Hollywood blacklist

The Hollywood blacklist was a group of mainly film actors, directors, and screenwriters in the late 1940s and early 1950s who were unable to work openly after having been targeted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities for alleged communist activities. The day after being cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to give testimony, a Hollywood blacklisting policy was implemented by the studio executives through the MPAA in what has become known as the Waldorf Statement.

The "Hollywood Ten"

• Alvah Bessie, screenwriter
• Herbert Biberman, screenwriter, director
• Lester Cole, screenwriter
• Edward Dmytryk, director
• Ring Lardner, Jr, journalist, screenwriter
• John Howard Lawson, writer
• Albert Maltz, author, screenwriter
• Samuel Ornitz , screenwriter
• Adrian Scott, screenwriter, film producer
• Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter, novelist

Following his blacklisting, Trumbo and others were able to continue working without screen credit by using a pseudonym or having a fellow member of the MPAA submit their scripts to the studio in their name. This tactic enabled movies such as The Bridge on the River Kwai to be completed. Several screenwriters moved to the United Kingdom, where they were either able to find work in film and television, or wrote scripts that were then sent surreptitiously to a Hollywood studio. Some, like playwright Arthur Miller, and actor John Randolph, were able to continue to work in New York City, where theatre owners and producers ignored the Hollywood studio bosses.

Related Topics:
Screen credit - Pseudonym - MPAA - The Bridge on the River Kwai - United Kingdom - Television - Arthur Miller - John Randolph - New York City

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The first break with the blacklisting didn't come until 1959, when director Otto Preminger announced he was hiring Dalton Trumbo to write "Exodus." Then, influential movie star Kirk Douglas said he would give Trumbo full credit for writing "Spartacus." Soon, producer Martin Ransohoff and director Norman Jewison gave Ring Lardner, Jr. screen credit for writing "The Cincinnati Kid", and things began to change, albeit more slowly for many. In later life many of the "Hollywood Ten" continued to defend their right to political association and to oppose red-baiting. In 1997, the Writers' Guild of America unanimously voted to change the writing credits of 23 films made during the blacklist period.

Related Topics:
Otto Preminger - Exodus - Kirk Douglas - Spartacus - Martin Ransohoff - Norman Jewison - The Cincinnati Kid - Writers' Guild of America

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Note: While the Hollywood Ten were the most high-profile screenwriters and directors blacklisted, many others, including some of Hollywood's most famous and successful writers found themselves unable to work in their fields during the time of the red scare while others had their careers all but destroyed. Most estimates indicate that the blacklist involved approximately 325 employees in film and related industries. However, according to Carl Foreman's son, Jonathan Foreman, a lawyer, historian, and editorial writer and senior film critic for the New York Post, there were 500 or so victims of the Hollywood blacklist. Dalton Trumbo said of it: "the blacklist was a time of such evil, no one survived untouched."

Related Topics:
Jonathan Foreman - Lawyer - Historian - New York Post

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