The Hollywood Blacklist Myth : Doubtfully blacklisted: Barbara Bel Geddes

Doubtfully blacklisted: Barbara Bel Geddes

Doubtfully blacklisted: Barbara Bel Geddes, actress. Essentially a stage actor. Her father was Norman Bel Geddes, the stage designer. She was married to Carl Sawyer, a theatrical manager, and later married stage director Windsor Lewis.

There is confusion over whether Geddes was ever actually named as a communist or communist sympathizer. The stories range from her unwillingness to name names before the HUAC (not true) to her name appearing in Red Channels (Not true) Legend says she was blacklisted in either 1951 or 1952. Why the HUAC would have paid her any mind at all in 1951-52 is a mystery. From 1947, when she entered the film business, until 1948, she appeared in four films. (Prior to that, she had a few bit parts in film) Throughout the 1950s, she was a busy and very well paid Broadway actress. In the four films she made in the 1950s, two were big budget classic's, Panic in the Streets, 1950 and Vertigo, 1958. She also appeared in Fourteen Hours in 1951 and The Five Pennies in 1959.

1950

October 18, 1950 October 28, 1950 Burning Bright (Stage play)

Robert Montgomery Presents 2 episodes 1950 (TV)

Panic in the Streets, 1950 (film)

Nash Airflyte Theater (TV) 1950

Pulitzer Prize Playhouse 1950 (TV)

1951

Fourteen Hour 1951 (film)

March 8, 1951 May 30, 1953 The Moon Is Blue (Stage play)

1952

Employed on stage

1953

Employed half the year. No credits after the month June

Pregnant with her daughter Betsey

1954

November 17, 1954 December 4, 1954 The Living Room (Stage play)

The Campbell Playhouse (TV)

1955

March 24, 1955 November 17, 1956 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play(Stage play)

1956

November 1, 1956 December 22, 1956 The Sleeping Prince (Stage play)

1957

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars 1957 (TV)

The Joseph Cotton Show 1957 (TV)

1957–1958 Studio One (TV 2 episodes)

1958

Vertigo, 1958 Film

Decision 1958 (TV)

Playhouse 90 1958 (TV)

1959

The DuPont Show of the month 1959, (TV)

The United States Steel Hour 1958 (TV)

December 3, 1959 March 19, 1960 Silent Night, Lonely Night (Stage play)

The Five Pennies 1959 (film)

Riverboat 1959 (TV)

Just because someone’s name appeared in Red Channels, that doesn’t mean they were blacklisted. It just means there name appeared in Red Channels.

Just because a person said they were blacklisted doesn’t mean they were. Many people in Hollywood have lied about being blacklisted over the years.

If a person was actually blacklisted…and not many were actually blacklisted….it was the studios and TV sponsors who blacklisted them. Not the United States federal government.

If a person claims the blacklist ruined their career, they should be able to prove they had a career before the blacklist.

The problems we have with the Hollywood left

The problem we have with the Hollywood left is it's the notion that accepting differences is no longer good enough, you have to be complicit in them. The problem we have with the Hollywood left it's the notion that any differing opinion is a threat to your very way of existence but never the opposite. The problem we have with the Hollywood left is the blatant hypocrisy of claiming to care about democracy well on abashedly striving to take control of every step of the political process. The problem we have with the Hollywood left is the notion that any idea or opinion outside of your own ideology is morally repugnant and therefore needs to be silenced. The problem we have with the Hollywood left is the notion that your goals must be achieved using everyone resources regardless on whether they agree. The problem we have with the Hollywood left is their supporting of rights situationally when convenient and the outright rejection of those rights when it's in it's the inconvenient for you. The problem we have with the Hollywood left isthat somehow you know what's best for me enough to allow the government to make that choice for me The problem we have with the Hollywood left it's their failure to see the irony in labeling anyone different than yourself as an extremist or a fundamentalist. Originally written by Jason Blood. Edited for this page.

Just because someone’s name appeared in Red Channels, that doesn’t mean they were blacklisted. It just means there name appeared in Red Channels.

Just because a person said they were blacklisted doesn’t mean they were. Many people in Hollywood have lied about being blacklisted over the years.

If a person was actually blacklisted…and not many were actually blacklisted….it was the studios and TV sponsors who blacklisted them. Not the United States federal government.

If a person claims the blacklist ruined their career, they should be able to prove they had a career before the blacklist.

For the most part, front organizations assumed the character of either a mass or membership organization or a paper organization. Both solicited and used names of prominent persons. Literally hundreds of groups and organizations have either been infiltrated or organized primarily to accomplish the purposes of promoting the interests of the Soviet Union in the United States, the promotion of Soviet war and peace aims, the exploitation of Negroes in the United States, work among foreign-language groups, and to secure a favorable viewpoint toward the Communists in domestic, political, social, and economic issues. The first requisite for front organizations is an idealistic sounding title. Hundreds of such organizations have come into being and have gone out of existence when their true purposes have become known or exposed while others with high-sounding names are continually springing up. J. Edgar Hoover on the subject of Communist front organizations. March 26, 1947