New exhibit explores the impression and legacy of the Hollywood blacklist

New York — The central query in 1947, because the Home Un-American Actions Committee investigated alleged Communist affect in Hollywood, was: “Are you a member of the Communist Social gathering?”

Chaired by Republican Rep. John Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, the committee finally led to a Hollywood blacklist, now the main focus of a brand new exhibit on the New York Historic Society.

“The exhibit actually tells the story of the Hollywood Ten,” Louise Mirrer, president of the New York Historic Society, informed CBS Information, of a bunch of 10 Hollywood writers and administrators. “And the cost was for the Hollywood Ten, that they have been making films that espoused the Communist perspective.”

The Hollywood Ten refused to reply the committee’s questions. They have been held in contempt of Congress, every sentenced from anyplace between six months to a yr in jail, and blacklisted by studio executives.

“I believe it had an infinite impact,” Anne Lessy, assistant curator of historical past exhibitions for the historic society, informed CBS Information of the impression of the blacklist. “For those who needed to be part of the movie trade, you primarily forfeited your privateness and your proper to your individual political concepts and affiliations.”

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of many Hollywood Ten, spent 10 months in jail. His daughter, Mitzi, was 5 years previous on the time. Her drawings and letters to him are on show within the exhibit, in addition to testimony from those that named suspected Communists.

“In an effort to save lots of themselves, their careers and their reputations, many, you understand, creatives felt compelled to call names, which is what the committee needed,” Lessy mentioned.

Even Walt Disney famously testified earlier than the committee.

“Walt Disney very a lot objected to labor organizing that had taken place in his studios and blamed it on Communist infiltration,” Lessy mentioned. “And then you definately even have Ronald Reagan, who on the time, was president of the Display Actors Guild. Whereas he did not identify names in public, he did to the committee’s investigator. And he went on to very a lot endorse the anti-Communist campaign.”

The blacklist later expanded to incorporate classically educated pianist Hazel Scott, the primary Black entertainer to have a nationally syndicated TV present. However the present was canceled after she was named in an anti-Communist pamphlet. 

As soon as out of jail, Trumbo used pseudonyms to put in writing the Academy Award-winning movies “The Courageous One” and “Roman Vacation.”

“So it took about 4 many years…for the Academy Awards to lastly acknowledge Dalton Trumbo,” Lessy mentioned. “And…that was seen as the start of eroding of the committee’s energy.”

The impression of the Crimson Scare additionally prolonged past Hollywood.

“Numerous common People received caught up on this anti-Communist fervor, members of labor unions, highschool lecturers,” Lessy mentioned. “Faculty professors additionally got here below scrutiny. There was a well known publication known as Crimson Channels that would supply very detailed data on a variety of creatives. And so even simply your identify showing in one in all these publications was sufficient to get you blacklisted.”

By the Nineteen Sixties, because the Crimson Scare had pale, so too did the blacklist’s energy. And in 1975, the Home Un-American Actions Committee was abolished.

“I believe it [the Hollywood blacklist] raises essential questions on the best way to defend a sturdy democracy,” Lessy mentioned. “How will we defend our rights and freedoms, significantly freedom of speech…For those who maintain unpopular views, do you have to be punished? Do you have to lose your job? These are all questions we ought to be wrestling with.”