Show trial
Subtitle: Hollywood, HUAC, and the birth of the blacklist
By: Thomas Doherty
Series: Film and culture; Film and culture
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 406
ISBN-13: 9780231187787
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities; Motion picture producers and directors; United States; Motion picture actors and actresses; Motion picture industry; Political activity; History
Description: "In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door--or had it shut in their faces. In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty explores the deep background to the hearings and details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics. He tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified; tracks the flight path of the Committee for the First Amendment, the delegation from Hollywood that descended on Washington to protest the hearings; and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping new cultural history of one of the most influential events of the postwar era"--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographic references (pages 355-389) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I, Backstories.; title: How the popular front became unpopular ;; title: Hollywood's war record ;; title: The preservation of American ideals ;; title: The magic of a Hollywood dateline ;; title: Smearing Hollywood with the brush of communism -- -- Part II, On location in Washington.; title: Showtime ;; title: Lovefest ;; title: Friendlies, cooperative and uncooperative ;; title: Hollywood's finest ;; title: Doldrums ;; title: Crashing Page 1 ;; title: Contempt ;; title: $64 questions and no answers ;; title: Jewish questions ;; title: The curtain drops -- -- Part III, Backfire.; title: The Waldorf and other declarations ;; title: Blacklists and casualty lists ;; title: Not only victims.