The Cold War & Internal Security Collection and Joyner Library Special Collections are hosting a joint exhibit titled “HUAC Goes to Hollywood: Aspects of the Blacklist 70 Years Later.” The exhibit can be found on the first floor of Joyner Library, and will remain up through the end of December. This is the third of four CWIS blog posts that will expand on this exhibit.
While the blacklist was inaugurated in November 1947, in the immediate aftermath of the House Un-American Activities Committee’s infamous Hollywood Ten hearings, it was not until the early 1950s that it became truly widespread. The June 1950 publication of Red Channels catalyzed the spread of the blacklist to radio and television. In hearings from 1951-53, HUAC identified 324 people associated with Hollywood as being involved with the communist party (CPUSA). 212 of these people were still part of the motion-picture business, and HUAC’s publication of their names made it almost impossible for them to find work without first undergoing a lengthy clearance process.
While HUAC was not directly involved with the blacklist, its hearings and other publications served as ammunition for the advocacy and pressure organizations that enforced it. HUAC even weighed in against those who criticized the blacklist, most notably in the summer of 1956.
The Fund for the Republic and The Report on Blacklisting:
By the early 1950s, the blacklist had come under criticism even from mainstream Cold War liberals. They saw the blacklist, as well as the broader climate of suspicion and subversive-hunting, as a grave threat to civil liberties. In 1952, a number of notable liberals, including Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago, founded The Fund for the Republic. The Fund described itself as “an educational undertaking in the field of civil liberties in the United States.”
The Fund began an extensive investigation of the blacklist in September 1954. They set up a special research team under John Cogley, editor of the Catholic publication Commonweal. Cogley’s team completed their work by the end of 1955. On June 24, 1956, the Fund published the results of this effort, the two-volume Report on Blacklisting. The report discusses the workings and impact of the blacklist in great detail, clearly outlining the role played by ABC, Red Channels, and Counterattack.
Even before the Report on Blacklisting was published, the Fund’s investigation drew the ire of HUAC, and of those individuals and organizations who enforced the blacklist. There were even rumblings of taking away the Fund’s tax-exempt status. In June, HUAC announced that it would hold hearings investigating the Fund for the Republic. These hearings began on July 10, 1956. John Cogley was the first witness.
For over three hours, the committee grilled Cogley regarding his sources, methods, and conclusions. Among other things, he was challenged over the presence of democratic socialist Michael Harrington on his research staff. At one point, a frustrated Cogley responded by saying “I did not anticipate congressional investigation of the book I was about to write.”(Investigation of So-Called “Blacklisting”, pt. 1, p. 5210) The tone of his testimony was summarized in Cogley’s 1973 New York Times obituary:
Mr. Cogley, who declined to have a lawyer at his side on the ground that “I didn’t see why I had to have anybody on hand to protect my rights before a group of Congressmen,” refused to discuss confidential sources and reportedly came close to a contempt citation. Public opinion was generally on his side, however, and no action was taken against him. (Fiske, “John Cogley Dies at 60”)
In all, HUAC held six days of hearings on the Report on Blacklisting. After Cogley finished his testimony, most subsequent witnesses were defenders of the blacklist, such as Red Channels author Vincent Hartnett.
The Fund for the Republic hearings stand out as a particularly egregious example of HUAC abusing its authority to threaten the right to free expression. While the hearings may have had a short-term chilling effect on critics of the blacklist, the tide was already beginning to turn. In 1960, former communist and Hollywood Ten member Dalton Trumbo was openly credited as the screenwriter for the films Exodus and Spartacus, moves that heralded the end of the blacklist.
While not without its flaws, the Report on Blacklisting remains an essential source on this controversial episode of American history.
CWIS Sources:
Annual Report of the Committee on Un-American Activities for the Year 1952. Washington D.C.: 1953. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4. Un 1/2: R 29/952)
Annual Report of the Committee on Un-American Activities for the Year 1953. Washington D.C.: GPO, 1954. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4. Un 1/2: R 29/953)
Investigation of So-Called “Blacklisting” in Entertainment Industry: Report of the Fund for the Republic, Inc. – Part 1. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session. 1956. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4.Un 1/2:F 96/ PT. 1)
-Contains Cogley’s testimony before HUAC, covering pages 5175-5225.
Investigation of So-Called “Blacklisting” in Entertainment Industry: Report of the Fund for the Republic, Inc. – Part 2. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session. 1956. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4.Un 1/2:F 96/ PT. 2)
-Contains testimony from Red Channels author Vincent Hartnett, from pages 5291-5311.
Investigation of So-Called “Blacklisting” in Entertainment Industry: Report of the Fund for the Republic, Inc. – Part 3. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session. 1956. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4.Un 1/2:F 96/ PT. 3)
Tax-exempt Foundations: Hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress, Second Session, on H. Res. 217. 1954, 2 pts. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4.T 19/3:F 82/954/)
Tax-exempt Foundations: Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress, Second Session, on H. Res. 217. 1954. (Joyner Docs CWIS: Y 4.T 19/3:F 82/954)
Other Sources:
Cogley, John. Report on Blacklisting: I – Movies. New York: Fund for the Republic, 1956. (Joyner Stacks: PN1993.5.U6 C6 V. 1)
Cogley, John. Report on Blacklisting: II – Radio – Television. New York: Fund for the Republic, 1956. (Joyner Stacks: PN1993.5.U6 C6 V. 2)
Fiske, Edward B. “John Cogley Dies at 60; Expert on Catholicism.” New York Times, March 30, 1976.
Reeves, Thomas C. Freedom and the Foundation: The Fund for the Republic in the Era of McCarthyism. New York: Knopf, 1969. (Joyner Stacks: AS911.F813 R4)
