The Hollywood Ten : The Waldorf Statement Of The Hollywood 10

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 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.

From the late 1930s to late 1950s the HUAC took initial steps to find communists and spies in the United States. The House Un- Americans Activities Committee was a big part of the panic of the scare. The HUAC started investigating Hollywood for communism spies in 1947, the committee held nine hearings, after convictions the “Hollywood ten” were blacklisted. The HUAC Hollywood investigations were 1 of 50 investigations. After the HUAC’s Hollywood probe they focused on nuclear espionage, they were very successful in finding spies like Elizabeth Bentley.

No one realized at first that McCarthy accused many on baseless charges, as they were too scared to see straight. As a response to this “Red” (Communist) Scare, the United States House of Representatives commenced the House un-American Activities Committee. As Grolier Online stated, “Under the chairmanship of Texas Democratic representative Martin Dies, Jr., it investigated fascist, Communist, and other so-called extremist or subversive political organizations” (“Grolier Online”). In other words, the HUAC attempted to censor Communist, Nazi, and other “left-wing” parties and prevent them from poisoning the minds of the American public. They viciously attacked such Nazi-supporting parties as the German-American Bund and the Silver Shirt Legion (“Grolier Online”), calling them out publicly and trying to get them shut down or obliterated. The HUAC also tried to investigate the Communist Party’s “infiltration of the government,” supposedly to keep the people safe and promote democracy and capitalism in America (“Grolier Online”). However, things did not go as planned for the HUAC. Over time, its arguably good intentions became skewed and a desire to improve America turned into a horribly misguided witch-hunt, influenced by Communism fear, that ruined the lives and careers of many. Law-abiding citizens were accused of Communism on ridiculous charges, and citizens were promptly sent to prison. Due to this, the HUAC began to change in

In July 29,1946 William R. Wilkerson, writes “A Vote for Joe Stalin” a column in ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ naming the eleven alleged Communists that were working for Hollywood. Dalton Trumbo and seven others were on Wilkerson’s informal list, which the House Un-American Activities Committee used in their investigation.

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

Continuing his claims of suspected communists, various innocent people were questioned, and some cases ended up proving nothing because of how the information received showed little evidence of the suspects being a communist. Despite some of the cases having repeated or weak information, the Senate still called for a full investigation, making suspects tell names of others who are communists. It is stated in the article, “Those who repented and named names of suspected communists were allowed to return to business as usual. Those who refused to address the committee were cited for contempt” (McCarthyism 3). People who were suspected conformed so that they would not be held for contempt. People accused others in order to avoid the punishment for contempt, fearing how the punishment would affect their life. McCarthy’s accusations also had an effect on those who were on the lower rank as well, it reads, “Uncooperative artists were blacklisted from jobs in the entertainment industry. Years passed until many had their reputations restored” (McCarthyism 3). People conformed in fear of consequences that would practically destroy their life. Being blacklisted meant being unable to find jobs and having a ruined reputation, so civilians conformed to the law to keep their jobs and not have their lives destroyed. Conformity is achieved by fear of consequences throughout McCarthyism,

Celebrity culture is a mixture of good and bad for society because it makes people complacent with issues that are wrong just to stay in the public eye, like whitewashing and sexism but also can help fight against those issues. For example, most shows are filled with straight, white guys as if other people, like POC, LGBT and women don't exist. Even if a show is centered around a women, the show is about there relationship with men, or has a romantic dynamic to it. Also, female celebrities are controlled by ageism where they are deemed “unworthy” or “too old” once they hit a certain age while men can be expected to continue acting and being in the spotlight far older than women would ever be allowed. Like how Scout Durwood states in “Pop Culture-

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

While reading the McCarthy hearing of the 1950’s, Joe McCarthy accused the government of being Communists. He said that there were 205 people who were communists. McCarthy interviewed many people, he tried forcing them to give up names. If they did not give up names they were imprisoned and blacklisted. If you were blacklisted, you most likely lost your job.

“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

Among these citizens, were a group of screenwriters and directors and actors who were blacklisted in attempt to stifle their voice and end their careers. One such black listee was Dalton Trumbo, a member of the communist party, was tried for spreading subversive material and convicted