In the face of the facts, Actor
Fredric March’s blacklisting doesn’t appear to have happened.
March and his wife were known for their
enthusiastic involvement with progressive causes so much so that March appeared
before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1938, where he denied
being a Communist. Two years later, in 1940, he was again accused of being a
Communist by John L. Leech, a former Communist party (CPUSA) official in the
Los Angeles area. Counterattack Magazine also called them communists and the
Marches filed suit for libel and won. He was named as a Communist again in a
1949 spy case.
So at some point around this
time, according to the legend, he was blacklisted. But that doesn’t appear to
be the case. From 1940 through 1949, before he was said to be blacklisted,
March appeared in 13 films, but from 1950 through 1959 he appeared in one
documentary, 9 big budget films and 11 television programs. By comparison, from
1960 through 1970, March appeared in only six films, one documentary and one
Broadway production.
In 1953, March starred in Eli
Kazan’s anti-communist statement film “Man on a tightrope.” In 1955, the height
of the so-called Red Scare in Hollywood, in an informal poll of 30 top male
stars, directors and producers, March was chosen best film actor beating out
Marlon Brando, William Holden, Ronald Coleman and Spencer Tracy.
Basically, the decade of the
1950s when he was blacklisted, was the busiest in his career. After 1958, he didn’t work much mostly
because he was 61 years old, a serious drawback in Hollywood.
In as far as March being forced
out of Hollywood and onto the Broadway stage due to blacklisting, that doesn’t
appear to be true either. In the 1950s, he appeared in four Broadway
productions (1950, two in 1951 and one in 1958) In the 1940s, he appeared in
four Broadway productions.
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.