lifetime , for his screenplays including two Oscar Winning movies, Bridge on the River Kwai and Friendly Persuasion. (King 2016)

Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.

The history of the world has undoubtedly been dominated by an endless struggle for power. However, after a brief glimpse into the pages of history it should not take long to realize that the trick to maintaining power lies in the control of information. Even the most fearsome military generals of the past acknowledge the power of the mind and ideas over lethal force. Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin once said “… [Ideas] are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, then why should we let them have ideas.” Stalin’s quote personifies the main concept of this literature review which will be discussing the history of government censorship and its effects that are

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), began investigating Communist influences in the entertainment industry. The HUAC believed that Communists were secretly sending messages in films through propaganda (“Blacklisting”). Due to these beliefs, the HUAC called ten witnesses to testify against the accusal of Communist practices within the entertainment industry, but the witnesses refused to speak (Littell). These ten men would soon be infamously known as the Hollywood Ten; these men decided not to cooperate with the hearings because they believed they were unconstitutional and due to that they were sent to prison (Littell). Because of this, Hollywood executives initiated a blacklist, which is a list of people whom they condemned for having a Communist background. The people McCarthy had blacklisted, about 500 actors, writers, producers, and directors, had their careers ruined (Hixson). Again, Joseph McCarthy is responsible for the diminishing of people’s careers and reputations due to his false accusations and strong anti-Communist beliefs; not to mention McCarthy had no evidence against the accusal, but they were still sentenced to prison, death, or banishment. These actions McCarthy committed are illegal and corrupt

During the 1940’s the Motion Picture Association made a chilling statement in response to the blacklisting of those in Hollywood due to the red scare: “We will forthwith discharge…without compensation those in our employ…we will not knowingly employ a communist or a member of any party…which advocates the overthrow of the

Blacklisted writers, such as Walter Bernstein, Abraham Polonsky, and Lester Cole had a very difficult time finding work and trying to survive during the period of the blacklist. Suspected Communist sympathizers went through a horrifying experience during the HUAC hearings, as they were constantly and consistently harassed by the FBI and other agencies and people who tried to force already known Communists to “name names” of other various questionable individuals. The ideas and works of these writers, because of their leftist views, were a cause for alarm in Congress, and a reason for dire concern among the rest of society.

The California congressmen and the later president Richard M. Nixon was the leader of the committee and the national hero. During the 1950s committee’s meetings were broadcasted on TV. The people were arrested and questioned and among this Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s execution created great stir and there existed divided opinion among the people about their innocence. People were forced to take loyalty oaths and almost 250 Hollywood personalities blacklisted in 1950s suspected of communist ties which spread to Broadway and to music industry. The long list included: actors Jose Ferrer, Will Geer, Lee J. Cobb, Edward G.Robinson; actor director Orsen Welles; writers Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, Langston Hughes, and Ring Lardner Jr; Singers like Paul Robeson, Lena Horne and Peter Seeger; Composer Aaron Copland and Composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein to name a few. Of these Miller and Hellman were accused of writing plays that contained subversive content supporting communist ideas. The blacklist ruined the professional lives of artists and unable to find work in US they were forced to migrate overseas (Lindop and

During the 1950’s, communism was a big issue in countries around the world. It was a different ideology that was usually run by a dictator, who would run the country very poorly and punish anyone who would stand in their way. This new ideology, challenged the principles of democracy so the Western hemisphere retaliated, banned the ideology and would persecute anyone who would believe in or be associated with it. Soon enough, people began to notice that communism was brought up quite frequently in Holly wood. The government began to crack down by starting the communist blacklisting’s. The blacklisting’s were eradicating anyone who was involved in communism from the film industry. This became a very frequent topic in the world, and soon enough

“As anti-Communist liberal screenwriter Philip Dunne said, If there is one thing about the blacklist that angers me more than any other, it is that we were all deprived of the movies Ring Lardner was not allowed to make” (Buhle). This shows that even anti-Communists were annoyed with the fact that blacklisting not only affected the people but also the movies and that some people including Ring Lardner were not allowed to make the

The book utilizes a wide variety of primary sources of films from the 1920s onward. Leff and Simmons also use many newspaper and magazine articles that analyze censorship in films. They utilize these sources to illustrate examples of how films went from having