[DoughtyOne]

No matter what Kazan and McCarthy have been called, it's simply irrefutable to state that they were wrong. If you look at the entertainment industry today, you cannot escape the fact that it is riddled with the very people they feared were determined to take it over.

If anyone thinks it's healthy to have subversives run the major media outlets, I guess that's their take on it. Most U.S. citizens would find it very troubling.

At what point does sedition and anti-U.S. activity cross the line? The villification of McCarthy and Kazan is nothing more than an innoculation aginst us ever considering the matter in earnest.

[spanalot]

"let Mr. Kazan’s denouncers apologize for the aid and comfort they gave to Stalinism"

that says it all.

[Unam Sanctam]

Notice how they didn't say that he wrongly accused anyone of being Communist. So long as he is not wrongfully accusing anyone, Kazan is a hero and great American, and should be praised. Communists were working to undermine our democratic constitution and were treacherous. Incidentally, it would appear that Hollywood hasn't changed much, although I suppose the Communist organization is not so structured. They have all just internalized the precepts that America is always bad and her enemies are always good.

[JennysCool]

Tremendous article. Thanks for the post!

[Texas_Jarhead]

"Moscow’s ultimate Hollywood goal, Koch explains, was to “Stalinize the glamour culture”—that is, associate in the public mind left-wing views and celebrated entertainers, lending those views respectability. This project could also enable the party to tap “Hollywood’s great guilty wealth as a cash cow.”"

I am sure that party leaders could never have imagined that the success of those efforts would so great so enduring.

[lesser_satan]

On the Waterfront is arguably the greatest film of all time.

"You think your God almighty, but you're nothin but a dirty, rotten, stinkin mug!"

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

The new Hollywood that emerged in the sixties was far more monolithic in its politics than the one Kazan first encountered in the forties, and from the outset the kinship between Hollywood’s New and Old Left was inescapable. Even the old Communist Party epithets—“fascist,” “reactionary,” “warmonger”—came back in vogue.

And still in vogue...

I was sorry to hear that Brando and Stieger were such @$$h01es.

No mention of Ann Coulter's Treason, her best work and a gift to the American People?

[okie01]

Thanks for the post.

Kazan was involved in an important event during an important period in American history.

And, almost alone among his peers, he did the right thing.

[Ostlandr]

Great post.

There's an old saying: "It takes courage to stand up to your enemies; it takes even more courage to stand up to your friends."

My problem with McCarthy was his methods. The basic result of the hearings- "Rat out all your friends or you'll never work again" was pretty nasty IMHO.
It definitely reminds me of the witch hunts of the middle ages. For example, the accused witch was guilty until proven innocent. Since "everybody knew" that there were always thirteen witches in a coven, the most horrible tortures ever devised were used until the victim "named names." When (as was almost always the case) an innocent was arrested, and was thus forced to name other innocents, the results were tragic.

I don't feel a bit sorry for Hollywood's card-carrying Reds. I do feel sorry for those who, while not communists themselves, chose their principles over their pocketbooks, refused to testify, and lost their livelihoods. They deserve our pity, and we must never let anyone be put in that position again.

[Texas_Jarhead]

"The totalitarian ideology that gave rise to the era’s excesses wound up either ignored or sanitized."

Meanwhile, even America's slightest sin of omission as perceived by the left cannot be forgiven nor forgotten.

[B Knotts]

One of the most interesting articles I've seen in a long time, and one I would not have found outside of FR. Thanks for posting it!

[Texas_Jarhead]

Interesting post. Thanks.

[outofhere2]

Great article. Good reading.

[Anti-Bubba182]

ping

[jennyp]

Ronald and Allis Radosh’s Red Star over Hollywood gives chapter and verse on the communists’ efforts to infiltrate the film industry. And Time movie critic Richard Schickel’s forthcoming biography of Kazan credits the director for his courage, even as it reveals many of his adversaries as the unapologetic Stalinist tools that they were.

Red Star over Hollywood is an excellent book. Not just a polemic, it goes into much detail about the communists' motives for joining the party and the internecine fights that caused many of them (but not all!) to become disillusioned or embittered towards the party.

I caught part of the panel discussion today on CSPAN, and I'm so glad to see such a mainstream film critic of Richard Schickel's stature to write something that, apparently, is rather balanced & honest about the fact that they really were Stalinists.

I'll never forgive my mid-'70s high school teachers & college professors for teaching me that the Hollywood Ten were just some hapless, idealistic liberals who were plucked off the streets of Hollywood & persecuted by a bunch of mean old witch hunters. >:-(

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

...Elia Kazan, one of the twentieth century’s great American theater and movie directors. RIP.

[Waco]

It's always befuddled and amused that men with tallent and a good education, such as these leftists, can get thru life with their heads so far up their ass. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to stay away from communism.

[Petronski]

A superb article, and an excellent find! Thank you very much.