John Wayne famously called High Noon “the most un-American thing I’ve seen in my whole life”
The
film, written and co-produced by Carl Foreman, premiered on July 24, 1952 in
New York City. Foreman
was called before the House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC) during production., admitting being a member of the Communist Party in the early
1940s, but refused to provide names of
other members and then fled to England (where he wrote The Bridge on the River Kwai).
High
Noon was
nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and received 4 (Best Actor, Best Editing, Best
Score, Best Song). John Wayne accepted the Best Actor Award for the absent Gary
Cooper and said that he was going to ask his “business manager, agent, and
producer and writers” and find out why “I didn’t get High Noon and Coop did.”
In fact, Wayne was offered the film first, but refused, as he believed
“Foreman’s story was an obvious allegory against blacklisting.”
Hollywood Hero:Thomas Leo McCarey
Thomas Leo McCarey (October 3,
1898 – July 5, 1969) was a three-time Academy Award winning film director, screenwriter
and producer who was involved in the production of over 200 films including:
Duck Soup
Make Way for Tomorrow
The Awful Truth
Going My Way
The Bells of St. Mary's
My Son John
McCarey testified as a friendly
witness early on in the hearings of the Un-American Activities Committee in Congress
and made the popular anti-communist film My Son John (1952) and the equally anti-communist films Satan
Never Sleeps (1962)
Johannes Eisler, spy
Johannes Eisler’s brother, Gerhart,
was a Communist journalist and his sister, Elfriede, was a leader of the German
Communist Party in the mid-1920s. At age 14 Eisler joined a socialist youth
group (His sister later moved to the US turned into an anti-communist, writing
books against her former political affiliation, and even testifying against her
brothers before the House Un-American Activities Committee.)
Eisler arrived in the US in 1938. B y
the early 1940s he was composing with Bertolt Brecht in Hollywood as well as music
for various documentary films and for eight Hollywood film scores, two of which
— Hangmen Also Die! and None but the Lonely Heart — were nominated for Oscars
in 1944 and 1945. From 1927 to the end of his life, Eisler wrote the music for
40 films, making film music the largest part of his compositions after vocal
music for chorus and/or solo voices.
From 1943 onwards, the FBI would keep
Eisler under almost total surveillance as his over-six-hundred-page FBI file
attests. In 1946, Eisler and his brother Gerhart, a functionary of the KPD, who
had been in America since 1941 were the subject of a furious press campaign.
Eisler was called before the Committee to find that he had been denounced by
none other than his own sister Elfriede, now using the name Ruth Fischer. She
also began taking out full-page ads in newspapers across the country accusing
her brother Gerhart of having murdered Soviet politician Nikolai Bukharin and
of being a nuclear spy for the Soviet Union.
Eisler was interviewed twice by the
House Committee on Un-American Activities, who suspected him to be the chief
Soviet agent in Hollywood. Perhaps the most powerful moment of Eisler’s
testimony was when he faced repeated questioning as to whether he was
officially a Communist Party member. He stated passionately that “The
Communists have sacrificed so much and fought so heroically, I would be a
swindler if I called myself a Communist, I have no right to say this, the
Communist underground workers in every country, they are heroes! I am not a
hero I am a composer.”
Charlie Chaplin, Igor Stravinsky,
Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein—organized benefit concerts to raise money
for his defense fund, but he was deported early in 1948. He died in 1963,
however was never Blacklisted ad continued to sell his works until 1961.
1962Esther (TV
Movie)
1962The Life of
Galileo (TV Movie)
1961Aktion J
(Documentary)
1961Schweyk im zweiten
Weltkrieg (TV Movie)
1960Herr Puntila
and His Servant Matti
1960The
Opportunists
1958Geschwader
Fledermaus
1957Katzgraben
1957The Crucible
1956Night and Fog
(Documentary short)
1955Bel Ami
1955Bel-Ami Der
Frauenheld von Paris
1954Schicksal am
Lenkrad (as Hans Eisler)
1952Frauenschicksale
1952KrÃzová trojka
1951Wilhelm Pieck -
Das Leben unseres Präsidenten (Documentary)
1950Der Rat der
Götter
1949Our Daily Bread
Philip Loeb killed himself
On September 1, 1955, actor and director Philip
Loeb took a room at the Taft Hotel at 50th and Seventh Avenue in
Manhattan under the name “Fred Lange” which means “a long peace in German, and
ended his life with an overdose of 36 sleeping pills.
In April 1952, four years before Loeb
took his own life, director Elia Kazan named Loeb as a communist in his
testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Kazan and Lee J.
Cobb gave information on his radical political activity in the 1930s. Cobb
testified that he did not know if Loeb was a former member of the American
Communist Party but he accused him of working with Sam Jaffe to control a
left-wing caucus in the Actors Equity Association.
Supposedly Loeb was blacklisted due
to Kazan’s testimony and unable to find work. But he had actually been named as
a communist in the June 1950 edition of Red
Channels, in a section called “The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and
Television”
Loeb denied being a Communist. The
studios and the networks wanted him gone because for them, he was a trouble maker,
a strong union advocate who had fought to get rehearsal pay and better salaries
for all actors. The FBI had determined that although Loeb leaned extremely far
left, he had never been a communist.
At the time, Loeb was at the height
of his popularity starring in The Goldberg’s a TV smash hit. (Where he made $20,000 a year)
General Foods, the sponsors of The Goldberg’s, insisted that he be dropped from
the show's cast. The producer refused to
fire Loeb so CBS dropped the program which was immediately picked up by NBC,
with the condition that Loeb be replaced. Loeb resigned
on his own and left the show with a settlement of almost $400,000 at a time
when a healthy years income for a family of three was $3,300.
Loeb landed the lead role in the Broadway production of
"Time Out for Ginger". Being named a communist and leaving his TV
show with a half a million dollars didn’t cause Loeb to kill himself. He was
badly despondent of his wife’s recent death, his own health was failing rapidly,
and his adult son’s mental health was growing steadily worse. (He was delusional
and saw communist spies everywhere, all of whom intended to kill him.) His sons
hospitalization cost him $12,000 a year.
The week before he killed himself, the State
of new York sent Loeb a summons to
account for $1,000 in back taxes. Loeb
responded that he had less than $220.00 in the back, which seems highly unlikely.
friend of the court
[Norman Mailer] was hoping to have
many of the most important people in Hollywood sign an amicus curiae—friend of
the court—brief, which could be presented with an appeal to the Supreme Court
before the Hollywood Ten were put in jail like common criminals by HUAC. His
speech was wonderful, and everyone in the room was shoving money at him.
Shelley [Winters] and I each gave him a check for $100 and ran to get the car
because we were late for dinner.
After an exhaustive campaign, Shelley
finally succeeded in getting George Stevens to give her a screen test for A
Place in the Sun. She called Norman the night before the test and asked if they
could have dinner. She desperately needed to pick his brains because she had
not done her homework. She had not read Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, on which
the movie was based. Her justification for this laziness was that an important
American writer could give her insights she might overlook on her own. She went
to Norman’s house, and they spent the evening discussing the story and her
character. Whatever he told her must have helped, because she got the part. As
she was leaving Norman’s, he gave her back the checks we had written at the
Kellys’ and told her he had torn up the brief. He had wanted to get some
blockbuster names that evening, but she and I were the only ones who signed it.
He didn’t deposit our checks, either. Everyone else had donated cash.“— Farley Granger, Include Me Out.
Jazz pianist Hazel Scott appears either not to have been very bright or was found of word games.
Scott's name appeared in Red Channels in June 1950. In an effort
to clear her name, Scott voluntarily appeared before the House Un-American
Activities Committee on September 22, 1950.
She denied that she was "ever knowingly connected with the
Communist Party or any of its front organizations." …except for the time
she endorsed and worked for Communist Party member Benjamin J. Davis's run for
City Council.
Her argument was that it was okay because Davis was supported by
socialists, a group that "has hated Communists longer and more fiercely
than any other."
Morris Carnovsky
Morris Carnovsky was a stage and
film actor. He was one of the founders of the Communist front, the Group Theatre (1931-1940)
Named as a communist, he left Hollywood in 1952. He left on his own accord. No
matter what Wikipedia says, he wasn’t blacklisted largely because as a stage
actor he didn’t really have a career in films.
From 1937 through 1949, he had small parts in
15 films and one television program. He made four films in 1950.
1959
The World of Sholom
Aleichem (TV Movie)
Play of the Week (TV
Series)
1958
The Cold Wind and the Warm (Dec
08, 1958 - Mar 21, 1959)
1957
Nude With Violin (Nov 14, 1957 -
Feb 08, 1958)
The Taming of the Shrew (Feb 20,
1957 - Mar 10, 1957)
Measure for Measure (Jan 22, 1957
- Feb 17, 1957)
1956
The Lovers (May 10, 1956 - May
12, 1956)
1955
Tiger at the Gates (Oct 03, 1955
- Apr 07, 1956)
1951
An Enemy of the People (Dec 28,
1950 - Jan 27, 1951)
1950
Cyrano de Bergerac (film)
The Second Woman(film)
Western Pacific Agent(film)
Gun Crazy(film)
Producer Mark Goodson
“In
1952, our panel show "I've Got a Secret" Henry Morgan was named in
Red Channels, but for such a frivolous reason that no one -- not even CBS --
took it seriously. Morgan was essentially an apolitical curmudgeon who shot
darts at any pompous balloon he saw floating by. Certainly he was no
"Communist dupe." The closest he came to being duped was by his wife,
who, Morgan told me, was a leftist sympathizer, and it was understood that one
reason Morgan was getting a divorce was his aversion to Mrs. Morgan's politics.
Thus he was listed in Red Channels as a result of a marital connection he was
trying to terminate.
But
R. J. Reynolds took the listing seriously. At least the William Esty agency
did, and I was informed that Morgan would have to go. I'd done previous
business with the two men in charge of the account -- reasonable, decent guys
-- and paid them a visit. They agreed completely that the charge in Red
Channels was nonsensical. But as they put it: "Camel cigarettes don't want
to know from reasons. They're in the business of selling tobacco, and hostile
mail will make Winston-Salem edgy." The account could be at risk. And for
what? For one man? I left that meeting with an ultimatum: dump Morgan pronto or
Reynolds would cancel.”
Burrows was a brilliant comedy
writer known for "Duffy's Tavern" on radio, and he was a co-author of
"Guys and Dolls," the 1950 Broadway hit. But he still couldn't be
used in television. During the war years Burrows had apparently taken part in
cultural activities sponsored by Communists in California. To clear his name,
he appeared twice before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The
committee, after extensive hearings, released Burrows, apparently cleared, from
further questioning. But the mere story of his appearance before the committee
made headlines in the tabloid press, and Aware Inc., a group formed "to
combat the Communist conspiracy in entertainment-communication," and the
American Legion were not so forgiving. So when we booked Burrows on "The
Name's the Same," it wasn't long before organized mail began to roll in. A
sponsor of that program was a privately held Midwestern company, C. A. Swanson
& Sons, makers of Swanson frozen TV dinners.
The mail demanding Burrows's
expulsion continued to escalate. We were receiving upward of a thousand letters
a week. I quietly dropped them in wastebaskets hoping that protest groups would
tire of the battle. No such luck. The mail increased. In addition, the Catholic
War Veterans began to picket the theater in New York where the show was
broadcast. I kept waiting for a call from the sponsor, and it finally came from
Omaha.
"Are you getting mail about
Abe Burrows?" he asked. I conceded that we were. "We're getting a lot
of it back here," he said, worried. "Is Burrows a Communist?" I
replied that to my best knowledge he was not. "In that case, what's the
shooting about?" he asked. I filled him in on Abe's story. "If that's
what it's all about," he said, "forget it. If you feel like it, keep
on using him."
In 1951 the Authors' League of America
In 1951 the Authors' League of
America indicated that it had "positive proof" of blacklisting. Yet
the majority of writers who "knew for sure" that blacklisting was
rife declined to testify before the Federal Communications Commission. As Cogley
said: "The dangers of reprisal are too great."
OR MAYBE IT JUST DIDN’T EXIST
Ossie Davis was never blacklisted
Stage actor Ossie Davis was named as a communist in Red
Channels in 1953. In 1958 he subpoenaed
to testify at a New York HUAC hearing. At no time in the decades of 1950s was
he out of work.
1959
A Raisin in the Sun (Belasco Theatre, 1959) – Walter Lee Younger
(replaced Sidney Poitier)
1957
Jamaica (Imperial Theatre, 1957) – Cicero
Montgomery Footprints (Local 1199, 1957)
writer
The Union Democracy Built (Local 1199, 1957)
writer
1956
*No Time for Sergeants (Alvin Theatre, 1956) – A Lieutenant
(also Asst. Stage Manager, replaced Earle Hyman)
What Can You Say to Mississippi (Local 1199, 1956)
Writer
1955
Kraft Theatre (TV Series)
The Emperor Jones
The Emperor Jones (TV Movie)
The People of Clarendon County, Chicago: Third World Press,
2007 (Local 1199, 1955)
writer
1953
The Joe Louis Story
(uncredited)
Touchstone (The Music Box, 1953) – Dr. Joseph Clay
The Big Deal (New Playwrights Company, Yugoslav Hall, 1953)
writer
1952
Jezebel’s Husband (Westport, CT, pre-Broadway tryout tour,
1952)
Alice in Wonder (Elks Theatre, 1952)
Writer
1951
Fourteen Hours (uncredited)
Showtime, U.S.A. (TV
Series)
The Royal Family (City Center)
The Green Pastures (Broadway Theatre)
Remains to Be Seen (Morosco Theatre )
1950
No Way Out- uncredited
*The Wisteria Trees (Martin Beck Theatre)
Irwin Corey was never blacklisted.
Irwin Corey was never blacklisted. Cory was primarily a stand-up
comic who worked the club circuit. He was a loud supporter of Communist/Socialist left-wing politics. He was
a dedicated supported of Cuban children and the American Communist Part.
He
said that when not performing, he panhandled for change from motorists exiting
the Queens–Midtown Tunnel. Every few months, he told the interviewer, he
donated the money to a group that purchased medical supplies for Cuban
children.
He said of the drivers who supplied the cash, “I don’t tell them
where the money’s going, and I’m sure they don’t care.”
Cory liked to play the victim and complained that he
blacklisted, in fact he never returned to Late Night with David Letterman after
his first appearance in 1982, which he claimed was a result of the blacklist
still being in effect.
He lived in an 1840 carriage house on East 36th Street estimated
to cost in or about $4,000,000.00
He was drafted during World War II, but was discharged after
six months, after he claimed he convinced an Army psychiatrist that he was a
homosexual. he thought that was funny.
1959
The Phil Silvers Show (TV Series, two appearances )
The Jack Paar Tonight Show (TV Series)
One Night Stand (TV Series, two appearences)
1958
Omnibus (TV Series, two appearances)
The Jack Paar Tonight Show (TV Series, two appearances)
1957
The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (TV Series)
1956
The Edge of Night (TV Series)
The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (TV Series)
1954
Your Chevrolet Showroom (TV Series, appearances)
1953
Mrs. McThing (Feb 20, 1952 - Jan 10, 1953)
Broadway Play
1952
Mrs. McThing (Feb 20, 1952 - Jan 10, 1953)
Broadway Play
1951
Showtime, U.S.A. (TV Series)
General Electric Guest House (TV Series)
Cavalcade of Bands (TV Series)
Flahooley (May 14, 1951 - Jun 16, 1951)
Broadway play
1950
Cavalcade of Stars (TV Series, 2 appearances)
Happy as Larry (Jan 06, 1950 - Jan 07, 1950)
Broadway play
Bromberg had been “blacklisted” for a total of five month before he died.
Joseph Edward Bromberg wasborn
Josef Bromberger, December 25, to a Jewish family in Temeschburg (Temesvár),
Austria-Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania)
Bromberg made his screen debut in
1936 under contract to Twentieth Century-Fox who dropped him in 1941. After
that he bounced around Hollywood picking work where he could. His last film, a
walk on part, was in 1949.
In September 1950, Red Channels
wrote, correctly, that Bromberg was a member of the American Communist Party.
Elia Kazan later named him as a fellow traveler in the party. He was subpoenaed
to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in June 1951
but refused to answer any questions. Later that year, he went to England, but
died shortly after his arrival of a heart attack. He was working in theater on
the day he died.
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