Communist Influence In Hollywood

It was estimated that by the late teens of the 20th century, Zukor held 75% of the best talent in the filmmaking business. I was baffled by this statistic when I read it. For one studio to hold ¾’s of the best talent in the industry is nearly a monopoly. Another thing I found interesting was that Fox worked on 70 mm wide-screen techniques. This was thought provoking to me because this summer I saw the film Dunkirk, and my friends and I saw it with the 70 mm wide-screen edition. I had never seen a movie with this wide-screen 70 mm and it was definitely different from a regular screen. Another thing that caught my attention was the connection between film and politics. I was interested to learn that MGM used a film to bring down Upton Sinclair as he was running for office. I was also shocked to read that Charlie Chaplin was not let into the United States because of his progressive political views. I was baffled that a man that was once called the “king of comedy” in the United States was denied entry because of his political

Hollywood has influenced American history since it began. It boosted and shaped the morale of a nation for almost a century. But Hollywood has not only been the influencing American society, it has been influenced by American society. In the 1920s, American society was booming; people were getting rich, spending and borrowing money, and they thought life was looking good. Then in October of 1929 the stock market crashed. Many people lost all they owned. People had invested all their money into the banks before the Crash. After the Crash, the banks had nothing. People were destitute. They had no money to pay for their houses, electrical bills, and food. It became the Great Depression. Likewise, Hollywood was impacted by the Great

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 list accused 151 writers, directors and performers and claimed they were member of the Communist organization during World War II. The blacklist against Communists would make it significantly more difficult for a person to find employment in most industries and most likely would get a person fired just for even being interrogated or being any form of a suspect of Communism. Even a person who worked with a person accused of Communism had significantly less chance to be able to find a job. Ten stars that were most famous for standing up for themselves and pleaded the 5th amendment when asked to name Communists were known as the Hollywood ten. Their names were Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryit, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie. The ten did not defend themselves because they were prideful Americans who saw their rights and the rights of others being harmed and decided to do something about, no. They were already asked if they were Communists when they went on a trip to California and they did not want to get charged with perjury. Some Americans did take action and saw that their rights were being put into question and decided to protect themselves, for example Alger Hiss who was accused and in order to solidify the fact that he was a Communist lawyers used his day to day schedule in full detail to solidify that his behaviors were that

The Production Code Administration emerged in 1934. It was the organic outgrowth of a backlash to immorality in film perceived since the 1920’s (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). As an entertainment medium, film was revolutionary: all of the sudden, vivid snippets of life could reach a mass audience. Not long after motion pictures enthralled the country, producers began to recognize the opportunity to attract larger audiences – and increase profits – by filming stories involving provocative subjects and thus stimulating the people’s sense of wonder (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). A natural outgrowth of this trend was the increasingly transgressive nature of motion pictures. In an age characterized by both economic and social progress, a backlash against new ideas

Early into the days of the film industry, Hollywood and European markets competed for success. After the end of World War I, the European market lost footing and failed, leaving Hollywood the head of the global market (Bakker 2008). The European market couldn’t compete with Hollywood’s rates or distribution methods. Hollywood was able to spread almost twice the amount of advertising globally than European markets could in their own countries in a fraction of the time (Bakker 2008). Hollywood had Europe under its thumb, controlling 95% of the British film market and 70% of the French market (Digital History 2016). The European markets knew this and it wasn’t long into the Roarin’ Twenties when the mass exodus of directors and producers to Hollywood began. By the end of the 1920’s Hollywood was the film industry’s Holy Land. Not only did the film industry control American markets, therefore earning more money, but the control over the European markets benefitted the industry and country as a whole through its intake of capital and the earning of the country much more

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

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

High Noon, the shocking American film from the 1950’s, shines light on the true nature of one standing their ground when the world is against them. This movie was written to represent the Red Scare, when Hollywood members were falsely accused of being communist. These actors were forced to give names of others who they thought were “communists” or else they would be punished. If the “communist” actors gave out names, however, they would be ruining other’s careers. Some of the people refused to give names. Like the Marshall in the movie High Noon, these brave actors stood up for what they believed in. Nevertheless, the other members of Hollywood around were not very willing to support. They were like the townspeople in High Noon. They didn’t want to risk their own reputation and safety. In the film, Zinnemann successfully revealed the hardships of those falsely convicted, and exposed the hearts of those who saw the false conviction, but did nothing about it in order to protect themselves.

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

American historian, Andrew J. Falk, author of the book Upstaging the Cold: American Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy, 1940-1960, surveys how anti-Communists in America employed the blacklist and censorship to silence dissent, especially in American foreign policy. Falk argues that, “So much of what had taken place in political culture up to this time [1947] – the crucible of the Second World War, the post war progressive movement, the containment of Hollywood progressives, the movement of dissent to early television - - all served as prelude for the contest over American cultural diplomacy.”

BLACKLIST - A list of persons who are under suspicion, disfavor, or censure, or who are not to be hired, served, or otherwise accepted.

How did the Paramount decision of 1948 change the U.S. film industry? To what degree did the decision alter the way the industry did business?

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.

A great change came during WW1 and WW2. War images were not the only way war was portrayed, but motion pictures also came along. The motion pictures gave a whole new perspective on war to the American people. Thus, by seeing this influence, many powerful leaders saw an advantage. They saw, “the tremendous potential of movies for propaganda and