Taking on McCarthyism: Hollywood’s Response to the Blacklist
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Taking on McCarthyism: Hollywood’s Response to the Blacklist
Following the communist scare of the 1950s the House of un-American Activities (HUAC) was established and it made a blacklist of movie actors, screen writers and directors who they considered as allied to the communists party. The most prominent of these was the ‘Hollywood ten’ who refused cooperation. This paper will critically examine the black list and the response of Hollywood to the list and to Senator McCarthy who was a significant figure in the movement. This paper will focus on the response of artists who made films that addressed this imposition, scrutiny, and show that Hollywood did not stand for this opposition.
McCarthyism is an act of making ungrounded accusations that touch on issues of treason and disloyalty a term that was derived from the name of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s when there was a communism scare. He chaired several committees that were involved in the accusations against different people who were suspected of being communists. The term was derived from his obsession with communists although he had nothing to do with the Hollywood arrests (Humphries, 3). During this period, movie directors and screenwriters used to get subpoenaed to attend hearings where they would be required to defend their position and involvement in the American communist party. Many of these directors lost their jobs because even the act of being called for a hearing was usually enough for someone to lose their jobs. Ten movie directors however refused to cooperate with the committee and they were imprisoned some for six months and others for a year, although they had said that they had freedom of speech as guaranteed by the first amendment. Hollywood responded to this imposition and to the arrest of