Posted on 04/10/2006 6:44:50 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Communism, of course, was not a "political belief," but was in fact a conspiracy aimed at bringing down the United States. Studio moguls did not deny Communists jobs merely because of "political beliefs." They simply realized many Americans did not want to feed America's enemies at the box office. It was a business decision.
The real blacklist—totally mean-spirited—has been directed against those in Hollywood who cooperated with the Un-American Activities Committee's efforts to root out Communists.
Take producer Elia Kazan, for example. He told the House committee on April 10, 1952 that he had joined the Communist Party in the mid-Thirties, explaining he had been motivated by the threat of Hitler and sympathy for the poor. In his testimony, Kazan—by then a fierce anti-Communist— named eight others who were in the Party with him and suggested they shared his own humanitarian motivations for joining. This charitable explanation won him no points from the Hollywood Left. He took out an ad in the New York Times urging others who had seen the "conspiracy" from the inside to join him in coming forward. That drove the Hollywood culture over the top. Kazan heard that Communist Party meetings were held to isolate Kazan in the show business community. The Communist Daily Worker accused him of "belly-crawling."
But that did not deter him from producing some widely acclaimed motion pictures, most notably "On the Waterfront," which glorified whistleblowers against the forces of evil.
Ultimately, due to friends he had in Hollywood and despite the many others who had turned their backs on him, Kazan finally received a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award on Oscar night in 1999. Even then, the venom reappeared not only among aging Stalinists, but in the liberal mainstream media.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
The only good Red, is a dead Red. Live free or die.
All these commie-lovers have never seen it up close. There's not one thing grand about it. It may be ok for the members of the party but it really sucks for everyone else affected by it.
She described him as a hard taskmaster, a perfectionist, a director who wrung the best performance possible from each young actor and actress, in every kind of role.
Most of them hated his guts...
Great post...storing it in favorites
bump
I've yet to see a large-scale Hollyweird anti-communist flick. There were of course numerous movies about evil Nazis. Where were the ones about evil commies? I'm still mystified by all the acclaim and pity given to the Hollywood Ten when in fact they were all dedicated agents of a tyrannical foreign country with the sole purpose of overthrowing our free-market system. Unless of course most of the media and the movie industry were sympathetic the red scourge. Which undoubtedly they were then and still are now.
"All these commie-lovers have never seen it up close. There's not one thing grand about it. It may be ok for the members of the party but it really sucks for everyone else affected by it."
Communism is only good if you are wealthy. Think about that for a while. "Everyone is equal... but some are more equal than others." Animal Farm
I remember it well as it was the last time I watched the Academy Awards. When Kazan walked up to accept his award, the audience applauded and some even stood, except Nick Nolte. The camera caught him sneering in contempt.
One irony not mentioned in the article is that Pat Boone helped to crumble the blacklist when he insisted that his old acting teacher Jeff Corey be given a part in a movie.
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