John
Ireland, actor who was said to have been blacklisted in Hollywood
after June 1954. Ireland was a Canadian who dated actress Tuesday
Weld when she was 16 years old and he was 45. From 1945 through 1992, Ireland
was credited with 214 stints as an actor, director or voice-over artist. He
made 44 films in the 1950s, almost all of them after 1954 when he was
supposedly blacklisted. The reality is that Ireland had been picked to star in
a TV series,
The
Adventures of Ellery Queen. Shortly before shooting was Ireland was released
from the show. Ireland sued for breach of contract and slander against the
program’s producers, Norvin Productions.
According
to Ireland, Norvin dismissed him for having once been a communist to which
Ireland answered “I am an actor and a director. I don’t know anything about
politics. I am frank to admit it. My one political activity has been to vote on
election day just like any other American.”
Norvin
later admitted that they dumped Ireland because he had recently entered into an
agreement to endorse a tobacco product in competition of one of the show’s
sponsors and settled the case out of court and issued a retraction saying that
Ireland was “a loyal American citizen who has never committed any act which
would reflect unfavorably upon his character or patriotism.”
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.