Old school communists in old school hollywood

[billc]

Perhaps HUAC was not far off in their search for the red menace in tinsel town. Check out Bighollywood.com's expose on communists in hollywood.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/s...-to-look-back-at-hollywoods-worst-communists/

Kengor: How about the Hollywood screenwriters who liberals still insist were innocent lambs? Dalton Trumbo, Communist Party code “Dalt T;” Albert Maltz, party no. 47196; Alvah Bessie, no. 46836; John Howard Lawson, no. 47275. Or, if you turn to page 191 of my book—if you don’t have a copy yet, shame on you—you can view Arthur Miller’s party application. Miller wrote The Crucible, about how Joe McCarthy pursued “liberals” unfairly suspected of being communists—“liberals” like Miller, Trumbo, Maltz, Bessie, Lawson.
Big Peace: As you say in Dupes, Hollywood produced “quite a cast.” Let’s narrow the focus to the Academy Awards.
Kengor: Among films that have canonized communists, Julia (1977) celebrated the scowling Lillian Hellman and her mystery lover/writer, Dashiell Hammett, who we now know was a CPUSA member. Hellman wrote a bitter play called Scoundrel Time, about Joe McCarthy. In Hellman’s universe, it was Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin, who was evil. Winning Oscars for Julia were Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave. Fittingly, Lillian Hellman was played by Jane Fonda, recently retired from her real-life role as Vietcong go-go girl. “If you would understand what communism was,” Fonda pleaded with a student audience, “you would pray on your knees that we would someday be communist.”

Big Peace: Another film from that period that celebrated American communists was Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981).
Kengor: That film lionized American Bolshevik John Reed. Reed today is buried in the wall of the Kremlin, a structure responsible for upwards of 60-70 million deaths. Maureen Stapleton won an Oscar for her role in that film as “Red” Emma Goldman, a woman so radical that Woodrow Wilson’s Justice Department deported her to Russia.
Big Peace: Which Academy Award winner made the worst statement about communism?
Kengor: I would roll out the red carpet for Charlie Chaplin. “Thank God for communism!” said the silent film star. “They say communism may spread all over the world. I say, so what?” The Daily Worker thrust that comment onto its front page. Communism, of course, did spread around the world, killing 100-140 million. How’s that for a “so what?”

 

[elder999]

?
Charlie Chaplin. “Thank God for communism!” said the silent film star. “They say communism may spread all over the world. I say, so what?” The Daily Worker thrust that comment onto its front page. Communism, of course, did spread around the world, killing 100-140 million. How’s that for a “so what?”

My grandparents were communists-so what? :lfao:

In all seriousness, a democratic republic-democracy- spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, killing millions-"so what?"

 

[billc]

Wow, did I hit the wrong buttons on that one.

 

[Blade96]

maybe Bill himself is a closet socialist

 

[billc]

Blade 96,shhhhhhhh! If anyone found out it would ruin me!

 

[billc]

I might actually have to attend those rally's and do puppet shows in public, and dress up in silly costumes.

 

[Ramirez]

You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

 

[billc]

Ramirez, have you now or ever, dressed up in silly costumes, performed street theater or puppet shows, or performed anti-nuclear "die ins". Sir, answer the question sir.

 

[Ramirez]

Ramirez, have you now or ever, dressed up in silly costumes, .

Well I and the wife like to dress up as Dashiell Hammet and Lillian Hellman but that just makes me a literate perv.

 

[Cryozombie]

Perhaps HUAC was not far off in their search for the red menace in tinsel town. Check out Bighollywood.com's expose on communists in hollywood.

Dude, the HUAC was a fear mongering Witch Hunt.

 

[billc]

Apparently, if you check out the article, there were a more than a few actual "witches" to be found.

 

[Cryozombie]

Apparently, if you check out the article, there were a more than a few actual "witches" to be found.

The point wasn't that there are no Communists to be found... the point was they were looking for Enemies and enemies were created by their paranoia.

How many innocent women were burned at the stake for every witch they found, and how many of those witches were actually out there curdling the milk of the village cows, rather than just going about their business?

 

[billc]

If communists were witches, in hollywood, then there were quite a few witches. Look at the article, read the book "Hollywood party" about the communist infiltration of the hollywood trade unions. Communists understood the power of the movie industry and they acted on that knowledge. The hollywood, ten or however many they were, were members of the party. They took the fifth or whatever, because their handlers told them too. The communists in Russia wanted martyrs, and the ten were those martyrs. It is in the book hollywood party.

 

[Cryozombie]

Ohhhkay.

Trucks Drive themselves. its in the book Maximum Overdrive.

Must be true.

 

[billc]

From my quick search, 24 innocent women were killed during the salem witch trial period, this may or not be accurate, it was a quick search.

In Hollywood, Several hack writers were not able to work for a year or two, so the various television shows they couldn't write for suffered greatly. The others wrote under false names and eventually started working again. For example, the cop who was shot in the godfather and played Major Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove, I believe was a commie party attender. I think they said he never brought a dish to share so they didn't like him very much.

So, 24 innocent women, tortured and burned or hanged as witches, vs. some writers and actors who couldn't work in hollywood for a couple of years, and actually had to get real jobs, or write under false names. Yeah, they are equivalent.

Oh, for the fans of Andrew Breitbart out there, His father in-law, Orson Bean, a long time and mildly famous actor, dated a commie chick in the fifties and was himself black listed. Ed sullivan told him, after cancelling an appearence of Mr. Bean (not the english guy), "just wait a while till this blows over." Mr. Bean (not the english guy) did wait, and a year later Ed Sullivan had him back on his show. I heard Mr. Bean recount the story when Andrew Breitbart filled in for Dennis miller on Miller's radio show.

 

[billc]

Some on the hollywood ten:


One of those named, Bertolt Brecht, an emigrant playwright, gave evidence and then left for East Germany. Ten others: Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie refused to answer any questions.

Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.

Larry Parks was the only actor in the original nineteen people named. He was also the only person on the list who the average moviegoer would have known. Parks agreed to give evidence to the HUAC and admitted that he had joined the Communist Party in 1941 but left it four years later. When asked for the names of fellow members, Parks replied: "I would prefer, if you would allow me, not to mention other people's names. Don't present me with the choice of either being in contempt of this Committee and going to jail or forcing me to really crawl through the mud to be an informer."

The House of Un-American Activities Committee insisted that Parks answered all the questions asked. The HUAC had a private session and two days later it was leaked to the newspapers that Parks had named names.

Leo Townsend, Isobel Lennart, Roy Huggins, Richard Collins, Lee J. Cobb, Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan, afraid they would go to prison, were willing to name people who had been members of left-wing groups. If these people refused to name names, they were added to a blacklist that had been drawn up by the Hollywood film studios.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

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[billc]

From an article, "the hollywood ten were not victims but villains,"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/860835/posts

The anniversary of the Hollywood blacklist against the Hollywood Ten and other communists in Hollywood has brought an outpouring of sympathy and apologies to the "victims," along with incessant moral lessons from the media about this "dark" period in American history.


This much is true: Morality and justice are at issue. But the story has been twisted and the characters grossly miscast. The screenplay as written by politically correct Hollywood should be titled "Three Big Lies."
Lie Number One: By requiring them to testify and then jailing them for refusing, the House Un-American Activities Committee violated the First Amendment, free speech rights of the Hollywood Ten. The truth: No one interfered with their freedom of speech. In fact, freedom of speech was not even an issue. HUAC was investigating a question of fact, the fact being membership in the Communist Party. The Committee did not ask anyone whether he believed in communism, but asked only whether he had joined the Communist Party. By joining the Party (an undisputed fact), the filmmakers were not merely making an ideological statement but were agreeing to take orders to commit actions — criminal and treasonable actions, since the Party, and the Soviet government it served, was openly dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Lie Number Two: The Hollywood Ten were persecuted by being refused jobs. The truth: They were denied employment by executives who were exercising the right to hire whom they wished — a fundamental right in a free society. It was within the employers' right (and self-interest) not to hire writers who wanted to use their positions to eliminate all private property and private business. What the writers wanted — in refusing to testify — was the "right" to hide their ideology on the grounds that, were it known, they'd be fired. In other words, they wanted the "right" to defraud their employers. In a free society, there is a private right to boycott (which the Hollywood leftists used against hundreds of anti-Communists). The right to freedom of speech prohibits the government from interfering with the expression of ideas, and that means that an employer cannot be forced to propagate ideas he's opposed to.

Lie Number Three (the biggest lie): The blacklisted writers were humanitarian idealists. The truth: Their "ideal" was the sacrifice of the individual to the collective, a moral viewpoint endorsed by Marxism and put into practice by the Soviet government. It was an "ideal" that destroyed millions of human lives. The Communist Party championed by the Hollywood Ten was the same Party that — under the leadership of Joseph Stalin — exterminated millions of peasants in the Ukraine. The "persecuted" writers dutifully paid their dues to the Party whose reign of terror included murdering or banishing to Siberia anyone who remotely threatened its power. The Hollywood Ten littered their movie scripts with Soviet propaganda, the same Soviets who signed a non-aggression pact with Adolph Hitler. While the Hollywood Communists and apologists talked of peace, brotherhood, and workers' rights, their spiritual masters were perpetrating what is arguably the most murderous tyranny in world history, its victims estimated at 20-40 million people — not including the tens of millions relegated to a sub-human existence. Far from being pitiable victims, the Hollywood Ten and their followers have the blood of millions on their hands.

Thank you and thanks for watching the show tonight.

 

[elder999]

Some on the hollywood ten:


One of those named, Bertolt Brecht, an emigrant playwright, gave evidence and then left for East Germany.

This man was lifelong committed Marxist, and testified he'd never been a member of the communist party. He'd made one movie in the U.S., with the rest of his work taking place in Europe, where he already planned on returning, funnily enough.

Ten others: Herbert Biberman
Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie refused to answer any questions.

Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.

Actually, they could have refused to answer under the 5th Amendment, which says they don't have to-to do so, of course, implies that you might incriminate yourself. Instead, they stood up and said, No, I don't think I'll answer your questions, because I don't have to say a thing.

My good friend, Pete Seeger's testimony before HUAC:

Mr. SCHERER: And then in answering the rest of the questions, or in refusing to answer the rest of the questions, I understand that you are not relying on the Fifth Amendment as a basis for your refusal to answer? Mr. SEEGER: No, I am not, sir. . . .

Mr. SEEGER: I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known. I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American. I will tell you about my songs, but I am not interested in telling you who wrote them, and I will tell you about my songs, and I am not interested in who listened to them. . . .

Pete'll be 92 this year-growing up,in 7th grade I did an oral history project that Pete was part of, and interviewed him. Later, I sailed the Hudson with him, took banjo lessons from him, and dated his daughter, Tinya for a short time. I've known many fine Americans, and he's one of them-he served in the Army in the Pacific in WWII,worked for civil and labor rights, and yes, he was a commie-a filthy red. Lots, and lots, and lots of people were-like my grandparents-they saw it as a way for labor rights, and equal civil rights , and racial equality, to name just a few things that were completely lacking in the land of the free, the home of the brave, and red-white and blue pudding. By 1949, people were hearing of Joseph Stalin's excesses, and people like Pete were already distancing themselves from the by then completely ineffectual and unecessary (to the Soviets) American Communist Party-6 years later, of course, he was asked to testify-to rat on his friends, and was convicted of contempt of congress in 1961 for refusing to do so, ........a conviction which was overtuned a year later.

HUAC was a witch hunt. Yes, there were commies, former commies, and associates of commies and former commies-the very vast majority of whom were completely harmless-unlike Theodore Hall, the youngest scientist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, who pretty much revealed the entire plutonium device to the Soviets........and got away with it to never testify, and die of old age in England.

Of course, he was never a member of the communist party, and did not have any known associates who were communists or former communists-to use the language of HUAC...he was too young. Unlike J. Robert Oppenheimer, who, while never a member, or a spy, was condemned for his associations, in spite of all he'd done for our country.....

 

[Ramirez]

This is ridiculous, trying to say that someone with communist sympathies was conspiring with the Soviets is like saying that the average American citizen were conspirators in keeping the despot Mubarak in power for 30 years and thereby oppressing the Egyptian people or were complicit in having Allende overthrown and assassinated in Chile.


I doubt any of the people you mention were involved in plotting with Stalin.

 

[Ken Morgan]