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Unfriendly Treatment: Jews
And The Hollywood Blacklist

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Fri., Feb. 23, 8 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 24, 8 p.m.
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Feb. 25 1 p.m. & 3 p.m.

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American communism. "The
Communist party in Hollywood
was also probably disproportion-
ately Jewish. But,(the blacklist-
Robert E. Stripling, counsel to ed artists) were not singled out
the House Un-American Activi- because they were Jews; they
ties Committee
were singled out because of their
participation in the party," he
says.
late words were familiar to
Blacklisting was the result of
most Americans
an during the a long-smoldering flame of anti-
late 1940s and early 1950s, leftism in America. Right-
as representatives of the U.S. wingers in the government and
Congress grilled members of the big business began pointing fin-
motion-picture industry in a gers at heavily Jewish Hollywood
search for the Red Menace.
as a Marxist propaganda ma-
Admitted Communists, Com- chine, says Klehr, who is Jewish.
munist sympathizers and even
In 1938, the U.S. Congress cre-
those who were suspected of as- ated the House Un-American Ac-
sociating with the Communist tivities Committee (HUAC),
Party were blacklisted, losing whose members sought to root
their jobs, their freedom, their out Communists and other so-
reputations.
called subversives in American
In the throes of the Cold War, society. Hollywood was one of its
members of the Hollywood cre- targets. After the end of World
ative establishment chose sides: War II, HUAC began holding
they became the accused, the at- hearings with and called wit-
tackers or the informers.
nesses to question about their
And some of the most promi- past associations with the U.S.
nent players in this bleak chap- Communist Party or related or-
ter of American history were ganizations.
Jews: actors John Garfield, Zero
Eighteen "unfriendly" wit-
Mostel, Larry Parks, writers Gor- nesses were subpoenaed, and
don Kahn and Albert Maltz, and would not cooperate with HUAC.
others.
Some stubbornly refused to an-
To preserve their companies' swer the committee members' in-
integrity, studio chiefs Louis B. vasive questions; a few went to
Mayer and Jack L. Warner viru- jail. Studio heads issued state-
lently denounced their co-reli- ments in which they agreed not
gionists to the eager committee. to hire any known Communists.
This month, Turner Classic
By 1951, the list of suspected
Movies revisits that turbulent Communists who could not find
era. "Films From The Blacklist" work in the industry grew to
is a series of movies by blacklist- more than 250.
ed actors, writers and directors,
The effects of the blacklist last-
as well as films by anti-Commu- ed for a decade, and many af-
nist stars who denounced their fected artists either used
co-workers. The channel also will pseudonyms, worked outside the
air "Hollywood On Trial," a doc- United States or never found jobs
umentary about Hollywood and in the industry again.
the Red Scare, and interviews
Actor John Garfield (the for-
with families of persecuted mer Julius Garfinkel) died of a
artists.
heart attack in 1952, which some
of his friends attributed to the
pressure of the investigations and
Garfield's fear of being stigma-
tized. Some, like Zero Mostel,
came back after a hiatus to ap-
pear in films (The Producers) in
the late 1960s and 1970s. Ironi-
Although there were overtones cally, in his last film, The Front,
of anti-Semitism in much of the Mostel played a blacklisted actor
anti-Communist rhetoric of the who commits suicide.
Red Scare, many of the black-
listed men and women were Com-
munist Party members at one
time, notes Dr. Harvey Klehr of
Emory University.
"There were probably a dis-
The blacklist wounded the lev-
proportionate number of Jews in- el of creativity in Hollywood,
volved, because Hollywood was which was expanding because of
disproportionately Jewish" at the the advent of television.
time, says Klehr, a professor of
"It was certainly a blight and
political science and an expert on a terrible time for the Hollywood

"Are you now, or have you ever
been, a member of the Commu-
nist Party?"

—

Incidental
Anti-Semitism

Creative Impact