Anthony Slide on HOLLYWOOD’S BLACKLISTS: A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY
Anthony Slide on Reynold Humphries‘ Hollywood’s Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History:
"The entire history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) is well recorded. The author explains the origins of the Blacklist, dating the story from Roosevelt’s election in 1932 and the rise of what he describes as the Liberal-Communist Alliance. The Alliance quickly ended with the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, but the damage had been done to the liberal elements in Hollywood. They had, and continued to develop, a history. It is all here: Upton Sinclair’s running for the governorship of California in 1934, the rise of the Guilds and unions and their struggles for recognition, and, of course, Hollywood’s anti-Nazi propaganda during and immediately before America’s entry into World War Two.
"How naïve could those in Hollywood have been not be believe there would be payback for their taking such a moral stance, for supporting the American war machine, for fighting fascism, for supporting the rights of workers. Reynold Humphries’ third chapter ‘Hollywood Strikes and the Right Strikes Back’ is perfectly titled. And so, might I add, is chapter five, taking its title from André de Toth’s film, ‘None Shall Escape: The Hearings of 1951-1953.’"
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On the book cover are Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and right behind them, I believe, are Evelyn Keyes and Danny Kaye.
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Tags: Anthony Slide, Authors, Books, Hollywood's Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History, House Un-American Activities Committee, Politics, Reynold Humphries, Upton Sinclair
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Maybe John Huston is in that line too. He went to Washington as well.