Rose Hobart: This appears to be
another case of “My career is over, so I’ll say I was blacklisted” and in fact
by 1945, Hobart was nearing fifty, ancient for an actor in 1940s Hollywood and
had been reduced to playing small supporting roles.
Hobart had a total of 50 acting
credits that started in 1930, 42 of them before 1950. She was inactive between
1950 and 1960 (She was pregnant through the latter half of 1948 and early
1949.) She appeared in the stage play “The
Winslow Boy” in 1950, “The Cocktail
Party” in 1951-1953, “Theater” in 1953
She was a very active member of the
Actors' Laboratory Theatre, a communist front. In 1950, three years after appearing
before the HUAC, Hobart was listed in Red Channels as a Communist. Hobart, a board member of the Screen Actors Guild, was
committed to improving working conditions for Hollywood actors. The studios considered
her a malcontent and wanted her gone. Her career probably would have ended without
the HUAC or Red Channels.
Lee J. Cobb named her before the
HUAC investigators as a member of the Communist Party. It is not true that she
denied being a communist before the HUAC, instead, she gave a seemingly endless
and aimless dialogue in response to a simple question; Are you now or have you
ever been a member of the Communist Party?