Biased Hollywood Ten Tales

Excellent article on the white washing of the communists in Hollywood back in the 30's and 40's.

October 30th is the special night devoted to films credited to members of the Hollywood Ten by the Turner Classic Movies cable channel–-by my count, the fourth such program in the past five years or so. This is the sixtieth anniversary of the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee on Communist influence in the motion picture industry-–in those pre-television days 80 million Americans, more than one-half the population, attended a movie every week. The witnesses refused on First Amendment grounds to answer questions about their alleged Communist affiliations, and the hearings became something of a circus, thanks to partisan committee members and some of the witnesses (whose leftist arrogance alienated many of their anti-Communist liberal supporters in Hollywood). Eight screenwriters, one director and one producer were held in contempt of Congress and imprisoned. The hearings led to a blacklist enforced by the studios, which started with the Ten (one of whom later cooperated and went back to work) and widened during the 1950’s.

The story given over and over again on Turner, and which is beloved of left-wing Hollywood (which also is commemorating the anniversary), is that the Ten were innocent progressives deprived of their constitutional rights at the behest of right-wingers, their careers and lives destroyed. But this is only part of the truth. Read More.