The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild by Miranda J. Banks Page B
Authors: Miranda J. Banks
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since he was president of the SWG, the former chair of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization, and a member of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions. In February 1947, IATSE leader Roy Brewer boldly asserted in
TSW
that the SWG was a “Fellow Traveler organization” colluding with the Conference of Studio Unions. 109
When Representative J. Parnell Thomas became head of HUAC in May 1947, the offensive against the Hollywood left truly began, first with the testimony of friendly witnesses and then, in September, with the delivery of subpoenas to nineteen above-the-line creatives. HUAC claimed that Communist Party members who were Hollywood insiders had been inserting dangerous anti-American material into mainstream films. Hollywood moguls narrowed the targets of this attack, pointing specifically at the writers. Though he claimed he “wouldn’t know one if I saw one,” Jack Warner told the Thomas Committee that “Communists injected 95 percent of their propaganda into films through the medium of writers.” 110 The list of HUAC’s nineteen suspected infiltrators included mostly writers and actors, but also a few directors. Ivan Goff, who wrote
White Heat
and later created
Charlie’s Angels
, mused about the committee’s rationale in formulating this list: “Writers and actors are fair game. They make headlines, quick headlines, because you’re talking about Hollywood, which reaches the world and [with] a Writers Guild or an Actors Guild you have headlines all over the world.” 111 Of the witnesses, bothLester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr. were serving on the Guild’s executive board. And it was certainly true that the board had become involved in some minor social and political action. In 1945, the SWG had sent a telegram to President Harry S. Truman urging him to request that General Francisco Franco of Spain commute the death sentences of two leaders of the short-lived socialist Spanish Republic. 112 In 1946, the Guild demanded that the management of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles apologize to Carlton Moss, writer of
The Negro Soldier
, who was refused service in the hotel elevator. 113 Maurice Rapf, the Guild’s secretary, threatened to publish an account of the affront in the Guild journal if an apology was not forthcoming. (Rapf had just penned
Song of the South
, which depicts a joyful, “idyllic” relationship between a slave and his master.)
Arthur A. Ross, who wrote
Creature from the Black Lagoon
and episodes of
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
, believed that the goal of HUAC was in fact “the weakening of the democratic and militant trade union movement in the United States and the suppression of the radicalized American intellectual. I suppose that [an] intellectual was anybody who read books other than those that came out of the Book of the Month Club.” 114 Emmet Lavery, in a departure from his previous stance and in an attempt to curb the damage to the SWG by the inclusion of so many writers among the Nineteen, demanded, upon threat of termination, that all board members sign an affidavit of noncommunist affiliation. Philip Dunne refused to sign and reprimanded Lavery for believing that such a request would be necessary for writers who wished to serve on the Guild’s executive board. 115
In this atmosphere, the group since known as the Hollywood Ten was called to testify in Washington in October 1947. The men had agreed upon a strategy: they would assert their right to free speech under the First Amendment. Although the obvious defense might have been to invoke the Fifth Amendment, legal counsel for the Ten wanted to avoid any correlation between their clients and the notorious gangsters who were appealing to the protection against self-incrimination during criminal testimony around that same time. More important, the Ten wanted to speak their minds and defend themselves. But they faced an obvious conundrum: they could not answer the questions put before
TSW
that the SWG was a “Fellow Traveler organization” colluding with the Conference of Studio Unions. 109
When Representative J. Parnell Thomas became head of HUAC in May 1947, the offensive against the Hollywood left truly began, first with the testimony of friendly witnesses and then, in September, with the delivery of subpoenas to nineteen above-the-line creatives. HUAC claimed that Communist Party members who were Hollywood insiders had been inserting dangerous anti-American material into mainstream films. Hollywood moguls narrowed the targets of this attack, pointing specifically at the writers. Though he claimed he “wouldn’t know one if I saw one,” Jack Warner told the Thomas Committee that “Communists injected 95 percent of their propaganda into films through the medium of writers.” 110 The list of HUAC’s nineteen suspected infiltrators included mostly writers and actors, but also a few directors. Ivan Goff, who wrote
White Heat
and later created
Charlie’s Angels
, mused about the committee’s rationale in formulating this list: “Writers and actors are fair game. They make headlines, quick headlines, because you’re talking about Hollywood, which reaches the world and [with] a Writers Guild or an Actors Guild you have headlines all over the world.” 111 Of the witnesses, bothLester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr. were serving on the Guild’s executive board. And it was certainly true that the board had become involved in some minor social and political action. In 1945, the SWG had sent a telegram to President Harry S. Truman urging him to request that General Francisco Franco of Spain commute the death sentences of two leaders of the short-lived socialist Spanish Republic. 112 In 1946, the Guild demanded that the management of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles apologize to Carlton Moss, writer of
The Negro Soldier
, who was refused service in the hotel elevator. 113 Maurice Rapf, the Guild’s secretary, threatened to publish an account of the affront in the Guild journal if an apology was not forthcoming. (Rapf had just penned
Song of the South
, which depicts a joyful, “idyllic” relationship between a slave and his master.)
Arthur A. Ross, who wrote
Creature from the Black Lagoon
and episodes of
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
, believed that the goal of HUAC was in fact “the weakening of the democratic and militant trade union movement in the United States and the suppression of the radicalized American intellectual. I suppose that [an] intellectual was anybody who read books other than those that came out of the Book of the Month Club.” 114 Emmet Lavery, in a departure from his previous stance and in an attempt to curb the damage to the SWG by the inclusion of so many writers among the Nineteen, demanded, upon threat of termination, that all board members sign an affidavit of noncommunist affiliation. Philip Dunne refused to sign and reprimanded Lavery for believing that such a request would be necessary for writers who wished to serve on the Guild’s executive board. 115
In this atmosphere, the group since known as the Hollywood Ten was called to testify in Washington in October 1947. The men had agreed upon a strategy: they would assert their right to free speech under the First Amendment. Although the obvious defense might have been to invoke the Fifth Amendment, legal counsel for the Ten wanted to avoid any correlation between their clients and the notorious gangsters who were appealing to the protection against self-incrimination during criminal testimony around that same time. More important, the Ten wanted to speak their minds and defend themselves. But they faced an obvious conundrum: they could not answer the questions put before
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