Main content

8. The un-Americans

The Hollywood Ten's legal strategy fails disastrously. They run out of options. More widely, writers such as Norma Barzman begin to feel they鈥檙e being censored.

Hollywood producers gather at the Waldorf Hotel to plot strategy. They push back against allegations of 鈥渟ubversive鈥 content. Motion Picture Association of America president Eric Johnston makes the case that movies are a force for moral good. He also calls for a hardline: he pushes studios to purge communists and sympathizers from their payrolls. This marks the beginning of the so-called 鈥渂lacklist鈥 era in Hollywood. Screenwriter Norma Barzman recalls this as a repressive period, when creative people were self censoring their political beliefs

Archive:
Recordings of House Unamerican Activities Committee by Paramount Newsreels
The Hollywood Ten, directed by John Berry, 1950
Dalton Trumbo interviewed for Hollywood on Trial, directed by David Helpern, Corinth Films, 1976

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Apr 2024 00:32GMT

Featured

  • .

Broadcasts

  • Wed 10 Apr 2024 03:32GMT
  • Wed 10 Apr 2024 12:32GMT
  • Wed 10 Apr 2024 17:32GMT
  • Wed 10 Apr 2024 21:32GMT
  • Wed 10 Apr 2024 22:32GMT
  • Sat 13 Apr 2024 01:32GMT
  • Sun 14 Apr 2024 00:32GMT

Podcast