Evening star., 1947-10-19

man Thomas OF the House Conn.,
mittee on Un-Americdn Activities
charged that Lo,Dell Mellett, 1Dho
during the 1Oar period served as
an administrative assistant to
President Roosevelt, coerced
Hollywood actor into playing the
stars role in a picture to 1Uhich
the actor objected because OF its
alleged communistic theology.
At that time The Star asked
Mr.. Mellett, noU Star column
ist. to relate his story OF the
alleged incident. Mr.. Mellett
preferred to 1Uait for the return
of Chairman Thomas and his
subcommittee from Hollywood,
1Uhere they had been taking teSti-
mony.
Mr.. Meltett made himself
available for the hearings t,Oice.
He ,pas not called and has not
been summoned to the hearing
that opens tomorrow. For that
reason he has furnished The
Star Nth the statement origi-
nally prepared for the House
committee, the major part OF
10hich is printed beloU:
II wish to refute an astounding
charge made by the chairman of
the House Un-American Committee.
"As reported by the press associa-
tions and, published in many news
papers the charge was made that,
during the war, I caused motion
picture actor Robert Taylor to
appear against his will in picture
called Song of Russia" The charge
was based, according to the chair
mans statement to the press, on
secret testimony taken by himself
and other members of a subcom-
mittee in Hollywood. The chair
man was quoted as saying, This
Government official came here
specifically on orders of his superior
to see that Mr.. Taylor played that
leading role He named me as the
Government official in question.
"The statement is entirely untrue.
"Song of Russia" was a Metro
Goldwyn-M Mayer picture The idea
with MGM. MGM made
the picture MGM selected Mr..
Taylor for the stars role. He
accepted the role and played it. If
in doing this he offended his own
conscience, that was a matter be-
tween himself and MGM.
"In December, 194l, shortly after
Pearl Harbor, the motion picture in
dustry, because of it's desire to CO.
operate In the war effort in every
possible way, requested the President
TO name some one person with
whom it could deal. The President
named me. I was then, and con-
tinued to be, director of the Office
of Government Reports and, as
such. co-ordinator Of Government
films. I was also an administrative
assistant to the President. When
the Office of Government Reports
was absorbed by the Office of War
Information, was asked by the dl-
rector, Elmer Davis, to serve as chief
of the motion picture bureau in his
organization.
Spoke at Award Dinner.
s'In connection with my duties I
made a few trips to Hollywood. I
made one such trip late in the VIM
ter of 1943, at the request of the
producing companies, to discuss
various questions that had come up.
I made another trip early in the
spring to speak at the annual Acad-
emy Award dinner. On one of those
occasions I visited Louis B. Mayer,
production head of M-G-M, in his
office. The purpose of the visit, if
I remember correctly, was to express
appreciation for a remarkably fine
short picture M-G-M had made, at
it's own expense, to be used in the
United War Relief campaign.
'Mr. Mayer said he would like
for me to meet Robert Taylor, say
ing something to the effect that the
latter was unhappy about not being
in uniform. He said nothing about
Mr. Taylor disliking the particular
picture on which he was working.
Nor did Mr.. Taylor during the very
brief conversation I had with him
when he was called in and intro
duced. He indicated simply that
he'd be happier flying Navy plane
than making pictures. With that
feeling, assuming his sincerity, itI
was easy to sympathize. This was
in 1943, more than year after
Pearl Harbor. Clark Gable, Jimmy