Marsha Hunt: Great American Part II

Thank You Marsha Hunt: A Truly Great American – Part I

The United Nations Association is only one of many, many non-profits that Marsha Hunt has supported over the last 55 years. For her twenty-five years of service to the United Nations Association, Marsha was awarded with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, the organization's highest honor. This award meant even more to Marsha because she knew and admired Mrs. Roosevelt.

In 1983, Marsha was named “honorary mayor” of Sherman Oaks, a position she held for 18 years. As honorary mayor, she was one of the first to recognize a growing homeless community in her neighborhood, so she spearheaded fundraising and opened the first two homeless shelters in the San Fernando Valley, one specifically for women and children.

As “honorary mayor," she could have rested on her laurels as a “celebrity” but chose to do what she had always done when faced with challenges: she acted on her conscience. Having been a resident of Sherman Oaks since the mid-1940s, there was no way she could sit back and allow people to suffer needlessly. Not in this town she cared so deeply about.

NPR's All Things Considered recently did a piece on Marsha and the 60th anniversary of "Red Channels," a publication from 1950 that purported to identify Americans of dubious allegiances and that included Marsha in that number.

Here is the link to the five-minute story. Please take the time to listen.

It broke my heart to hear Marsha state her fear that she will be remembered only for being blacklisted rather than for the work she had done as an actor. I have taken on the task of ensuring that this is not so by producing Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity, a feature documentary on Marsha’s life and achievements.

It is my fervent desire this documentary will serve as a “document of social activism” to inspire a new generation of activists who may be feeling “helpless” in these uncertain times and to let them know that there can be a positive result of their dedication. In telling Marsha's story, we get to show the audience how one act of generosity can have a “ripple effect” from generation to generation.

As much as Marsha was committed to activism, she was equally committed to her acting career. I am proud to tell you about an important acting milestone that Marsha has recently achieved. Seventy five years ago, on May 14, 1935, Marsha Hunt signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. Her story of how she came to sign with this studio is the stuff that dreams are made of.

All she ever wanted to do was act. She's still got the acting bug. In 2008, she gave a "tour de force" performance in the "film noir short" The Grand Inquisitor. If you've never seen this, you owe it to yourself to check it out here.

I am so proud of what Marsha stands for. She is the epitome of overcoming adversity with elegance and grace. She put her country and the town she loves before her own needs and is a role model for what it means to be a patriotic American.

For more information on how you can support the documentary with a tax deductible donation to Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity, please go to
http://www.documentary.org/community/IDA-resources/fiscal_sponsorship_donate?film_id=3094.

A version of this article was initially posted at http://marshahuntdocumentary.blogspot.com/.

Photo: Roger Memos