hollywood blacklist
“A Modern Day Version of the Salem Witch Trials” The word “blacklist” is a word that can put terror in a number of individuals. ... Hollywood in the early 1950s knew this term and it was a definate part in their lives and how they made their decisions. To this day people remember it as an example of a horrible mistake that caused many careers to be unfairly vanquished and tore family and friends apart and after that Hollywood was never the same. To truly understand why the blacklist occurred you have to go back in time and understand the era that brought about the troubles. ... Famous Hollywood writers such as Paul Jerrico joined the communist party as well as Jean Butler because they were tired of seeing people on the streets suffering and 800 men going to a job that asked for only three. ... People were worried that if there was communists in Hollywood they could influence the public with communistic propaganda through movies. Communists were said to place subversive messages into Hollywood films and discriminating against unsympathetic colleagues. ... What was totally ignored in the hysteria of communism were the realties of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 40s. ... Evidence of leftist dialogue in Hollywood films was extremely slim. ... When the subpoena’s began by HUAC or (House on Un-American Activities Committee) the first instinct of Hollywood was to fight back. ... This resulted in bad press for Hollywood and producers did not want to deal with controversial press and radical writers. Even Humphrey Bogart retracted his visit to the subpoena’s stating the trip had been “ill-advised” and was probably the result of pressure from Hollywood executives. ... An especially known writer was Dalten Trumbo who was a very talented and known writer in Hollywood at the time. ... ” A very defiant Hollywood actor was Lionel Stander who had been in comedies directed by Ben Hecht, Frank Capra, and Preston Surgis. A very active member in several left-wing causes , he claimed to have been “black-balled” for his politics for twenty years and the only “Un-American” actives in Hollywood were the members of the committee itself.