The Man Who Fought the Hollywood Reds

American Thinker ^ | 29 Mar 2009 | Ben-Peter Terpstra

[AreaMan]

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March 29, 2009

The Man Who Fought the Hollywood Reds

By Ben-Peter Terpstra

Once upon a time, there was a conservative anticommunist Hollywood, proudly standing up for America.

In the 1940s, the director, Samuel Grosvenor Wood, was growing tired of Stalin's friend President Franklin Roosevelt, and rightly so. Hollywood's pro-appeasement culture, too, was just as irresponsible and arrogantly insensitive. Russia's gulags were real. Leftwing actresses were not.

So, how did Sam challenge Hollywood? Some historians contend that Mission to Moscow, a love letter film to Red Russia, from liberal Hollywood, pushed the director over the edge.

Straight Sam's response? He helped form the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, in order to challenge Hollywood's Alliance for the Preservation of Red Moscow's Ideals. And, fortunately, Hollywood's womanly women and manly men stood with Sam.

Yes, there were politically indecent writers, politically indecent directors, politically indecent producers, and -- horror! -- politically indecent actors, in Tinseltown. There were even some fabulous conservative costume designers (but that's another story).

Cecile B. De Mille. Victor Fleming. Leo King Vidor. Walt Disney. Gary Cooper. Clark Gable. Pulitzer Prize-winner for Drama, Morrie Ryskind (his son became the editor of the conservative Human Events). Leo McCarey (a devout Roman Catholic). They were all class acts, and great supporters of the conservative alliance, quicknamed "the MPA."

Robert Taylor, Ronald Reagan, Adolphe Menjou, and college football buddies, John Wayne and Ward Bond were also on board.

Of course, that's not how Hollywood's Left remembers history. George Clooney's fan club likes to fantasize about the HUAC's Catholic Joe hunting down poor put-upon reds. But McCarthy, the anti-Nazi/anti-Stalinist Senator was not part of the "bad" HUAC. In reality, Hollywood's greatest critics were her concerned actors, her concerned writers, her concerned producers, Red Dalton Trumbo's longsuffering toilet scrubbers, and even some concerned unionists. (Roy Brewer, the famous anti-communist union leader for example, was a member of the MIA.)

And, many of Hollywood's concerns predated the so-called Red Scare. There were even some fabulously concerned makeup artists. Revealingly, in the early days, anti-commie meetings were secret affairs, meaning that conservatives already were the thought police's hostages.

What's more, Hollywood's anti-communists were not toothless hicks with tics from the back of Bourke. In this real reality, fiery intellectuals like Ayn Rand, for example, fueled their intellectual arguments.

In all truth, the MIA was a great coming together of minds, from libertarian writers to Christian conservative actors (and, okay, fabulous costumes designers).

Need more evidence? The libertarian-minded playwright/novelist, Ayn Rand, wrote the following in an official MPA pamphlet entitled Screen Guide for Americans:     

The purpose of the Communists in Hollywood is not the production of political movies openly advocating Communism. Their purpose is to corrupt our moral premises by corrupting non-political movies -- by introducing small, casual bits of propaganda into innocent stories -- thus making people absorb the basic principles of Collectivism by indirection and implication.

The principle of free speech requires that we do not use police force to forbid the Communists the expression of their ideas -- which means that we do not pass laws forbidding them to speak. But the principle of free speech does not require that we furnish the Communists with the means to preach their ideas, and does not imply that we owe them jobs and support to advocate our own destruction at our own expense.

And, the United States of America's open ears were hearing and listening.

Rand's writings sent Coulter-like shockwaves through the establishment. The above arguments were printed in newspapers across the United States, and even made it on the front-page of the entertainment section of The New York Times.

You have to give credit to clever Sam. He was in the thick of it. Today, we complain about liberal actors, but back then, the communists were only years away from taking over Hollywood, and therefore America's cultural engine forever. Conservative Sam changed all that. He put appeasers on notice. He wasn't preaching to the conservative choir, he was fuelling conservatives, libertarians, and independents. Remember Reagan?

While today's Hollywood is still powerful, well-read people are awake to her tricks. And thanks to Sam, the Alliance's first president, and his patriotic comrades, we don't have to worry about choosing between Song of Russia and Song of Russia III in a rundown video store.

Conservative Hollywood lives in John Wayne's Westerns. Conservative Hollywood lives in Walt Disney's pirated Chinese versions of Song of the South. Conservative Hollywood lives in Gable's frank movies. And, it will outlast all of those crappy moralistic anti-moralistic movies from the 1990s.

In the 1950s, there were no gulags in America. But there were "pinko-mouthing" Stalin enthusiasts with their pretend persecution stories, and their hatred for industrious women like Rand. But she knew the real Sam, and the real Russia. Rand knew that population-control breadlines were real. They were nothing to sing about. Because of Sam we can run to (and not from) Conservative Hollywood without blushing.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/hollywood_anticommunist_direct.html at March 29, 2009 - 04:31:07 PM EDT

[ETL]

Above: Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Stalin look on under a portrait of Lenin, August 23, 1939. News of the Pact stunned the world and paved the way for the beginning of World War Two with Hitler assured the Germans would not have to fight a war on two fronts.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pact.htm
___________________________________________________

"...at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Communists suddenly transformed the 'Anti-Nazi League' into the "Hollywood Peace Forum," calling for American neutrality and using the slogan 'Let's Skip the Next War.'..."
--Ronald Radosh, from his book, Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With the Left
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4251
___________________________________________________

"[Pete] Seeger was antiwar during the period of the Nazi-Soviet Pact; pro-war after the Soviet Union was the ally of the United States; and anti-war during the years of the Cold War and Vietnam. To Nichols -a rather dense left-winger -it is good form to acknowledge that perhaps 'Stalin was a bad guy,' and then simply get over it, and move on to campaign for very American socialist causes." --Ronald Radosh (former communist)
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=01133F31-CE9A-40BC-B797-47CBB0023EF4
______________________________________________________

NYT Writer Corrects Record: Pete Seeger 'Only' 40 Years Late in Denouncing Stalin
By P.J. Gladnick
2007-09-02

The New York Times has now corrected [1] a "smear" about Pete Seeger being 50 years too late in denouncing Stalin. Thanks to the intrepid research of Times reporter Daniel J. Wakin, the record has now been set straight. Pete Seeger was only about 40 years too late in criticizing Stalin.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2007/09/02/ny-times-writer-corrects-record-pete-seeger-only-40-years-late-denounc
___________________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetwork.org:
Profile: PETE SEEGER

*Musician, folksinger, songwriter, and political activist

*Joined the Communist Party in 1942

*"I'm still a Communist" -- Pete Seeger, 2004

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1619
___________________________________________________

Springsteen's Homage to Pete Seeger
By Tom Moon

World Cafe, April 25, 2006 - On the new collection We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen honors the folk music tradition that has inspired many of his own compositions over the years. All the tracks on the new album are standards closely associated with folk icon Pete Seeger.

Springsteen assembled large ensemble of acoustic musicians to flavor the proceedings with everything from accordion to tuba. Rock critic Tom Moon talks with host David Dye about why he reacted so strongly and positively towards this latest offering by The Boss.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5360791
__________________________________________________________________________

America’s Most Successful Communist (Pete Seeger):
By Howard Husock, Summer 2005

"The Popular Front sought to enlist Western artists and intellectuals, some of them not party members but “fellow travelers,” to use art, literature, and music to insinuate the Marxist worldview into the broader culture. The murals of Diego Rivera, the poetry of Langston Hughes, the novels of Howard Fast—all exemplified this approach. It’s an irony that communists should seek to change the culture, of course, since Marxism holds that culture is merely a reflection of underlying economic structures, whose transformation will bring about capitalism’s inevitable collapse."

http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_urbanities-communist.html
__________________________________________________________________________

"We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration At The Lincoln Memorial"

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/4Jfw6fON_zH/One+Obama+Inaugural+Celebration+Lincoln+Memorial/1NNi5cTZF2d/Bruce+Springsteen

[RJL]

But McCarthy, the anti-Nazi/anti-Stalinist Senator was not part of the "bad" HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)

Very true. This brings to mind one of my favorite Ann Coulter lines regarding Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC, from memory:

"They called him Senator for a reason."

[Chinstrap61a]

Thanks for posting this!

[SandRat]

Red Star over Hollywood
The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left

Until now, Hollywood’s political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the “nightmare” of the Red Scare. But in Red Star over Hollywood, Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors also show the Party’s attempts at influencing filmmaking; their greatest achievement being the film “Mission to Moscow,” which justified Stalin’s great purge trials.

Using material from the papers of Dalton Trumbo, Dore Schary, Albert Maltz, Melvyn Douglas and the FBI’s Hollywood file, and from the newly released testimony of formerly closed HUAC Executive Session hearings, the authors trace the growth of the Communist Party from the 1930s, when many notables toured the Soviet Union and came back converted, through the 1950s when Party members were held to account for their allegiance to another country.

The Radoshes’ most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Their allegiance to the Communist Party and its ever changing line, combined with their outlandish behavior before HUAC, turned old liberal allies against them, and left them vulnerable to the eventual blacklist.

One case study, of actor John Garfield, looks at the strategy he tried to employ to avoid the blacklist, while working to keep the support of both the studios and the Hollywood Left. Acting more as an opportunist than an idealist, Garfield moved to espouse a strong anti-Communism, while at the same time avoiding naming the names of his old radical associates, by pretending to only have been a dupe. In constant agony, his evasions satisfied no one, and led to his fatal heart attack shortly before he as to again appear before HUAC, where he would have finally had to make a decision as to where he actually stood.

Based on a new and extensive interview with writer Budd Schulberg, Red Star over Hollywood opens up the Party cells and discussion groups that defined Hollywood radicalism. Ronald and Allis Radosh also bring their story into the present, describing how the men and women who agitated for Communism a half-century ago created a legacy used by Jane Fonda and others of the Hollywood Left of the 1960s, and by celebrities such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Sean Penn in the turbulent filmland politics of today.

[Otho]

Seen any Robert Taylor movies lately? I doubt it. The Hollywood Left doesn’t like him. I believe he testified before the HUAC, naming names. I think there was a building in Hollywood with Robert Taylor’s name on it. His name was later removed.

[max americana]

That was a good read. Very informative post.

[Otho]

More on Robert Taylor:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n4_v42/ai_8552915

[ETL]

RE: Red Star over Hollywood
The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left

Nice! Thanks.

Here’s a link to a terrific one-hour C-Span Book-TV interview Radosh did a few years ago. I hope the link works for you. On mine, it opens and plays in RealPlayer.

After Words: Ronald Radosh interviewed by Jack Valenti

Description: This week on After Words our guest is Ron Radosh. He discusses his book, “Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left.” The book argues that Soviet Communists made the American film industry a prime target for infiltration in the late 1920’s. He is interviewed by Jack Valenti former Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Author Bio: Ronald Radosh was the first writer to establish the guilt of Julius Rosenberg in his book, “The Rosenberg File.” He is also the author of “Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left.” He lives in Brookeville, Maryland, with his wife and co-author, Allis Radosh.

Watch:
http://www.booktv.org/ram/AfterWords/0505/arc_btv052205_4.ram

[SandRat]

Have the book and it is a page turner.

[ETL]

"...at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Communists suddenly transformed the 'Anti-Nazi League' into the "Hollywood Peace Forum," calling for American neutrality and using the slogan 'Let's Skip the Next War.'..."
--Ronald Radosh, from his book, Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With the Left
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4251

[harrym]

A good example of how Hollywood has culturally changed over the past decades can be found by comparing the film “Cape Fear” from the 50’s with its remake in the 90’s. In the original, the lawyer’s family was typical suburban folks. The young daughter was sweet and innocent, the mom a housewife and the dad a strong breadwinner. In the remake the family was falling apart even before evil came on the scene. The daughter was kind of slutty the wife a bitch and the husband hapless (modern family values). The original showed the confrontation with evil in a more implied and therefore more sinister way. The remake had graphic depictions of violent acts (no one today sees the subtlety of evil). In the end of the original, Gregory Peck has the evil Max Cady at gunpoint and decides that killing him would be doing him a favor so he opts to send him back to prison (which in those times was not a fun place to be with your homies all around you and smoking grass in the gym while you build up for further excursions into street crime after your social worker losses track of you). In the remake, Nolte shoots the guy thereby becoming what he was supposedly fighting against and the family lives with the horror of the incident for the rest of their lives. There are many other stark contrasts drawn between the two renditions of the same story. It’s a fun thing for an evening to play the original and then the remake.

[ckilmer]

the trouble with this rendition of history is that the America we have today looks closer to the communists vision for america than the anti communists vision for america.

[ckilmer]

the trouble with this rendition of history is that the America we have today looks closer to the communists vision for america than the anti communists vision for america. the direction of politics is not toward less godless communism but more godless communism. hollywood has not become less leftist. hollywood has become more leftist.

[gman992]

I’m still waiting for them to go after McCarthy’s foot soldiers on HUAC—John and Robert Kennedy—await their Dems..

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The most pro-commie movies from the 1940s that I have seen are ...
MISSION TO MOSCOW
NORTH STAR
DAYS OF GLORY (or REVENGE)

[SunkenCiv]

George Clooney's fan club likes to fantasize about the HUAC's Catholic Joe hunting down poor put-upon reds. But McCarthy, the anti-Nazi/anti-Stalinist Senator was not part of the "bad" HUAC. In reality, Hollywood's greatest critics were her concerned actors, her concerned writers, her concerned producers, Red Dalton Trumbo's longsuffering toilet scrubbers, and even some concerned unionists. (Roy Brewer, the famous anti-communist union leader for example, was a member of the MIA.) And, many of Hollywood's concerns predated the so-called Red Scare. There were even some fabulously concerned makeup artists. Revealingly, in the early days, anti-commie meetings were secret affairs, meaning that conservatives already were the thought police's hostages.