Communications and Media

Censorship is an age-old issue that pits ideologies against one another. One person beliefs is another persons downside. Just being a part of a group could be grounds for a fight. In the 1930s, it took some doing by people who were not a part of the American culture to understand it the hard way some two decades later.

The 1930s were depicted by some as a depressing time that spawned the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany. (Trumbo, 1972) It was also around that time that America was setting itself up for trouble. They established the committee on Un-American Affairs, which would be the springboard for a fear-mongering U.S. Senator, Joseph McCarthy, and 20 years later to look for suspected Communists living in America. (Trumbo, 1972)

McCarthy invoked the Red Scare to entice people to rat out to the Un-American Affairs Committee whom they believed were either Communists or sympathetic to Russia. The 1950s dominated by the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., McCarthy hoped pointing out Communist supporters would both harm their reputations and keep others from turning over to the other side.
Director Elia Kazan directed movies about the Communists and was a member of the Communist Party during the 1930s. That in itself was not a crime because America was founded on the principles of free speech and free assembly. However, when it came time for someone to mention other Communists within the states, Kazan was quick to name names. (Bernstein, 1988)

Trumbo mentioned that the Committee divided its witnesses into two categories friendly and unfriendly. Those who were able to name names were given better treatment than those who used stonewalling tactics (not provide information, for example). The latter group was treated as hostile, and treated as such by being blacklisted from working in Hollywood. (Trumbo, 1972)

When Kazan named names, his move did not sit well with those who he named. Among the eight people he named included playwright Arthur Miller (author of Death of a Salesman), whom Kazan who told the government that Miller had dealings with the Communist Party. Although that included a few meetings and Miller was not persuaded to join the group, it was enough information for both men to not work together again. (Bernstein, 1988).

Being labeled a Communist by the government was not a good career move, as Kazan later admitted. Because of Kazans allegiancethough shortto the Communist party, it made him a target for the House Committee on Un-American Affairs, HUAC. (Bernstein 1988)

What he did (name dropping) caused careers to end, people to point fingers and make life in Hollywood difficult for many, including Kazan himself. Although he would be later be given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the MPAA, it was without some drama. People believed the distinction would be for his theatrical contributions such as On The Waterfront and other movies. Detractors said his actions should prevent him from getting the award. (Walsh, 1999)

Trumbo noted that the then-president of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) Eric Johnston took about a week before doing an about-face on blacklisting for those found with communist ties. In a span of six days, Johnston went from, As long as I live, I will never be a party to anything as un-American as a blacklist to We will forthwith discharge, suspend without compensation those in our employ, and we will re-employuntil such time as he is acquitted, or he has purged himself of contempt, and declares himself under oath that he is no longer a Communist. (Trumbo, 1972)

After naming several people to the Committee, Kazan spent the next several films justifying his actions. Films such as A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront were attempts by Kazan to demonstrate why he turned on his friends and colleagues. His characters were guided by doing the right thing, even if it meant hurting others in the process. Kazan admitted to being a member of the Communist party, but left shortly thereafter after being disillusioned with its direction. Kazan also refused to participate in the takeover of a theatre he was studying at during the 1930s. That incident led to his name dropping two decades later. (Walsh 1999)

What Kazan did was push other off a preverbal cliff to save his own career. That is something he would later admit in his autobiography A Life. He felt the need to name names to save himself. He was not doing it for money but for the fear of being found out himself that he had ties with the Communists. (Walsh, 1999)

That point alone would have derailed his career, as it did to the people he named. He noted that the point of his life was that anyone had the ability and the means to be a cad or a swine if given the chance. That was his opportunity to either put up or shut up. He spilled the names in order to save his own neck. It was a way to weed out those the American Government thought to have ties with the Soviets and rally against the U.S.

One person who was brought before the HUAC was Dalton Trumbo, a writer and was instrumental in Johnny Got His Gun in the 1940s. When people asked for advanced copies of his book, Trumbo gave the letters up to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This was a decision he would soon want back, because in those letters he named names and the FBI thought his book and the letter from others were the basis for becoming Communist Party members. (Wikipedia 2010)

Trumbo appeared before the HUAC in 1952 but unlike Kazan, refused to provide the committee with any names. His resistance was met with an arrest, an 11-month imprisonment, and being one of 10 writers, directors and producers being blacklisted from Hollywood.

This meant that they would be unable to work on any film television series or other materials because of their (alleged) ties with the Communists. This would be the standard for other actors such as Lionel Stander, who would have to find work on Wall Street (which he did), or leave the U.S. to work in either Mexico or Europe. Stander eventually came back to the States to work again, most notably for the 1980s television show Hart to Hart. Gerogakas, 1992)

Trumbos connection to Kazan was that of spectator. He felt Kazan and anyone else who had to name names were also victims because it meant being able to rat out on their friends and colleagues. Trumbos career would nosedive until the early 1960s when Actor Kirk Douglas mentioned Trumbos work on Spartacus. That started the end of the blacklist and got Trumbo the necessary credit for that movie and other films he worked on. (Those on the blacklist also used fake names to secure work). (Wikipedia, 2010)

Of course, Trumbos statement that those people (like Kazan) who gave names did not resonate with those in Hollywood. They often criticized Trumbo for his statement. They felt those who appeared before the HUAC had a choice between saying nothing or telling the committee what they knew. Kazan and others like him made a conscious attempt to name names. That means they should not receive a free pass because they made that choice. (Wikipedia, 2010)

Kazan was a brilliant filmmaker who made a judgment that he said tormented him for the rest of his life. He thought he was doing a good thing by rooting out Communism in America and his involvement would have been an easy to demonstrate his willingness to help. Unfortunately, his willingness enabled him to move on and those whom he named to have their lives ruined. It was a hefty price to pay for making that decision.

Trumbo was one of the unlucky ones. His involvement cost him nearly one year of freedom, his career, which forced him to move out of the United States. He eventually got his due thanks to Douglas a few years before Trumbos death in 1976.

Many people wore the scars of the Red Scare during the 1950s. For some like Kazan, it meant trying to justify his later films and piece back what was his career. For others, such as Trumbo, it meant piecing back his life in another country and be forced to take odd jobs and use pseudonyms to make ends meet. Only because some Washington bureaucrat wanted to make sure the only red in the country was that of Red White and Blue.