Notes
Notes 269 prologue 1. Los Angeles Examiner, 31 December 1947. 2. See, e.g., Gerald Horne, Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930–1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds and Trade Unionists (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001).The apostate Communist film director Edward Dmytryk argued that Lawson and Hollywood were chosen for the spotlight, since their foes knew this would draw dramatic attention to the campaign to reverse the still-lingering pro-Moscow feelings from the war. See oral history, Edward Dmytryk, 1979, 193, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. 3. Clipping without source, 25 August 1938, Scrapbooks, V. 4:1, U.S. Congress , HUAC, 32 August 1937–10 November 1938, J. Parnell Thomas Collection , Richard Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, California. 4. Ibid., Scrapbooks, Hudson News, ca. June 1938. 5. J. Parnell Thomas, “The Price of Vigilance” [memoir], n.d., unclear pagination , J. Parnell Thomas Collection. 6. Washington Star, 26 October 1947. 7. Thomas memoir: “During the period from January 22, 1947 to December 21, 1948, accredited representatives of the Government made 5975 visits to the Committee file room to secure information.” HUAC had “compiled lists alone of 363,119 signatures to Communist election petitions for various years in 20 states,” allowing the committee to “afford an avenue of information not originally possessed by any other Government agency.” 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. He adds: “Our Negro staffer, Alvin Stokes was a sincere, extremely loyal, always fine worker. He was, however, never popular with the dyed-inthe -wool Southerners on the team.” Investigator Robert Stripling had a “face and glassy eye” that “demoralized witnesses,” along with a “photographic memory and total recall . . . a quick temper and a genius for work.” 10. Quoted in Eric Bentley, Bernard Shaw, 1856–1950 (New York: New Directions Books, 1959), 107. 11. A. M. Sperber and Eric Lux, Bogart (New York: Morrow, 1997), 376–77. 12. “Knute” to “Dear Thorg,” 13 November 1947, Files on “The Hollywood Blacklist,” Writers’ Guild, Los Angeles. 13. Lauren Bacall, By Myself (New York: Knopf, 1979), 159. 14. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, 80th Cong., 1st sess., 20–24, 27–28, 30 October 1947 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1947), 290, Reel 12, Communist Activity in the Entertainment Industry: FBI Surveillance Files on Hollywood, 1942–1958, ed. Daniel J. Leab (Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, c1991). 15. Thomas memoir. 16. PM, 28 October 1947. 17. Daily Variety, 28 October 1947. 18. Reel 12, Communist Activity in the Entertainment Industry. 19. Carey McWilliams, The Education of Carey McWilliams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 136. Ring Lardner Jr., one of the celebrated Hollywood Ten persecuted along with Lawson, remarked later that “by using the First Amendment” at the hearing,“we would be saying the whole investigation was unconstitutional—that where Congress was forbidden to legislate, Congress was forbidden to investigate. . . . all the relevant Supreme Court decisions up till that time gave us confidence that our position would be vindicated .” See New York Times, 18 March 1978. 20. Paul Friedland, Political Actors: Representative Bodies and Theatricality in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002), 2, 3, 18, 167, 168, 181, 188, Reflecting on the role of actors in politics, Spencer Tracy once remarked, “‘Remember who shot Lincoln.’” See Christopher Andersen, An Affair to Remember: The Remarkable Love Story of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (New York: Morrow, 1997), 190. Note as well that Bobby Seale, one of the founders of the Black Panthers, wanted to become an actor. See Theodore Draper, “The Black Panthers,” in Irving Howe, ed., Beyond the New Left (New York: McCall, 1970), 221. 21. Andrea Most, Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003), 14. 22. Lawson was not alone in facing bigotry of this sort. The activist actor Edward G. Robinson was singled out repeatedly for biased abuse. See, e.g.,T. C. Condon to Edward G. Robinson, 12 December 1938, Box 30, Folder 14b, Edward G. Robinson Papers, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Prompted by correspondence from Mary Pickford, Robinson had to remind the “nation’s sweetheart” that “the charge that Jews in New York are going to vote for Roosevelt as a group, is wholly unjust and untrue.” See Edward G. Robinson to Mary Pickford, 4 November 1940, Box 30, Folder 14b, Edward G. Robinson Papers . This tendency accelerated as the Red Scare dawned. See report by Arnold Forster on ultraconservative meeting held in L.A. on...
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