Old school communists in old school hollywood
- Thread starter billc
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One book that covers hollywood and communism: Hollywood party
http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Par...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298859666&sr=1-1
His chronicle of Communist efforts to control the studio workers' unions, however, illuminates a less glamorous but perhaps more substantial aspect of the story. Those in search of celebrity dirt will be mildly disappointed; there are several star-studded scenes, but mostly mild anecdotes on the level of Ronald Reagan's gradual realization that, as an SAG activist, he was being played for a dupe by the Reds. Unless, that is, Billingsley is writing about a Communist or a fellow traveler, in which case no personal quirk, from screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's penchant for working in his bathtub to Bertolt Brecht's lack of hygiene to left-wing journalist Ella Winter's mannishly short hair, is overlooked. -- Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From a review of the book: Penetration of the film industry was sometimes subtle. One Red screenwriter and instructor counseled his students to get just five minutes worth of party propaganda in each film. Try to get the message across in dialogue from one of the major stars. This would make it less likely to be edited out of the movie.
Sometimes the penetration wasn't subtle. Producer Hal Wallis, learning of an intended anti-Communist film, said not to even bother. The party would toss stink bombs into any theater attempting to show it. Rumors were started about actors who opposed the party. They'd be portrayed as pro-Nazi, knowing that Jewish producers would not be inclined to hire them.
Red Star over hollywood:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
Until now, Hollywood's political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare. But Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors' most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Abandoned by their old CP allies, they faced the Blacklist alone.
From a review of the book:
The Radoshes describe the infatuation of "the Hollywood Party" from its roots in the 1930s, when several visited the Soviet Union. They demonstrate that, far from being innocent, the "Hollywood Ten" were committed Communists, who used and abused free-speech supporters (like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) for their own ends. The Communist Party, in turn, cynically used the "Ten" for its own ends -- trotting them out to speak at unrelated left-wing events for years, which prevented the Ten from individually rehabilitating their images and obtaining work. The authors also describe the way the CP line was inserted in several films, most notoriously, "Mission to Moscow." This film, designed to turn the views of a skeptical American public toward the USSR during World War II, whitewashes Stalin's purge trials of the 1930s, where many truly innocent were tortured into confessing and executed. Perhaps most interesting is the difficult path faced by those who broke with the Party and either "named names" or walked a fine line to avoid naming names. For many, being seen as an informer was worse than preventing and exposing genuine Communist infiltration.
http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Par...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298859666&sr=1-1
His chronicle of Communist efforts to control the studio workers' unions, however, illuminates a less glamorous but perhaps more substantial aspect of the story. Those in search of celebrity dirt will be mildly disappointed; there are several star-studded scenes, but mostly mild anecdotes on the level of Ronald Reagan's gradual realization that, as an SAG activist, he was being played for a dupe by the Reds. Unless, that is, Billingsley is writing about a Communist or a fellow traveler, in which case no personal quirk, from screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's penchant for working in his bathtub to Bertolt Brecht's lack of hygiene to left-wing journalist Ella Winter's mannishly short hair, is overlooked. -- Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From a review of the book: Penetration of the film industry was sometimes subtle. One Red screenwriter and instructor counseled his students to get just five minutes worth of party propaganda in each film. Try to get the message across in dialogue from one of the major stars. This would make it less likely to be edited out of the movie.
Sometimes the penetration wasn't subtle. Producer Hal Wallis, learning of an intended anti-Communist film, said not to even bother. The party would toss stink bombs into any theater attempting to show it. Rumors were started about actors who opposed the party. They'd be portrayed as pro-Nazi, knowing that Jewish producers would not be inclined to hire them.
Red Star over hollywood:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
Until now, Hollywood's political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare. But Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors' most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Abandoned by their old CP allies, they faced the Blacklist alone.
From a review of the book:
The Radoshes describe the infatuation of "the Hollywood Party" from its roots in the 1930s, when several visited the Soviet Union. They demonstrate that, far from being innocent, the "Hollywood Ten" were committed Communists, who used and abused free-speech supporters (like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) for their own ends. The Communist Party, in turn, cynically used the "Ten" for its own ends -- trotting them out to speak at unrelated left-wing events for years, which prevented the Ten from individually rehabilitating their images and obtaining work. The authors also describe the way the CP line was inserted in several films, most notoriously, "Mission to Moscow." This film, designed to turn the views of a skeptical American public toward the USSR during World War II, whitewashes Stalin's purge trials of the 1930s, where many truly innocent were tortured into confessing and executed. Perhaps most interesting is the difficult path faced by those who broke with the Party and either "named names" or walked a fine line to avoid naming names. For many, being seen as an informer was worse than preventing and exposing genuine Communist infiltration.
Blade96
Senior Master
Let me get this straight: Ring Lardner,Jr., the guy who wrote, and won an Academy Award for M*A*S*H, and later wrote The Greatest, had a "Soviet handler???" :lfao:
Dalton Trumbo, the guy who wrote Johnny Got His Gun, and told the publisher not to reprint it once the U.S. was involved in WWII, the man who got an Oscar for Exodus, as well as two others written behind and front and psuedonymously while he was blacklisted-the guy who friggin's wrote Spartacus,fer chrissakes, had a "Soviet handler???" :lfao:
These people did the most American of things-I'll point out that Pete, and others did tell the committee in so many words, to stick it-while the 10 were, largely, forgotten once they were blacklisted, except by those who gave them work in spite of the blacklist?
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Blade96
Senior Master
Haha. I joked with him before about that something about i didnt know someone had reincarnated mccarthy.
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