The record will show that on october 27th, 1947, a subcommittee of the house on American Activities Committee met with the chairman, dishonorable Parnell Thomas presiding. The house on American Activities Committee is in session. Let yourself go. You, sir, are not even subpoenaed to testify here. Yeah, im going to speak anyway. Very well, mr. Dreyfuss. My name is Richard Dreyfuss. And im a child of the blacklist. I was not my parents were not in show business but they were the victims of the blacklist nonetheless. I lived on 218 street in bay side, queens and every house on that block was lived in by a communist or a socialist. And if you have not fought hitler twice and not gone to the Abraham Lincoln brigade, you better have a dam good reason. When i was a young boy i turned to my mom and i said im the luckiest kid in the world and she said why . I said because im white, jewish and american. And she said its time you came into the meetings. And when i was about 10, i turned to a friend of my fathers, tommy grasso and i said i get it, i get it. Your totalarian psycho path is better than his tote alitarian psycho path but they were and remain to this day the most influential moral influences on my life and character. They loved america. As few people have ever loved it and when they came back from the Second World War they were acused of being premature antifascists. Lets think about that phrase for a second. Premature antifascist means you were against had hitler too soon. You really had a hidden agenda and youre a communist. I want you to know that i grew up with those who talked and those who didnt. And i was it i was raised among the children of both sides and i was moved and outeraged as a child at what had been happening. And i remain outraged and moved and i believe that hollywood is a place that has no room for this here and now or then. There are [ applause ] there are republicans in this town who believe that they are being blacklisted. If thats so and i dont really know if it is so, but if its so, they have the right to the same moral outrage as we have. And i want to underscore one point. This is not about politics. It was never about politics. It was about a stalinist technique to terrify your best friend until he turned on you and denied you the only way you had to feed your children. That was mccarthyism. That was the blacklist. It was an act of humiliation and if its going to on today, we should be ashamed of it. As i grew up, i asked [ applause ] as i grew up, i would ask men who had been blacklisted would you work with a nazi . And as they were putting their thoughts together i said because they thought you were a nazi and it doesnt mitigate and it doesnt change too much but it gives you a little glimpse. This is a comp plex thing. This is not simple. But this is something that gives our profession and our lives true meaning. And i will now tell you my story. Some years ago there was an article written by a writer named mark stein who was discussing the sullen attitude of the present left in hollywood because they were opposed to ill illia krazan getting the award. He said they opposed anything he had done in izhad post testimony anticommunist crusade. And so i wrote mr. Stein a letter. Which i dont know if he ever got because he didnt answer. And i said mr. Stein, i want you to know that you have done me the largest and greatest favor i have ever, ever received. I didnt even know i wanted it until you gave it to me. All my life i have wanted to be named and you named me. And i thank you from the bottom of my heart but you misunderstand mccarthyism and you misunderstand it blacklist and then i told him that was a personal thing. It was your best friend and then i went on to say if ilia kazam had not received eight Academy Awards for being best director or best writer, there might 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. And for that i have a clear negative no. Ilia cuzans life was the life of a serial betrayer. He betrayed the actors studio. He betrayed lee stasbering, he betrayed stella adler. He betrayed it United States of america and every fellow communist in his life. And then he capped it 30 years after he had stopped his career, he wrote a book which was his autobiography and 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 fubbed and and men and women all over the Upper West Side of new york had had to look at each other in their living rooms in their older age with horror and shock. He had had to betray somebody. So i said at the time if i was there that night i would be sitting on my hands. I am standing sitting on my hands now. My enemy is the terror. It is not the party. My enemy is your enemy. It is the terror, the mass hysteria that sweeps us all, left and right. If i live long enough to find that the children of the left and the blacklist are shutting down right wing speakers at universities, we have entered elhad rr. So if this is your responsibility thank you very much mr. Dreyfuss. And as astel once said this is your responsibility, it is your responsibility to change it. Get your kids educated again. Dont keep them so stupid. Good night. Thank you. Point of order. Point of order. Thank you, fmr. Dreyfuss. You have been named. Truer words have never been spoken and check out the dreyfuss initiatives. Terrific stuff. Ladies and gentlemen, our host for tonight are two grandchildren of artists persecuted. I am a grandchild of jack and madeleine gilford. Thank you, yes. And tonia verfield, the granddaughter of robert lee. Of propaganda pictures like abbott and costello meets franken stein. Thank you and our cors deour play wrielts of the art of acting studio. Plus actors of the Harold ThurmanLaboratory Company and who haz acted in ray donovan and masters of sex. The hollywood blacklist, perhaps the most notorious cultural event of the cold war years should be seen in the larger context of political purse cushion, career losses, and fbi surveill nsz that extended for more than a decade after 1947. Is there an echo . Okay. Tonight is the exact 70th anversetry to the day when john lossen testified. He was the first member of the hollywood 10 to be a witness. There were earlier hearings, including testimony of ferocious anticommunists such as walt disney and other artists including hans isler. And more than 300 members of the Entertainment Industry were banned from working for the studios. But this wave of repression extended far beyond tinsel town to union members, activists and others across america. By 1950 it spawned mccarthyism which concentrated on u. S. Government and military personnel. Lets make something very clear. From the palmer raids to mccarthyism to co intel pro to today u. S. Government repression has generally been aimed at the american left. Tonight, amid new attacks on the First Amendment we remember the hollywood blacklist with readings, statements artists were refused to make, red channels and other blacklist related text. They have been edited for time and clarity and will be read by blacklist survivors, relatives of persecuted artists and progressive artists and activists. Well also have special video by et etdds ta asner. We have a full program with one intermission with ink performing in the lobby. Instead of dwelling on villany, tonight we pay tribute to valor. To those who refuse ood be intimidated by the iron heel of the state. We honor them for their heroic defiance and by standing up, often valiantly place 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 actor and producer kirk douglas who helped break the blacklist in 1960. Kelsey douglas. She will read a statement, especially written by her grandfather for tonights 70 lth Anniversary Commemoration of the hollywood blacklist. Thank you for letting me participate in this special evening. The blacklist is very personal to me. I know many peoples whose lives and careers wered aversely effected by it. Are we better now . Thank you for letting me participate in this very special evening. The blacklist is very personal to me for i knew many peoples whose lives were adversely effected for it. The actors gild was kind enough to give me it award for help hadding break the blacklist. Looking back it is shocking something so inherently unamerican could last for more than a decade, out living both congressman parnell congress, the disgraced chairman of the American Activities Committee and senator joe mccarthy who became it permanent subcommittee in 1953. I myself was never a target of it. I wasnt important enough. I had made only one picture, the strange love of marthaivers, written by margaret rossen. That was in 1946. Two years later both of them were on the blacklist. By the time senator joe mccarthy claimed he had had had lists of hundreds of communists and opened his had Senate Hearings, my standing in hollywood had had risen considerably. I been oscar nominated for champion. Carl too was blacklisted. I used to visit him in london where he fled just days before the state department pulled his pass port. He told me his hollywood friends were afraid to pee seen with him had, even outside america. Lee grant made a brilliant film with me. It brought her an oscar nomination and best actress award at con. After she criticized and refused to testify against her husband had, she too was blacklisted. Her banishment lasted longer than the marriage, a full 10 years. I was indignant about it witch hunts in washington but thats about as far as it went for me. Like most people i followed the 1947 hearings on the radio and later watched the Senate Hearings on tv. Aside from my outrage when mgm made me sign a loyalty oath, i was far too busy with my new produkds company to get involved. Little did i realize how deeply they would impact my life. 70 years ago today dalton trumbo, it it highest paid screen writer in the business and one of the most colorful characters was in washington being badgered by it house on American Activities Committee. If dalton hadnt been convicted and blacklisted, i could never have afforded to hire him or rather his alter ego, sam jackson. And then there was howard fast who used his time in prison to write the novel about a slave gladiator in rome i later optioned. Of course making a film from a book written by a communist and trumbo, made me a target who threatened to destroy me and the film. Let me make something clear. I didnt put daltons name on the screen because playing spart ks had had gone to my head. I wads no hero. However i was tired of being a hypocrite like so many others in the film business, including the studios. We all use blacklisted writers, as long as they didnt step on to the lot and of course we had to hide their true identities, although it was an open secret which blacklisted writer was working on what. Maybe it was stanley cuberic who pushed me over the edge. When we were sitting round deciding whose nameicide go in as writer in the credits. Stanley volunteered to as he put it, help us out by letting us use his. I was shocked he would want to take credit for someone elses work. So i celebrated by if hadviting dalton for lunch at universal. We walked together to the commissary. What will you have today, mr. Trumr. Mr. From trumbo . It was one of the best lunches i ever ate. Thank you, kelsey. Were honored by your presence representing kirk douglas. We call tony khan to the witness stand. Youre being called to the witness stand. Tony khan is the son of gordon khan, the screen writer of notorious comy propaganda, such as the 1942 world war ii morale booster, a yank on the burma road and cowboy and the sin i dont remember eatau, starring moscow master mind, trigger. He wrote over 30 films including all quiet on the western front, african queen. And a book that infuriated jay edger hoover so much that it put him under surveillance for 15 years. Till the day he died for his socalled thought crimes, gordon became one of the hollywood 19. Tony khan is a 40year veteran writer, producer and host on pbs and npr. He is currently heard on nprs said you quiz show and has written a new play the hound and the fox, about it pursuit of his father by jay edger hoover he hopes to see produced soon in l. A. Hell now tell us about the hollywood 19 and his father, gordon khan. Thank you. Privilege is too small a word to use for the experience of being here with you tonight. I hope its only the first 70th anniversary we celebrate. My father by the way only claimed to have written additional dialogue for trigger. He never said he created the character. But he did introduce roy rogers to day 11s and that may have been one of his greatest contributions to the culture. As you probably know, this may be old history. But the hollywood 10 werent the only witnesses that were called to appear before hew ac70 years ago today. In addition to german play write berto who quickly left the country after testifying knowing that there were much nicer places for him to be. Eight otherer proodeucers and screen writers were also subpoenaed to go to washington and to testify. In case you dont know their names and they deserve to be repeated, they were actor larry parks, directors robert rossen, lewis milestone, irving pitchal. The remaining four were card carrying members of the screen writers gild. Walledo salt who he went on to write serpico and midnight cowboy. Kauch, best known for a little film called casa blanca. Richard collins who eventually inhad fo informed on 27 people. If you want to talk about the experience of the children, they had had it just as bad if not worse than those who did testify. I said im sorry. I said im going to say that your father did name 27 people. What doyou want me to say . He said tell them the truth. Tell them the truth. Well, when huac called these 10, it then stopped the hearings for a while and of these eight surviving men, no one heard what they had to say to the committee because the committee no longer was in session. When they returned to their investigation of haollywood in 1950, the committee decided to pick up where thaf left off, which is with my father. Rumors were circulating that hoover had had submitted a plan to president truman to send american communists to concentration camps, the same way they did the japanese americans in 1941, using sh of the same facility said only built more. Rather than face that possibility, my father fled to mexico where we lived for the next five years. He returned to the u. S. And eked oult a living under a pseudonym and died still blacklisted at the age of 62. Although my father gordon never had a chance to express his feelings puck lbly, he did so in private. If youll allow me id like to read just a little bit of what he did. First its from letter to my mother in june of 1950. She was in boston at the time recovering from surgery and he had just learned from a man i think in a barber shop that somebody with a subpoena might already be on his way to our door. So he rushed home, packed a bag, left my older brother and me in the tub with our aunt, told us he was going to San Francisco. And fled to mexico. My brother was 8, i was 5. And he probably thought it would be a good idea not to intrust us with the truth or tell anybody where he really was heading. Dearest barbara, he wrote to her in that letter, on monday night when subpoena was almost certain i decided to get out praunto. There was no use waiting for that extra day or two and not even that extra hour. If in full flight from any principal i might possess i went and recanted everything and every decent thing i believed in to them, it wouldnt be enough. Ta theyd want to know who else . Now that youre purged, who else . Give us names, dates and places. Could i live with myself for a minute after i did a thing like that . Could i face my children . If this is a decent world when they grow up, theyd spin on me and be perfectly justified in doing so. When it actually came to time to leave, i couldnt well, i cant even write about it now. The poor kids were just mystified. I went to pieces for the first and i hope the last time in my life. I cant find the words to tell you how miserable i feel i have to leave them now or not lat. I keep seeing their faces and yours every mile of the trip. But dont worry ill hold you all in my armz very soon. Nine months later we began our fiveyear exile in mexico. The second thing and last thing i want to read is probably also the last thing he ever wrote. A single sentence. My mother found it on a piece of paper on his desk in New Hampshire where hed left it the day before he died. It said i stood before it tribunal of my own mind. She thought it was so true to the man that she knew and who had endured 15 years of obscurity without complaint that she had engraved on his tombstone. I was 17 when he died and knew it not as an ideological or political fight but a crisis i had been buffetted by all my life. But i can see those words embodied the meaning to imhad 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. Id like to think he would have used to defy the committee if hed had the chance. Thank you. Thank you, very much. Mr. Tony khan. Bravo. Actress marcia hunt. Do we have marcia here tonight . Oh, my, marcia. She was born in chicago a century ago this month. [ applause ] oh, my. This is great. She first appeared on screen at the age of 18. Oh, look at that. Standing o. You look beautiful. Doesnt she look beautiful tonight . Can we all give her a happy birthday. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you oh we got band. [ singing happy birthday] lets go for it. Happy birthday, dear marcia happy birthday you are 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 films including pride and prejudice, the human comedy with mickey rooney, none shall escape. 1947 smash up with a script by lossen. But after she joined the committee for the First Amendment broadcast, the hollywood fights back radio programs, an