Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds

Acknowledgments

xi Any time a book takes as long to write as this one has, one finds that there are many, many people who provided assistance and help along the way.The origins of Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist date back to my time at Washington University in St. Louis. At the outset I especially want to thank William Paul for his early encouragement. In convincing me to pursue other areas of academic interest beyond that of sound and music, Bill greatly helped me to expand my horizons as a film critic and historian. Many of my other colleagues at Wash U also merit my gratitude, including Richard Chapman, Wayne Fields, Gerald Early, Robert Hegel, Pier Marton, Lori Turner, and Rafia Zafar. I also want to thank the students in the seminar I taught my first semester there, particularly Annie Gilbert, Richie Zevins, Michael Bowley, and Jordan Fischler. I also wish to express my appreciation to the many friends I had in St. Louis, especially Jon Graas, Matthew Shipe, and Matt Nicholas. Our semiregular vinyl record parties helped keep me sane as I forged ahead with the research and writing on this project. In 2006 I got the extraordinary opportunity to return to my Badger roots and to join a fraternity for which I have always had the utmost respect and admiration: the film faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is a great pleasure to have such warm and wonderful colleagues. Vance Kepley deserves special mention for sending me into the archives more than thirty years ago to see what I could find out about Dalton Trumbo. Lea Jacobs,J.J.Murphy,Kelley Conway,Ben Singer,and Masha Belodubrovskaya have all earned my abiding esteem and gratitude. You are simply the best. I also want to thank Colin Burnett, Heather Heckman, Mark Minett, and the other students in the graduate seminar on the Hollywood blacklist that I taught in 2007. Brad Schauer and Pearl Latteier both helped me gain a better understanding of postwar science fiction and the Hollywood social Acknowledgments 9780520280670_PRINT.indd xi 9780520280670_PRINT.indd xi 04/02/14 3:38 PM 04/02/14 3:38 PM xii / AC KNOWLEDGMENTS problem film respectively. And, although the list of UW-Madison graduate students who provided moral support and intellectual inspiration is much too long to include here, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Andrea Comiskey, John Powers, Amanda McQueen, Maureen Rogers, Derek Long, Leo Rubinkowski, and Eric Dienstfrey for their assistance in refining my conception of film allegory and its relation to Hollywood’s politics. I also have sustained many long and rewarding friendships that date back to my brief time as a visiting faculty member at New York University. I especially want to thank Richard Allen, Shawn Shimpach, Nitin Govil, Denise McKenna, Mia Mask, Roger Hallas, and Matthew Fee for their interest and encouragement. My gratitude also goes to many other colleagues in far-flung places around the globe who read and commented on various sections of the manuscript, including Brian Neve, Peter Stanfield, Frank Krutnik, Steve Neale, Murray Smith, Matthew Bernstein, and Dave Pratt. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers employed by the University of California Press, who not only saved me from some cringe-inducing errors but also provided extraordinarily useful advice for revisions. George and Pamela Hamel deserve special thanks for their support of faculty research at the University of Wisconsin. This book quite literally could not have been completed without you. Your generosity is truly, truly amazing. Several research facilities also provided assistance, including the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, and USC’s Warner Bros. Archives. I thank the staff at all of these places but especially Maxine Fleckner Ducey and Mary Huelsbeck. The WCFTR is a genuine treasure for both the city of Madison and the state of Wisconsin. I am so blessed to have it in a place that I call home.Thanks also to Mary Francis, Kim Hogeland, Rachel Berchten, and the rest of the staff at the University of California Press. To Mary: most editors probably would have given up on me as I labored mightily to get the manuscript to a point where I felt comfortable sharing it. I am so glad that you were persistent and patient, and I am truly delighted that my book will join so many...