Includes bibliographical references (pages 487-514) and index.
Contents:
The screenwriter in Hollywood -- The founding of the Screen Writers Guild, 1933 -- The Communist Party in Hollywood: intellectual ferment brutalized by politics -- The Great Popular Front, 1936-39 -- The disintegration of the Popular Front -- The phony war and the resurrected Popular Front, 1940-44 -- Prelude to represison, 1944-47 -- The congressional hearings of October 1947 -- The influence of Hollywood communists on American films and American politics, 1930-47 -- The Hollywood Ten: from the blacklist to prison, November 1947-June1950 -- The devastation: HUAC returns to Hollywood, 1951-53 -- Exile and return: the aftermath, 1953 to present.
Summary:
"The Inquisition in Hollywood examines the suppression of radical political activity in the film industry from the days of the Great Depression through the tumultuous House Un-American Activities Committee era to the waning days of the infamous blacklist." "Although this thirty-year period of American history is marked by widespread targeting of leftists in all areas of life, those in the film industry - predominately screenwriters - were considered to be in positions of great potential indoctrinating power, and found themselves under intense scrutiny as the cold war hysteria mounted. Ceplair and Englund trace the history of political struggle in Hollywood back to the formation of the Screen Writers Guild in 1933. Many of the blacklisted filmmakers were members of the Communist Party and all of the graylisted filmmakers had expressed their sympathy with progressive (mainly anti-fascist) causes."--Jacket.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.