(This column courtesy of Agape Press.)
After years of denial, the Left must admit Hollywood's communists did indeed inject their ideological poison into American films.
At least that's what newly released documents of the House Un-American Activities Committee show.
Time for “progressives” to chow down on another plate of crow.
What the Documents Say
The recently declassified documents are similar to those released from the archives of the former Soviet Union's secret police, the KGB. Over the last eight or 10 years, we've learned that the “Red Scare” of a half-century ago was hardly a pointless panic. Reds had infiltrated the highest councils of government.
And now these documents, the Associated Press reports, prove HUAC was right: The Communist Party wanted control of American films.
“Hollywood is one of the main centers of communist activities in America,” actor Adolfe Menjou told the committee in a secret session. “[It is] our great medium for propaganda.” Menjou was a serious student of communism, and he knew his concerns weren't just a red herring.
“Screenwriter Jack Moffitt told the committee … that John Howard Lawson, a writer, member of the American Communist Party and founder of the Screen Writers Guild, advised him to 'try to get five minutes of left-wing doctrine into every script you write.'”
Lawson wanted to get highly-paid actors mouthing his toxic ideas because “executives wouldn't be so quick to cut or re-shoot expensive scenes.” As well, Lawson told acting students that “if you're merely an extra playing a member of a country club, play it in a way that will invite prejudice against the class represented.”
We Knew a Long Time Ago
Yet we've known the truth for some time, as amply documented, to cite just one example, in Maurice Zolotow's biography of John Wayne, Shooting Star.
Back in the 1940s, left-wingers in the Screen Actors Guild pushed resolutions supporting strikes, Hollywood parties were abuzz with pro-Soviet chit-chat, and student actors were subject to communist indoctrination.
And the activities of “The Unfriendly Ten” are even more sinister in light of Lawson's frank invitation to treachery.
The 10 unfriendlies were writers and directors, and more importantly, alleged communists, called to testify before HUAC. Their defenders rightly said it was wrong for a government committee to question a citizen about his politics, that an American had a right to be a Communist.
But those who defended the unfriendlies had been assured, and fervently believed, their colleagues had been falsely charged. So the Committee of 100, including such stars as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye and Edward G. Robinson, went to Washington to protest the alleged smear.
The Ten, however, had lied. The evidence ultimately showed they were communists and that some, like Lawson, were party members. They were red to the bone.
As screenwriter Morrie Ryskind said, “They got a billion dollars' worth of stars to defend Hollywood,” but “that billion dollars worth of talent looked like thirty cents.”
Guilty as Charged
The logical question is who would believe Stalin's myrmidons would pass up the chance to propagandize the masses using films. It would have been a lost chance of cosmic magnitude.
Well, a naive liberal would believe it, and of course, the chance wasn't lost. But something else was lost, particularly in news reporting on the era then and now: the truth, and even simple facts. One glaring example? Reporters have often identified Sen. Joseph McCarthy as chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, a position he could never have held.
Then again, leftists on an ideological tear never let facts get in their way. They certainly didn't on this subject.
Yet the facts are clear. The Reds in Hollywood were guilty as charged.
