Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hollywood Blacklist 70th Year Commemo

CSPAN3 Hollywood Blacklist 70th Year Commemoration November 18, 2017

Congress and hollywood filmmakers. Tv,ext on American History blacklist survivors, family members read testimonies and statements from those subpoenaed during the testimony. The Writers Guild foundation and hollywood progressives host this event. Onthe record will show that october 27, 1947, the subcommittee of the House Unamerican Activities Committee at with the chairman, dishonorable jail time is providing desperate siding. The House Unamerican Activities Committee is in session. Let yourself go. [laughter] there are not even subpoenas im going to speak anyway. My name is Richard Dreyfuss. [applause] i am a child of the blacklist. My parents were not in show business, but they were the victims of the blacklist nonetheless. I lived on 2 eighteen st in bayside queens and every house on that block was either a communist or socialist. If you had not fought hitlers and had not gone to the Abraham Lincoln brigade, you better have a dam good reason. [applause] when i was a young boy, i irned to my mom and i said, am the luckiest kid in the world. She said, why . Because i am white, jewish, and american. She said it is time that you came to the meetings. [applause] 10, i turned to a friend of my fathers, tommy, and i said, i get it. You are a totalitarian psychopath your totalitarian psychopath is better than his totalitarian psychopath, and that was the end of me being a red diaper baby. Remain, the most influential moral influences on my life and character. They loved america. As few people have ever loved it. When they came back from the second world war, they were accused of being premature antifascists. Lets think about that phrase for a second. Premature antifascists means that you are against hitlers too soon. [laughter] really had a hidden agenda and you are a communist. Know that i grew up with those who talked and those who didnt. Childrensed among the of both sides. I was moved and outraged as a child. At what had been happening, and i remain outraged. Hollywood is a place that has no room for this here and now, or then. [applause] there are republicans in this town who believe that they are being blacklisted. And i dont know if it is so, but if it is so, they have the right to the same moral outrage as we have. Underscore one point, this is not about politics. Iswas never about politics politics. It was about a style and to terrifyechnique ever rise your best friend until he turned on you and denied the only way you had to feed your children. That was mccarthyism. That was the blacklist. It was an act of humiliation. If it is going on today, we should be ashamed of it. [applause] ask mengrew up i would , would been blacklisted you work with a nazi . As they were putting their thoughts together, i said because they thought you were a nazi. It does not mitigate and it does not change too much, but it gives you a little glimpse, this is a complex thing. This is not simple. This is something that gives our profession and our lives true meaning. I will now tell you my story. Some years ago, there was an article written by a writer named mark steyn who was sullen attitude of the present left in hollywood, because they were opposed to a malia kazan getting a Lifetime Achievement award. In the article, he said dreyfuss had a company that opposed anything that he had done in his post testimony anticommunist crusade. Letter,ote mr. Stein a which i dont know if he got, because he did not answer. I said, mr. Stein, i want you to know that you have done me to largest and greatest favor i have ever received. I did not know i wanted it until you gave it to me. I have wanted to be named. [laughter] 1 and you named me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You misunderstand mccarthyism and you misunderstand the blacklist. I told him that it was a personal thing. It was your best friend. I went on to say if ilya kazan had not received eight Academy Awards for best director or best writer, there may have been some excuse to think about honoring him, but having had those honors i can only think that giving him a life Achievement Award was a testimony to his moral character. For that, i have a clear negative no. Life was the life of a serial betrayer. Studio,yed the actors hes betrayed lee strasburg, he just betrayed stella adler, he betrayed the United States of america, and every fellow communist in his life. 30 years he capped it after he had stopped his career, he wrote a book which was autobiography. In that book, he named, for the first time, the names of the wives of the men who had stuck by him for 30 years who he had fucked. Men and women all over the upper side of new york had to look at one another in their living with horror and shock. He had to betray somebody. I was at the time, if there that night, i would be standing, sitting on my hands. I am standing, sitting on my hands now. , it isy is the terror not the party. My enemy is your enemy. It is the terror, the mass hysteria that sweeps us all, left and right. To findve long enough that the children of the left and the blacklist are shutting down rightwing speakers at universities, we have entered hell. [applause] thank you very much, mr. Dreyfuss. Shut up. [laughter] it is your responsibility to change it. Get your kids educated, dont keep them so stupid. [laughter] point of order. Thank you, mr. Dreyfuss. To her words have never been spoken. Wordsr much more truer have never been spoken. For much more of that check out the dreyfuss initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, our host for the tonight, the grandchildren of two persecuted. Fairfield, the granddaughter of blacklisted screenwriter robert lees. He was a screenwriter of avid and costello meet frankenstein. Thank you. Don williams, playwright and managing artistic director of the artist acting studio. Actors jesse staccato of the Harold Service Laboratory Theater company and david lang l who has acted in ray donovan and masters of sex. Hollywood blacklist, probably the most notorious cultural event of the american cold war years, should be seen in the larger context of firings, persecution, career losses, j lanes, and fbi surveillance that extended from one at a decade after 1947. And echo . Ck an echo . Today is the 70th anniversary before of john lawson testifying before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. There were earlier hearings, including testimony of ferocious anticommunist such as walt disney and huac has some at other artists including hanz eidler. The blacklist was focused on hollywood. To getire way for huac headlines. This wave of repression extended far beyond tinseltown, taking and activists and others across america. By 1950, it has spawned mccarthyism which concentrated on u. S. Government and military personnel. Lets make something clear, from to palmer raids, to huac, today. The u. S. Government repression has generally been aimed at the american left. The night, amid new attacks on the First Amendment, we remember the hollywood blacklist. We have readings from huac transcripts, statements artists refuse to make, and other blacklist related tax. They havent edited for time and clarity and will be read by flak with survivors, relatives of pursuit pursued artists persecuted artists. We will also have special videos plus a clip from a new documentary called red and blue. We have a full program. With a one intermission performance in the lobby. We will include testimony instead of dwelling on ability and victim at. Tonight, we pay tribute to valor. Those intrepid victors who refuse to be intimidated by the iron heel of the state. We honor them for their heroic defiance. They stood up and often valiantly placed themselves in the line of fire as gladiators for justice. We pay homage to them all by reading their fighting words. And now, the granddaughter of kirk douglas, who helped break the blacklist, actress kelsie douglas. Kelsey will read a statement written by her grandfather kirk douglas for tonights 70th anniversary celebration of the hollywood blacklist. [applause] thank you, for letting me participate. The blacklist is very personal to me. I know many people whose lives and careers were adversely affected by it. Now . E better then let me start over. Thank you for letting me participate. The blacklist is very personal to me, for i know many people whose lives were adversely affected by it. As you recall, the Writers Guild was kind enough to give me a floral a word award in 1991 for breaking the blacklist. I treasure that honor, but i wish there was never a blacklist to break. Looking back, it is shocking that something so inherently unamerican could last for more than a decade. It outlived both congressman J Parnell Thomas, the disgraced chairman of the american Activities Committee and senator John Mccarthy who became the senates permanent subcommittee on investigating i myself was never a target. I was not important enough. I may only one picture, the strange love of martha ivers. In 1946. Two years later, both of them were on the blacklist. By the time senator joe mccarthy claimed he had lists of hundreds of communist in open Senate Hearings, my standing in hollywood had risen considerably. I had an oscarnominated for champion, written by carl foreman, who penned my film young man with a horn. Carl was blacklisted. I used to visit him in london where he fled just days before the state department pulled the task force. He told me his hollywood friends were afraid to be seen with him, even outside of america. Lee grant made a brilliant film debut with me. It brought her an oscar nomination for best actress. At herticized huac Memorial Service and refused to testify against her husband. She too was blacklisted. Her band lasted longer than the marriage, a full 10 years. I was indignant about the witchhunt and washington, but that is as far as it went for me. Like most people, i follow the 1947 hearings on the radio and later watched the Senate Hearings on television during the mccarthy years. Aside from my outrage when mgm made me sign a loyalty oath in ,rder to play Vincent Van Gogh i was far too busy with my new production company. Little did i realize how deeply the hearings would impact my life. Today, Dalton Trumbo, the highestpaid screenwriter in the business and one of hollywoods most colorful characters was in washington being battered by J Parnell Thomas and his House Unamerican Activities Committee. Had not been convicted of contempt of congress and then blacklisted, i could never have afforded to hire him. Or rather his alter ego, sam jackson. Then there was Howard Howard fast he used his time to write a novel about a slave in rome. Making a film from a book written by a communist and using a writer rumored to be Dalton Trumbo made me a hard it made me a target, they threaten to destroy me and the film. I did not putr, daltons name on the screen because playing spartacus had gone to my head. I was no hero. I was tired of being a hypocrite. Blacklisted writers, just as long as they did not step on the lot. Of course, we had to hide their true identities, although it was an open the great which blacklisted writer was working on what. Maybe it was Stanley Kubrick who pushed me over the edge. We were sitting around deciding whose name should go on as writer in the credits. Stanley volunteered to help us out by letting us use his. [laughter] i was shocked that he would want to take credit for someone elses work. After id made the decision, i celebrated by inviting dalton for lunch at universal. I left a pass for him at the gates, met him there, and we walked together to the commissary. What will you have today, mr. Trumbo, i asked in a loud voice when the waiter came by. It was one of the best lunches i ever with eight. Ate. [applause] ague, kelsey. We are honored by your presence. Thank you, kelsey. We are honored by your presence. Khan is the son of the screenwriter of a yank on the parma road. Senoritawboy and the starring earl rogers and trigger. Khan wrote over 40 films including all quiet on the western front and the african queen. He also wrote hollywood on trial, a book that attacks huac and inferior edited infuriated j edgar hoover. For his socalled thought crimes, gordon became one of the hollywood 19. Is a veteran producer and host on in the art. Blacklistedthe docudrama series. In honor of the 70th anniversary of the blacklist, he has written a new play, the hounded box about this pursuit of his father by j edgar hoover. Tony will now tell us about the hollywood 19 and his father gordon. Thank you. Tovilege is too small a word use for the experience to be here with you tonight. I hope it is only the first 70th anniversary. Only claimed to have written additional dialogue for trigger, he never said he created the character. He did introduce roy rogers to dale evensen. That may have been one of his greatest contribution to the culture. As you probably know, this may be old history, but the hollywood 10 were not the only witnesses who were called to appear before huac 70 years ago today. Bear joe brasch 8 other producers and screenwriters were also slated to go to washington and testify. In case you dont know their names, they deserve to be repeated. Those eight men were larry parks , robert ross, lewis milestone, irving potential pitchell. The remaining four were cardcarrying members of the screenWriters Guild. There was roger who went on to write server co serpico. Robert koch, best known for casablanca. Richard who eventually informed on seven people. I rented to his son and he did not want to talk about the experiences of the children, they had it just as bad or worse of the kids as the kids whose parents did not testify. I said, im going to say this but your dad, how do you feel about that . I said, im going to say that your father did not name 27 people, what do you want me to say, have you feel about that . He said he said tell them the truth. 10 thenc called these stop the hearings. Of these eight surviving men, no one heard that they had to say to the committee because the committee was no longer in session. To their returned investigation of hollywood in 1950, the committee decided to pick up where they left off which was with my father. Rumors were circulating at that had submittedver plans to president truman to send american communists to concentration cap. The same way concentration caps. The same camps. The same waited for the japanese. Rather than faith that possibility, my father fled to mexico where we lived for the that possibility, my father fled to mexico where we lived for 10 years five years. He died, still blacklisted at the age of 62. My father never had a chance to address his feelings publicly, he does so in private did so in private. First, it is from a letter to my mother in june of 1950. He was in boston at the time, recovering from surgery. He had just learned, from a man at a barbershop, that somebody with a subpoena might already be on his way to our door. He rushed home, packed a bag, left my older brother and me in b and told us he was going to San Francisco and fled to mexico. My brother was eight, i was five, and he probably thought it was a good idea not to entrust us with the truth. Dearest barbara, on monday night when the sabina subpoena was almost served, i decided to get out. There was no use waiting for an extra hour. If in full flight from any iinciple id like possess, if recanted every decent thing i believe to them, it would not be enough. They want to know, now that you are purged, who else. Give us names and places. I lived with myself for a minute after a did i did a thing like that, could i base my children . Face my children . They would spit on me and be justified doing so. Leave, iame time to cant even write about it now. The kids were just mystified. I cant find the words to tell you how miserable i feel that i have to leave them now or not at all. I keep seeing their faces and heres every mile of the trip. Worry, i will hold you in my arms soon. Nine months later we were you reunited and began our five year and began ourted five year exile. This is probably the last thing he ever wrote. It is a single sentence. My mother found it on a piece of paper on his desk in New Hampshire where he had left it the day before he died. It said, i stood before the tribunal of my own mind. She thought it was so true to the man that she knew and had without15 years complaint. She had it engraved on his tombstone. I was 17 when he died, i did the blacklist, not as an ideological and political fight, but as a family crisis that ive been plagued by for my whole life. I can seegrown older, those words embody the meaning to him of his life, not just as a loyal friend and a father who wanted to set a good example for his two boys, but as a Good American. I stand before the tribunal of my own mind. Those are the very words that i tonk he would have used define the committee if he had a chance. Thank you very much. Mr. Tony kahn. Marsha hunt, actress marsha hunt. Do we have marsha here . Did she make it . Actress marcia hot was born in chicago a century ago this month. Was born innt chicago a century ago this month. If she coming up . This is great. She first appeared on screen at the age of 18. [applause] hey. Look at that. You look beautiful, doesnt she look beautiful . Lets give her a happy birthday. Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you we have a band. Marsha,birthday dear happy birthday to you go for it, lets hear it. Happy birthday dear marsha, happy birthday you. And many more. She first appeared on screen at the age of 18 in the 1935 paramount picture the Virginia Judge and went on to act in many productions including acting across from lorna looked laurence olivier. After she joined the committee for the First Amendment broadcast of hollywood fights back Radio Program and flew to wash

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