Hide in Plain Sight : The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950-2002

Rating:
Summary: Gerald McBoing Boing and the radical movement!
Review: "Hide in Plain Sight" is the latest book co-authored by Paul Buhle on the Hollywood blacklist and its impact. As is the case with the previous books, this is as much a celebration of what radicals in the entertainment accomplished as it is about the terrible loss when they were purged.

For people who came of age in the 1950s, the book is an exceptional treat. Who knew that many of our favorite television shows drew upon the talents of writers, directors and actors hounded out of the Hollywood film industry? Covering the period from 1950 to 2002, it proves dramatically that the radical politics of the 1930s never really disappeared but found ways to express itself through popular culture. The television shows and Hollywood movies of this period were just as important a link to the New Left as the folk music revival and leftwing beat poetry.

As is the case with every book in this series, the index can provide a kind of shortcut into the treats within its pages. For example, a reference to "You Are There" reveals that some of the 1953-1955 teleplays were written by Walter Bernstein, Arnold Manoff and Abraham Polonsky--3 blacklistees. Each show was pegged to a real historical event. The central drama of such shows involved heroic efforts by figures such as John Peter Zenger to stand up for democratic principles against a repressive government. Such messages were not lost on baby boomers, including myself.

While it is not too difficult in retrospect to detect the footprints of radicals in such a show, there were others that were more cleverly subversive at camouflaging their true intent. For example, the children's cartoon show "Gerald McBoing Boing" was a product of United Productions of America, which was launched by John Hubley, a New Deal era radical. Fellow UPA'er Dave Hilberman had been fingered by Walt Disney for the sin of having "spent considerable time at the Moscow Art Theater".

Not that Gerald McBoing Boing was about socialist tractors and the struggle against fascism. Instead it is about a child who speaks entirely in sound effects. The real inspiration for this cartoon was not Marxism, but the playful inventive spirit of the Hollywood left going back to Charlie Chaplin and a host of others open to surrealism.

Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: How Hollywood Survived Those Turbulent Years.
Review: The movie studios RKO, MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox (all familiar to the movie-goers of the Fab Fifties) struggled for survival by focusing on large-budget blockbusters. Later Universal, United Artists, Columbia Pictures and others found life different after the Cold War mania in which writers, producers and directors (some actors) were blacklisted by McCarthy as pro-Communism in this country.

McCarthy ruined reputations and stunted careers in Hollywood in a grand style, but at what a cost -- he was the one to die early. It's a proven fact that hurting others in any way (even by neglect) hurts the tormentor more, usually in physical health. "Tough things can kill. They kill the spirit, hopes, dreams, vision and even desire (to live). Excessive pressure can make you explode or make you learn new ways to constructively vent." (Mtn. Wings #4271)

The wild McCarthyrite charges of conspiracy were as common in the Fifties as they were devastating. Some of those blacklisted by 30's radicalism had been unfairly smeared and even damaged in the McCarthy Era. The Hollywood screenwriters were infiltrated by former Communists for the congressional investigators for the FBI. It is sad that producers testified against some of their best writers and best friends.

But they continued to work on films without credit for their work at lower wages than they deserved. In fact, they contributed immensely to the creation of the 1950's Golden Age of Television, to the dramas and sitcoms. Some moved to New York and were productive on the stage.

Technology in the form of CinemaScope, camera innovations such as the zoom lens, location shooting, and color film saved the industry. The Arbitron surveys killed off some special programs. I'd forgotten about those; as we were never chosen to keep track of what we watched. Today, they are used for radio also and I took one myself in 2001 -- gave Nick Clooney lots of play time in the early hours of each morning.

These historians explain all you'd ever want to know (also some better not known) about every movie you might have seen or just heard about. There is quite a listing throughout this volume.

Some brought back pleasant memories included were the Armstrong Circle Theater, Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, Four Star Playhouse, NBC Television Theater, Alcoa Aluminum Hour, (also Alcoa/Goodyear Theater) and Ray Bradbury's Science Fiction Theater. The best drama series of this "Golden Age" was one of my favorites, TWILIGHT ZONE. Reruns are still on the tube today.

The cowboys listed were Hopalong Cassidy, Andy Devine, Roy Rogers, but not Lash LaRue (why not?) as he was great. One year he came to our Fair and silly me, just a wisp of a girl, volunteered to stand on stage while he tore a piece of paper out of my mouth with his whip. He was something!

Of course, the music shows to which I was partial and played a big part in my young life. Bing Crosby Productions used blacklisted talents in their shows, BREAKING POINT, HOGAN'S HEROES, and BEN CASEY later in 1959. The mini-studios brought out the detectives we all loved. And who could forget Loretto Young and her beautiful costumes or Dinah Shore and her downhome shows to show the world that we Southerners do know a thing or two.

This would make a good reference book for movie buffs.

Rating:
Summary: Tracking Down the Artistic Contributions of the Blacklisted!
Review: While many books, essays, television shows and movies have made us all more sensitive to the dangers of McCarthyism, most of us don't quite know what happened to those who were blacklisted after the HUAC meetings in the early 50s. Hide in Plain Sight filled that void for me, and expanded my understanding of both the event's consequences for society and of the artists involved.

The book uses a variety of methods for capturing the subsequent history of those who were blacklisted. Some chapters focus on particular forms of artistic expression, while other sections look at individual producers, directors, writers and actors. As a result, there's some redundancy . . . so the book often feels like a series of essays rather than one seamless nonfiction book. That quality, however, makes the book easier to use for those who just want to read about a single person or genre.

I was very surprised to learn that almost every adult television show that I liked during the 1950s and 1960s involved blacklisted writers. Perhaps it's just because my tastes run to history, underdogs, unusual approaches and conflict, but what was interesting about television then (and often isn't now) came from those with a strong ideological bent toward Marxist or antifascist thought. This book forms an important document in helping all Americans to understand how dialogue in our society needs to be maintained through providing free access to all media. Much great work would have been lost if these blacklisted writers, directors and performers had lost their artistic lives.

I found one aspect of the book to be tedious though. Every person was characterized by her or his political beliefs. In most cases, this was done with a simple label (antifascist, Marxist, liberal, etc.). That way of characterizing people seemed to me to make the book overly political. As a result, the book constantly displays a battle between left and right . . . and almost leaves the audience out in the process.

I did not know many of the films that were described, especially those that were done in Europe. I appreciated the care with which the films were described. In several cases, I learned important back stories about the meaning of metaphors that added to my understanding of the films.

A real strength of the book is showing how the careers of individual blacklisted people were affected. The analyses of how their subsequent works developed (especially those of Joseph Losey) were quite extensive and intriguing to think about.

The final paragraph is unusually eloquent:

"Hollywood was always about money. It still is. But at its best it was and eventually might once again be something a great deal more--a glimmering of a democratic art form returning the embrace of its vast audience with equality sncerity and the sense of a common fate."

As I finished the book, I was reminded of John Donne's famous poem. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." As badly as individual lives were harmed by the blacklisting, our democracy and culture were harmed even more. In realizing the full depths of that loss, we are all the losers.