Planned to sit and relax for a while last evening, but nooo.
A mysterious force turned the TV to a horror show. It was Hollywood on Trial. This was the 1976 documentary covering the
10-year reign of terror conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee
against American citizens.
The committee ostensibly originated in 1938 to investigate
alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens,
public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties.
In the 1950s, it took out after Hollywood. In addition to ferreting out
dangerous communist terrorists such as Zero Mostel, Will Geer, and Ring Lardner
Jr., it seemed to possess fervent hatred of Hollywood labor unions.
During the 1950s, HUAC as it was called, destroyed the careers of some 200
workers in movies: actors, screenwriters, directors, producers, and skilled
workers, all suspected of having ties to Communism and, one supposes, Russia. Its most infamous tirade was against the so-called Hollywood Ten, a brave group of citizens who were jailed for for standing up to the inquisitors.
In the process it turned friend against friend by forcing,
cajoling, or simply allowing (Ronald Reagan for example) fellow actors and
others to name and testify against their own fellow workers.
The Role of Shame is long. It includes, in addition to
Reagan, such luminaries as Robert Taylor, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Walt
Disney and the heads of the other major studios. In my view, the worst depicted
was Gary Cooper. His smirking testimony against his friends was made the worse
by a most cavalier attitude. I’m finished with him.
It was a sad time, certainly not one of America’s “great”
moments. Further, it opened the door to the horrors of Joseph McCarthy, an even
worse moment in time.
Oh, but all is well now. Russia is our friend, protector, and
benefactor. How times to change.
Or do they?
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| Some things never change. |
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