How Did the Blacklist Work?

Originally published November 21, 2022

The Blacklist and McCarthyism in Hollywood 1947-1954. A story that I’m not sure has ever been adequately captured on film. How did it come to pass? How did it end?

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee goes after communists in Hollywood. They call the “Hollywood Ten” to testify. This is pre McCarthy. When asked whether they were communists, the witnesses decline to answer. 

In 1947, Counterattack, a weekly publication that names suspected communists in media. launches. It is run by ex FBI agents. 

On November 23, 1947, the House votes to censure its uncooperative Hollywood witnesses. On November 25, the MPAA issues a statement:

“We do not desire to pre-judge their legal rights but their actions … have impaired their usefulness. We will forthwith discharge those in our employ. We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any group which advocates the overthrow of the government … by force.” 

While the standard of proof is clearly low, at this point, the targeted group is still meant to be limited to “overthrow of the government” types. This will evolve. 

Soon enough, the remit expanded. Emmet Lavery, head of the Screen Writers Guild, soon said he would oust all “Marxists and near Marxists.” “Near Marxists” is pretty vague. 

In February 1950, Joe McCarthy claims he has a list of communist infiltrators in the State Department in Washington. He would go on to accuse people in Washington and Hollywood and ride the phenomenon to power and prestige. 

On June 22, 1950, Counterattack publishes Red Channels, which names 151 actors, writers, etc. to be blacklisted. Which they were. 

The scare even got to William Morris, Jr. And the head of lit at William Morris, John Weber. 

Private security consultants such as “Aware” began creating dossiers about people in Hollywood for advertisers. Careers were quickly ruined. Jean Muir, a popular actress on “The Aldrich Family” show was cancelled. Mady Christians and Philip Loeb committed suicide.

David Susskind later testified that he had to submit the names of all employees on shows to Young & Rubicam for political review. In one year, 5,000 names were submitted and one third were rejected. 

This was a sort of grist because Vincent Hartnett, who created Aware, also created Red Channels. So he was both a major accuser and someone who privately sold information. 

There was some resistance along the way from the artistic community but it wasn’t enough. In 1947, Humphrey Bogart and others protested the HUAC hearings. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible came out in 1953 and won the Tony for Best Play. 

Hundreds of Hollywood people lost their careers. At least. Most of these, needless to say, were not dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government and to a Soviet America. 

Why did it work? And how did it end? 

STEP ONE: CREATE A SENSE OF CRISIS

Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech on March 5, 1946. “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent…” 

In 1946, the founder of The Hollywood Reporter, was running editorials (“RED BEACH-HEAD!”) denouncing communists in Hollywood 

Walter Winchell, who had a popular radio show said “Wake up, America, or you and your children will die in your sleep”

Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War” in 1947. 

On August 3, 1948 Alger Hiss, the Director of the State Department's Office of Special Political Affairs, was accused of being a Communist spy. He was convicted of perjury in 1950. Recently, surfaced Soviet cables have indicated that he really was a spy. 

McCarthy said in February 1950, “Today we are engaged in a final all-out battle. Ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down — they are truly down.” 

The chips are down! You might die in your sleep! In 1947, there was a sense of crisis and an urgent need for action. 

TWO: FIND AN ACTUAL GUILTY PARTY 

There is an analogy here to the Salem With Trials, which began in 1692 with three women accused of being witches.  One Tituba confessed “"The devil came to me and bid me serve him." She described elaborate images of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds and a "tall man with white hair" who wanted her to sign his book. She admitted that she'd signed the book and claimed there were several other witches looking to destroy the Puritans.

Yikes! This created both a sense of crisis and a guilty party in one. 

In the early goings, HUAC wasn’t going after “progressives.” It was going after people who anticipated a revolution here akin to the 1917 Russian Revolution and who wanted a Soviet America. 

HUAC summoned Gerhart Eisler. There is no question that Eisler was a Soviet agent. His job before coming to the US was clearing the Chinese party of dissidents, for which he earned the sobriquet “the executioner.” 

Curiously, the Eisler case occasioned Richard Nixon’s first Congressional speech: “the rights of free speech and free press do not carry with them the right to advocate the destruction of the very government which protects the freedom of an individual to express his views.”

The Hollywood HUAC respondents fiercely defended Eisler, who later finished his career as the head of the East German State Radio Committee. 

The first HUAC appearance by the Hollywood Ten, where they refused to answer questions backfired and made them look guilty. HUAC and the broader movement had their actual real life guilty parties. 

3: ALLOW FOR NO GRADATION OF CRIMES

Eventually, you were either on the blacklist or you weren’t. A $5 donation to the "wrong" cause amounted to the same thing as taking direct orders from the ComIntern and would jeopardize the "sinner's" livelihood. This allows for the list of targets to get very broad. 

4: A SENSE OF BROADER RESPONSIBILITY

McCarthy said that this was partly a result of moral lassitude on the part of Americans. “one of the most important reasons why this continues — is a lack of moral uprising…. It has always been thus after war. However, the morals of our people have not been destroyed. They still exist. This cloak of numbness and apathy has only needed a spark to rekindle them.”

5: AVOID REAL TRIALS AND RULES OF EVIDENCE

At his HUAC appearance, John Henry Lawson asked that the committee “permit me … to bring in here the witnesses … and we will show up the whole tissue of lies.” Request denied. 

The NY Times supported the right of cross examination. 

Similarly, it is worth noting, in the Salem Witch Trials Increase Mather denounced the use of “spectral evidence.” After spectral evidence was disallowed, only 3 of remaining 56 defendants were found guilty. 

6: BREAK A FEW EGGS

There was perhaps also a feeling that you “have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.” In the film Ninotchka, Ninotchka says, when asked how the mass trails (and executions) under Stalin went: “Very good. The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.”

By contrast, Increase Mather had said "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned." Indeed. 

WHAT MADE IT END? 

1: A STEP TOO FAR 

When Judge Phipps’s own wife was questioned about suspected witchcraft in Salem, Phips prohibited further arrests, released many from jail, and closed the court.

When Joseph McCarthy targeted the Army and the Eisenhower administration, he lost general support. Army Lawyer Joseph Welch famously said, “Have you no sense of decency?” 

https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm

2: REAL TRIALS WITH STANDARDS OF EVIDENCE

Multiple defamation lawsuits damaged Counterattack and the broader movement, prominent among them one by Fredric March for $250,000. Radio personality John Henry Faulk won over $3MM in his suit against Aware. 

POSTLUDE

Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured by the Senate 67-22 in 1954. He died in ignominy in 1957 at age 48, having come down abruptly from his peak of power. 

Kirk Douglas made sure that Dalton Trumbo received credit for “Spartacus” in 1960. Other blacklisted persons have subsequently been recognized and honored. 

Some take longer to regain their standing. One accused party from 1692, was only pardoned this past July, 330 years later. 

I’m sure to her great relief.