An Introduction to Hollywood and the Red Scare

This is a political cartoon depicting Senator Joseph McCarthy, perhaps the most visible and vehement anti-communists of the 1950s, beginning the investigations of the United States federal government into the Hollywood motion picture industry. McCarthy, dressed in the American flag, holds a list probably containing the name of suspected subversive individuals (all red) and dumps them into a pot surrounded by members of Congress. It is also worthwhile to note that the Hollywood sign is illuminated by a probe light and the entire image is bathed in shades of red. This cartoon is an excellent visual representation of the tense relationship between the Hollywood motion picture industry and the Red Scare policies of the United States government.

Riddle me this: What do Lauren Bacall, Walt Disney and J. Edgar Hoover have in common?

No guesses?

Well then, let me just tell you: All three were deeply entangled in the investigations and subsequent Congressional hearings into the American motion picture industry at the height of the Red Scare during the 1950s. While Lauren Bacall boycotted the Congressional hearings, Walt Disney denounced the communist influence in Hollywood, and J. Edgar Hoover spearheaded the investigations, all three are representative of the difficult relationship between Hollywood and the United States government during the Red Scare.

Hollywood has maintained a long-standing reputation as being one of the most socially and politically liberal industries in the United States, housing some of the most prominent political contributors. But at the height of the Red Scare during the 1950s, nothing could have been further from the truth. Industry members would refuse to work with fellow artists considered a little too left - leaning for fear of being or being associated with a communist. Artists could be blacklisted, or barred from work in the motion picture industry, for alleged membership in or sympathizing with the Communist Party, involvement in ‘progressive’ political causes that may have been associated with communism, and/or refusal to assist governmental investigations into the Communist Party influence. The original blacklisted Hollywood members consisted of a group of ten writers and directors, later dubbed ‘The Hollywood Ten,’ who were cited for contempt of Congress after refusing to testify to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1947.

It is apparent that that the investigative proceedings of the United States government, especially towards prominent members of the Hollywood elite like Lauren Bacall and Walt Disney, were indeed representative of the many of the government’s Red Scare policies during this decade. In the same manner, many of the actions taken by suspected communists and virulent anti-communists in Hollywood were similar to those being taken by citizens all over the United States. Basing my research off official Congressional records from the late 1940s and early 1950s, I will be able to investigate the actions and reactions of the American Communist Party in Hollywood, the impact of having a relationship with a suspected communist, and the pushback from the public against the federal government.  While these Congressional records contain the actual policies and investigation techniques employed by the United States government to probe into the lives of suspected communists in Hollywood, they will also reveal the wider socio-political consequences of the Red Scare on the American public.  

The purpose of this project is to investigate the nature of the relationship between Hollywood and the Red Scare, primarily through the published investigations and Congressional hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee. It is worthwhile to note that Hollywood’s relationship with communism and with the federal government was not unique; cities and individuals all over the United States were being investigated and probed by the federal government. However, Hollywood is unique and useful to study due to the fact that it had the most widely publicized and well-known relationship with communism during this time. Americans all over the country would have known about the Hollywood Ten or the involvement of Walt Disney in the House Committee investigations. Hollywood’s Red Scare history is thus worthwhile to study because of its unique and public place in the American lexicon from the 1950s. Many of the particulars of the investigations and hearings were hidden or whitewashed at the time, but are now available in their entirety.  It is crucial to investigate these documents and the relationship between these two uncomfortable bedfellows as they can reveal how much the United States government/Hollywood relationship was a reflection of the broader socio-political trends in American society during the 1950s regarding the fundamentally important and divisive issue of communism.

An Overview of the Communist Threat and Anti-Communist Movement in Hollywood

This is a political cartoon depicting the Soviet Communist takeover of the United States federal government. This image represents the widely held belief that the American Communist Party was attempting to infiltrate every aspect of American society, particularly Hollywood, and would eventually take over the United States.

In Hollywood and all over the United States, the menace of communism loomed as a villainous threat during the 1950s. Americans believed that the American Communist Party was attempting to infiltrate every aspect of American life and eventually take over the United States (as depicted in the image above). As such, Americans viewed any individual with strong left-leaning tendencies with suspicion, branding them ‘un-American.’ To investigate the subversive nature of communism in the United States, the federal government created the House Committee on Un-American Activities, an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, in 1938. The House Committee became a permanent committee only in 1945 and a major player in the fight against communism from them on. The explicit purpose of the House Committee was to investigate these ‘un-American’ threats to the safety and well-being of the United States government, especially well-known figures in Hollywood. The initial infiltration of communism into motion picture industry began a long and tense relationship between the Hollywood elite and communism. However, with the rise in frequency and intensity of the federal investigations, a backlash against the anti-communist movement began in Hollywood, the city most readily associated with the red menace.

Years before the investigations of the House Committee began, Hollywood had already developed a reputation for being associated with communism. In a personal testimony given before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on March 24, 1947, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover claimed that American communists began to attack Hollywood as early as 1935, seeking to infiltrate the labor unions and guilds that housed a majority of the Hollywood population. Hoover proposed that communism, which he alleged stands for “the creation of a “Soviet of the United States,” was successful in infiltrating Hollywood because most artists did not recognize their efforts (Hoover 1947, 3). Hoover argued that if the communists were able to insert a line or scene in a movie that conveyed a communist lesson, or if they could merely keep out anti-communist lessons, they were victorious.  Edward Dmtryk, a screen director jailed in 1950 for being a communist, confirmed Hoover’s statements in a 1951 interview with the Los Angeles Times. Dmtryk affirmed that the American Communist Party targeted Hollywood’s guilds and unions in an effort to infiltrate Hollywood with their members.

Dmtryk also claimed that another way that the Communist Party attempted and succeeded in permeating Hollywood was through donations. Dmtryk testified that the Communist Party has sought to set up a ‘tithing system’ within the elite Hollywood circle, encouraging prominent artists to frequently and generously donate to the Party. He added that the American Communist Party first went to Hollywood because they wanted the prestige and support from a strong Hollywood chapter. Paul Crouch, also a former communist, confirmed Dmtryk’s testimony of the importance of Hollywood financial contributions to the Communist Party’s livelihood. In a testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951, Crouch recalled that he was shown an official list from the American Communist Party with the names of 300 prominent and lesser-known Hollywood figures that were to be approached for contributions (as they had contributed in the past). Crouch stated that the Communist Party seat in the California District Bureau had specifically allocated large quotas of funds to be raised in the Hollywood area.

This initial infiltration began the strained relationship between Hollywood industry members and the American Communist Party. In a 2010 article studying the strained relationship between Hollywood and communism during the 1950s and appropriately titled “Stained Red,” University of Chicago Associate Professor Elizabeth Pontikes notes that while there were approximately 30,000 artists employed in Hollywood during this decade, only about 300 were officially blacklisted. However, this statistic does not include the hundreds more that were unofficially blacklisted as a result of their associations with suspected communists (for more, see post below). But the trend of blacklisting and investigating specific individuals is a smaller-scale reflection of the actions taken by the United States government, who also increased their investigations of specific citizens involved in ‘un-American’ activities at this time. Hollywood was not unique; it was just well-publicized. The revelations of the former communists-turned-witnesses also confirm the widely-held fear that communists were attempting to infiltrate themselves into every aspect of American society. Their testimonies help to reveal the widespread fears of the American public at this time.

Along with the growing menace of communism in Hollywood came a growing anti-communist movement, too. In his 1947 personal testimony before the House Committee, Hoover explicitly declared that the “best antidote to communism is vigorous, intelligent, old-fashioned Americanism with eternal vigilance” (Hoover 1947, 11). The idea that Americanism was a solution to communism was a sentiment later echoed by many other scholars. In her 1988 book Homeward Bound, University of Minnesota Professor Elaine Tyler May also states that in Hollywood, “a community notorious for its lack of attention to sexual propriety,” artists were proud to boast of their hometowns as paragons of American virtues (May 1988, 95). Additionally, conservative artists created and joined anti-communist organizations like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA). This group pledged: “We believe in, and like, the American Way of Life; the liberty and freedom which generations before us have fought to create and preserve” (Frost 2010, 179). Even films created at the time advised private domestic values as the way to end the communist threat.

These anti-communist movements are important to understand because they are even more reflective of the wider social trends during this decade. With the threat of a communist takeover seeming inevitable, American families turned inward, strongly believing that a steady home life that promoted American values was the way to ward off communism. The belief in a strong private life and the growing visibility of anti-communist organizations in Hollywood echo the anti-communist actions taken by the American public at this time to combat communism. We can use the Hollywood anti-communist trends to understand the anti-communist movements being taken by the American public during the 1950s.

Communist Threat by Association in Hollywood

Besides being named a communist by the United States government, being associated with a communist was probably the most dangerous position a person could find themselves in during the 1950s. Being associated with communists brought inerasable stigma that could ruin job prospects, families, and lives. The consequences of stigma by association are especially apparent in the Hollywood motion picture industry. Artists associated with communists or even suspected communists could almost guarantee a blacklisting and a personal investigation by the United States government. It is important to remember that in this respect, Hollywood was not that unique; every American feared being associated with communists. What made Hollywood different was that it was publicized all over the United States, as opposed to the personal and private lives of normal Americans.

This threat by association is most obviously revealed through the 1951 testimony of Paul Crouch, a former communist-turned informant, before for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Crouch ‘names names’ on dozens of suspected Hollywood communists and their associates. As a former communist himself, Crouch is asked by the House Committee to provide insider details into how the American Communist Party collects donations from members of the Hollywood elite. Crouch testified before the Committee that a current member of the Communist Party showed him a “list of about 300 names in Hollywood, giving street addresses and private unlisted telephone numbers, of various movie stars, directors, and others, including the names of Charles Chaplin, Edward G. Robinson, Sylvia Sidney, James Cagney, Clifford Odets, John Howard Lawson, and many others” (Crouch 1951, 4). Crouch is then battered with questions by the House Committee about the associates of these suspected communists, such as “Can you name any others who may have knowledge…whether they are or are not at present members of the Communist Party?”…”and, incidentally, you might mention the names of any other Hollywood personalities that you might have been told had contributed to the Party,” “could you…furnish us the names of any individual or individuals who might have knowledge of…that Communist Party?” (January 8, 1951 HUAC session, 7-13). The House Committee encouraged Crouch to not only name the most noteworthy members and contributors to the Communist Party, but also anyone who might have an association with these individuals. Associate Professor Elizabeth Pontikes writes that artists merely associated with suspected communists were unofficially blacklisted because no one wanted to have their names connected to a communist (Pontikes 2010, 458). She states: “in June 1950, American Business Consultants (an outfit run by a trio of FBI agents and funded by Alfred Kohlberg and the Catholic Church) issued a 213-page book, Red Channels (1950), that inaugurated the ‘graylist’ – 151 actors, writers, musicians, and other entertainers were names as communists on the basis of their ‘Red connections’” (Pontikes 2010, 461). Statistically speaking, Pontikes has discovered that mere association with an officially blacklisted individual dropped an artist's chances of finding work by tenfold (Pontikes 2010, 469).

The threat by association leads to what Pontikes dubs a moral panic. The Red Scare affected a wide breath of society – not just communists and anti-communist crusaders, and not just the federal government. Merely having an association with a suspected communist or blacklisted artist in Hollywood was enough to ruin a career. The idea of a moral panic is significant because it reveals the grave seriousness with which people took the Red Scare and the communist menace as a whole. The entire American population faced a moral panic, as revealed through the remarkably intimate testimonies before the House Committee and through articles written by The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other prominent newspapers during this time. Because no one wanted to be named a communist themselves, people began ‘outing’ their friends and neighbors, just as Crouch did with Party members. Americans feared that they could be considered a communist if they associated with suspected subversive individuals. Hollywood can serve as a barometer of the responses of the American public, and can also act as a revelatory agency regarding the seriousness and panic during the Red Scare of the 1950s.



































































































































  

The Backlash Against the Anti-Communist Trend

Perhaps it may surprise you that there was actually a fairly substantial backlash against the anti-communist actions of the United States government, and not only coming from the suspected communists themselves. I will refer to this backlash as anti-anti-communist trend; however, it is important to note that this does not equal pro-communism. Rather, it just means that many individuals protested the actions of the United States government, claiming the investigations went too far. However, even critics feared being labelled communists. They were forced to couch their criticisms in anti-communist rhetoric to appear anti-communist themselves. Even critics of Hollywood blacklisting never wanted to be considered pro-communist; through their criticism, they had to ensure that they still portrayed themselves as anti-communist. However, the federal government, individual citizens and critics alike agreed that American containment, namely a strong domestic life of American virtues, would be the antidote to the menace of communism.

Through the personal statement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, it seems that even Hoover himself wanted to ensure that his agency did not officially overstep its rights in the crusade against communism. He stressed that the FBI is purely an “investigative agency” - its job was to get the facts, not to establish policies or to make prosecution decisions (Hoover 1947, 1). Hoover recommended that Americans live their lives with “old-fashioned Americanism” (Hoover 1947, 11). While he also expressed that communists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, it is interesting to note how Hoover stressed that the FBI was purely an investigative agency whose job was not to recommend policy or prosecution. Hoover wanted to ensure that all are aware that the job of the FBI was merely fact gathering, unlike some of the other government agencies. According to Hoover, “anyone who opposes the American Communist is at once branded a ‘disrupter’, a ‘Fascist’, a ‘Red baiter’, or a ‘Hitlerite’” (Hoover 1947, 2). Like other critics of the decade, Hoover wanted to ensure that he presented himself as a virulent anti-communist while still arguing that the job of the FBI was not to engage in a witch hunt.

In a similar manner, in a 2010 article discussing gossip columnist, noted Republican, and vehement anti-communist Hedda Hopper, University of Auckland Associate Professor Jennifer Frost reports that when Hopper formed the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) in 1944, many Hollywood conservatives joined, including director Cecil B. De Mille, studio head Walt Disney, actors Adolphe Menjou, Robert Taylor, and John Wayne, union leader Roy Brewer, and novelist Ayn Rand.  But at this same time, conservative Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Elmer Rice stated that the MPA followed “orthodox Red-baiting and witch-hunting lines…[its members’ views were] tinged with isolationism and anti-unionism and off-the-record of course…anti-Semitism and Jim Crowism” (Frost 2010, 178-79). Rice’s statement was one of the bluntest and most passionate disapprovals of the anti-communists. His stance discredited the typical depiction of Hollywood as a place where everyone had to be an outspoken anti-communist if they hoped to work and live in peace. Instead, individuals were allowed to speak out against vehement anti-communism without being persecuted as communists themselves, but only as long as long as they couched their arguments in the anti-communist rhetoric of the day. American citizens joined the Hollywood critics in boycotting the investigations of the federal government, claiming that they probed too deeply (and oftentimes with incorrect assumptions) into their personal lives.

Another noteworthy instance of protest against the actions of the United States government toward communism came from British filmmaker Karel Reisz. Reisz, although as a Brit obviously an outsider to the fine workings of American politics and society, argued that the anti-communist films produced by the Hollywood machine during this time were actually doing more to hurt the cause of anti-communism than to help it. He stated that “against the dynamic, growing force of Communism, Hollywood, as powerful shaper of public opinion as any in the western world, has put up the weakest of counter attacks” (Reisz 1953, 132). Reisz proposed that Hollywood was purposefully producing films that portrayed anti-communism as a kind of game which no one could win, or a farcical, entertaining thriller where the bad guys could be easily combated through a strong domestic home life. Reisz argued that Hollywood did not take communism or anti-communism seriously, but rather “sidetrack[ed] the real issues by dangling an attractive picture of domestic bliss before the spectator”, thus undermining the seriousness of anti-communism and of the western cause as a whole (Reisz 1953, 137). This view opposed the traditional notion that Hollywood, instead of joining the United States government in the fight against communism, portrayed their actions as a winless game or the plot of a B-movie thriller. Moreover, Reisz’s statement and Hoover’s prescription to the menace of communism reflected the widely held belief that a strong domestic life could do more for the American crusade against communism than any investigation of the federal government.

This is not to say that Hoover’s statement regarding the actions of the FBI, the actions of more conservative individuals, or the Hollywood production circle were pro-communist. However, there was sizable criticism of the anti-communist crusade led by the United States government, a movement not usually discussed in the context of the relationship between Hollywood and the Red Scare. It is important to note that the protestors almost always gave the same solution to their problems with the federal government and the Red Scare: a strong domestic and private life led in the American way. This assertion came from all aspects of American society, from individuals in Hollywood and in other American cities, to prominent members of the federal government. Americans throughout the country believed that the best solution to both combat communism and to tone down the intensity of the anti-communist investigations would be to maintain a strong domestic home life steeped in traditional American values – this would prove to be communism’s kryptonite.

The Significance of Studying the Relationship between Hollywood and the Red Scare

It is apparent from critical readings of Congressional documents and numerous other outside sources that the Red Scare polices of the United States government to combat communism in Hollywood reflect wider political and social policies in place during the 1950s.

During this era, Hollywood became one of the most fiercely targeted areas by the United States government. In efforts to quash the growing threat of communism, vast numbers of artists were investigated by the federal government for their participation in, support of, or association with the American Communist Party. Approximately 300 were officially blacklisted, and were banned from working in Hollywood for the foreseeable future. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and former communists-turned-testifiers detail how the Communist Party was able to infiltrate Hollywood through unions and guilds, thereby cementing themselves within the circle of the Hollywood elite. But as the menace of communism grew, so too did anti-communist organizations who championed a strong American home life as a means to defeat the Red Menace. As the Red Scare steadily increased throughout the decade, having an association with a suspected communist became almost synonymous with being a communist. Artists who were associated with communists suddenly were unable to find work, having been unofficially blacklisted because of their ‘red connections.’ The fear of being associated with communism lead to a moral panic across Hollywood and across the United States, as Americans seriously feared that they could be targeted if they had any association with a suspected communist.

However, there was a substantial pushback against the actions of the United States government. Many investigations by the federal government were labeled ‘witch-hunts’ or ‘Red-baiting’, and numerous Hollywood figures boycotted the Congressional investigations. Films made during this time on the subject of communism often portrayed anti-communist actions as the plot of a B-movie thriller, refusing to take seriously the activities of the federal government. A common theme throughout the Red Scare in Hollywood was the assertion that a strong home life of every American citizen would spell the defeat of communism. This was a sentiment held by most of the American population, who believed that domestic containment could do more for the American anti-communist cause than any investigation of the federal government could.

This brief overview of the relationship between the Red Scare policies of the federal government and Hollywood reflects the wider socio-political goings – on of the time. The federal government led numerous investigations on subversive individuals, which led to great public outcry and a moral panic among the populous. Americans throughout the nation believed that if they could contain their homes in the proper American fashion, they were doing their part to protect their country from the menace of communism. Hollywood can truly serve as a microcosm of the Red Scare throughout the United States witnessed through the official Congressional records of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. These documents highlight the official federal policies of the anti-communist crusade and give insight into the broader social fears and anti-communist movements that dominated American thoughts and actions during the 1950s.

Works Cited

Primary Sources:

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities. Communist Infiltration of Hollywood Motion-Picture Industry. 82^nd Congress., 1^st sess., January 8, 1951.

“Hollywood Inside Story Exposed by Former Red: Once-Jailed Director Says Communists Bent on Seizing Control of Film Output.” Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1951: 1.

By the United Press. “House Unit May Reopen Probe of Communism in Hollywood.” The Washington Post, February 23, 1953: 3.

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities. Menace of communism, statement of J. Edgar Hoover. 80^th Congress., 1^st sess., March 24, 1947.

Reisz, Karel. “Hollywood’s Anti-Red Boomerang: Apple Pie, Love and Endurance versus The Commies.” The Film Folio 22, no. 3 (1953): 132-138.

 

Secondary Sources:

Frost, Jennifer. “Dissent and Consent in the “Good War”: Hedda Hopper, Hollywood Gossip, and World War II Isolationism,” Film History 22, no. 2 (2010): 170-81.

May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound. New York: Basic Books, 1988.

 

Pontikes, Elizabeth, et al. “Stained Red: A Study of Stigma by Association to Blacklisted Artists during the Red Scare in Hollywood, 1945 to 1960,” American Sociological Review 75, no. 3 (2010): 456-478.