Author: Michael Freedland
Publisher: Robson
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
'The irony was that at this time the Communist Party was legal. People were sent to prison for refusing to say if they were communists.' –– Sidney Sheldon It was, in effect, a huge smoke-filled California courtroom, noisy to the point where even the sound of the gavel from the raised desk could barely be heard. It was an unusual courtroom and a very unusual 'defendant'. In the dock was Hollywood itself – placed on trial by the US Congress and, in the summer of 1953, finally coming close to succumbing to a death sentence, a sentence of shame. The UnAmerican Activities Committee finally decided that it had done its job: it had looked for reds under the bed in the film capital and said it had found them. Hollywood was now pronounced 'clean', yet it had never been dirtier. This is the true story of how J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the Committee (the House of Representatives version of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts) made a national name for himself by ruining the lives of hundreds of people in the movie industry. Two years later, Thomas would be jailed for embezzling government money but in August 1953 he was riding high. 'Hollywood on Trial' relates the story of the victims of this witchhunt. Through the Committee many of Hollywood's leading lights were denied the right to work. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Paul Robeson were denied the passports that would have allowed them to leave America, Oscar-winning writers were forced to give their scripts to noneities to offer in their own names and then shared the proceeds. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye and John Huston went to Washington in defence of the 'Hollywood Ten', the first writers to be blacklisted, yet when Bogart and Bacall were questioned, they too buckled in. The humiliations continued until the end of the Fifties. The scars, however, have remained to this day.
Hollywood on Trial
Author: Michael Freedland
Publisher: Robson
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
'The irony was that at this time the Communist Party was legal. People were sent to prison for refusing to say if they were communists.' –– Sidney Sheldon It was, in effect, a huge smoke-filled California courtroom, noisy to the point where even the sound of the gavel from the raised desk could barely be heard. It was an unusual courtroom and a very unusual 'defendant'. In the dock was Hollywood itself – placed on trial by the US Congress and, in the summer of 1953, finally coming close to succumbing to a death sentence, a sentence of shame. The UnAmerican Activities Committee finally decided that it had done its job: it had looked for reds under the bed in the film capital and said it had found them. Hollywood was now pronounced 'clean', yet it had never been dirtier. This is the true story of how J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the Committee (the House of Representatives version of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts) made a national name for himself by ruining the lives of hundreds of people in the movie industry. Two years later, Thomas would be jailed for embezzling government money but in August 1953 he was riding high. 'Hollywood on Trial' relates the story of the victims of this witchhunt. Through the Committee many of Hollywood's leading lights were denied the right to work. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Paul Robeson were denied the passports that would have allowed them to leave America, Oscar-winning writers were forced to give their scripts to noneities to offer in their own names and then shared the proceeds. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye and John Huston went to Washington in defence of the 'Hollywood Ten', the first writers to be blacklisted, yet when Bogart and Bacall were questioned, they too buckled in. The humiliations continued until the end of the Fifties. The scars, however, have remained to this day.
Publisher: Robson
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
'The irony was that at this time the Communist Party was legal. People were sent to prison for refusing to say if they were communists.' –– Sidney Sheldon It was, in effect, a huge smoke-filled California courtroom, noisy to the point where even the sound of the gavel from the raised desk could barely be heard. It was an unusual courtroom and a very unusual 'defendant'. In the dock was Hollywood itself – placed on trial by the US Congress and, in the summer of 1953, finally coming close to succumbing to a death sentence, a sentence of shame. The UnAmerican Activities Committee finally decided that it had done its job: it had looked for reds under the bed in the film capital and said it had found them. Hollywood was now pronounced 'clean', yet it had never been dirtier. This is the true story of how J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the Committee (the House of Representatives version of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts) made a national name for himself by ruining the lives of hundreds of people in the movie industry. Two years later, Thomas would be jailed for embezzling government money but in August 1953 he was riding high. 'Hollywood on Trial' relates the story of the victims of this witchhunt. Through the Committee many of Hollywood's leading lights were denied the right to work. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Paul Robeson were denied the passports that would have allowed them to leave America, Oscar-winning writers were forced to give their scripts to noneities to offer in their own names and then shared the proceeds. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye and John Huston went to Washington in defence of the 'Hollywood Ten', the first writers to be blacklisted, yet when Bogart and Bacall were questioned, they too buckled in. The humiliations continued until the end of the Fifties. The scars, however, have remained to this day.
Show Trial
Author: Thomas Doherty
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547463
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 637
Book Description
In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door—or had it shut in their faces. In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. He details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547463
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 637
Book Description
In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door—or had it shut in their faces. In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. He details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.
Hollywood Party
Author: Lloyd Billingsley
Publisher: Prima Lifestyles
ISBN: 9780761521662
Category : Blacklisting of entertainers
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This engrossing tale of intrigue, passion, betrayal, and violence uncovers the true face of communism in Southern California, and names writers and actresses who were seduced by the party's philosophy.
Publisher: Prima Lifestyles
ISBN: 9780761521662
Category : Blacklisting of entertainers
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This engrossing tale of intrigue, passion, betrayal, and violence uncovers the true face of communism in Southern California, and names writers and actresses who were seduced by the party's philosophy.
The Brothers Mankiewicz
Author: Sydney Ladensohn Stern
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617032689
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 455
Book Description
Winner of the 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Longlisted for the 2020 Moving Image Book Award by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Named a 2019 Richard Wall Memorial Award Finalist by the Theatre Library Association Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture. Despite triumphs as diverse as Monkey Business and Cleopatra, and Pride of the Yankees and Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have—a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué, New York Times and New Yorker theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct Cleopatra by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered. For this award-winning dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617032689
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 455
Book Description
Winner of the 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Longlisted for the 2020 Moving Image Book Award by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Named a 2019 Richard Wall Memorial Award Finalist by the Theatre Library Association Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture. Despite triumphs as diverse as Monkey Business and Cleopatra, and Pride of the Yankees and Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have—a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué, New York Times and New Yorker theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct Cleopatra by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered. For this award-winning dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
Hollywood's Copyright Wars
Author: Peter Decherney
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231159471
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Beginning with Thomas Edison's aggressive copyright disputes and concluding with recent lawsuits against YouTube, Hollywood's Copyright Wars follows the struggle of the film, television, and digital media industries to influence and adapt to copyright law. Though much of Hollywood's engagement with the law occurs offstage, in the larger theater of copyright, many of Hollywood's most valued treasures, from Modern Times (1936) to Star Wars (1977), cannot be fully understood without appreciating their legal controversies. Peter Decherney shows that the history of intellectual property in Hollywood has not always mirrored the evolution of the law and recounts these extralegal solutions and their impact on American media and culture.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231159471
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Beginning with Thomas Edison's aggressive copyright disputes and concluding with recent lawsuits against YouTube, Hollywood's Copyright Wars follows the struggle of the film, television, and digital media industries to influence and adapt to copyright law. Though much of Hollywood's engagement with the law occurs offstage, in the larger theater of copyright, many of Hollywood's most valued treasures, from Modern Times (1936) to Star Wars (1977), cannot be fully understood without appreciating their legal controversies. Peter Decherney shows that the history of intellectual property in Hollywood has not always mirrored the evolution of the law and recounts these extralegal solutions and their impact on American media and culture.
Movies on Trial
Author: Anthony Chase
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565847002
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
The popular culture of American law has never played a larger role than it does today in shaping the way we think about lawyers and the legal system. Our very definition of justice is now inseparable from motion picture and television images and popular legal narratives, from Hollywood westerns and O. J. Simpson to Law and Order and John Grisham. In Movies on Trial, law professor and movie aficionado Anthony Chase sorts out some of the complex and often contradictory notions Americans have about the legal system. He uses movies to investigate and inventory many of our deepest beliefs about law and politics, and provides a strong historical and intellectual context throughout. Analyzing Dirty Harry and True Believer for their commentary on the Miranda ruling and criminal procedure, and explaining tort law via The Verdict and A Civil Action, Chase also employs Three Kings to reveal changes in international law and The Rise to Power of Louis XIV to explore the rise of the modern state. Through the lens of film, he is able to describe and analyze the symbiosis between the image of law and its actual practice in our cultural imagination, in a genuinely illuminating and entertaining book.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565847002
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
The popular culture of American law has never played a larger role than it does today in shaping the way we think about lawyers and the legal system. Our very definition of justice is now inseparable from motion picture and television images and popular legal narratives, from Hollywood westerns and O. J. Simpson to Law and Order and John Grisham. In Movies on Trial, law professor and movie aficionado Anthony Chase sorts out some of the complex and often contradictory notions Americans have about the legal system. He uses movies to investigate and inventory many of our deepest beliefs about law and politics, and provides a strong historical and intellectual context throughout. Analyzing Dirty Harry and True Believer for their commentary on the Miranda ruling and criminal procedure, and explaining tort law via The Verdict and A Civil Action, Chase also employs Three Kings to reveal changes in international law and The Rise to Power of Louis XIV to explore the rise of the modern state. Through the lens of film, he is able to describe and analyze the symbiosis between the image of law and its actual practice in our cultural imagination, in a genuinely illuminating and entertaining book.
Reading Race
Author: Norman K Denzin
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803975453
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
In this insightful book, one of America's leading commentators on culture and society turns his gaze upon cinematic race relations, examining the relationship between film, race and culture. Acute, richly illustrated and timely, the book deepens our understanding of the politics of race and the symbolic complexity of segregation and discrimination.
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803975453
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
In this insightful book, one of America's leading commentators on culture and society turns his gaze upon cinematic race relations, examining the relationship between film, race and culture. Acute, richly illustrated and timely, the book deepens our understanding of the politics of race and the symbolic complexity of segregation and discrimination.
How Hollywood Works
Author: Janet Wasko
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761968146
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
This volume details the processes involved in turning raw materials and labour into feature films. Janet Wasko surveys and critiques the policies and structure of the current United States film industry, as well as its relationships to other media industries.
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761968146
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
This volume details the processes involved in turning raw materials and labour into feature films. Janet Wasko surveys and critiques the policies and structure of the current United States film industry, as well as its relationships to other media industries.
Hollywood Heroes
Author: Frank Turek
Publisher: NavPress
ISBN: 1641583533
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
Captain America assembles the Avengers. Iron Man battles Thanos. Luke Skywalker duels Darth Vader. Aragorn charges Mordor. Batman confronts the Joker. Superman destroys Doomsday. Wonder Woman defeats Ares. We are captivated. Why? We are entranced by stories that take us to a world where heroes fight evil and sacrifice themselves for a greater good because we long for our world to be free from pain, suffering, and struggle. That’s the real hope and promise of Jesus—when He returns to set things right. In Hollywood Heroes, you’ll see how: Your favorite movie heroes are patterned after the Ultimate Hero—Jesus of Nazareth Big screen stories parallel the real-world fight between good and evil Movies and characters can impart inspiring biblical life lessons on justice, purpose, courage, strength, sacrifice, faith, and love Hollywood Heroes begins with the true story of a US Navy SEAL who faced evil and sacrificed himself to save his teammates. Authors Frank and Zach Turek then use Spider-Man’s origin story to address the question: “Why would a good God allow evil?” You’ll then read how seven movie franchises—Captain America, Iron Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Batman, and Wonder Woman—portray the battle against evil, providing a set of modern-day parables that reveal truths about God and His mission for us.
Publisher: NavPress
ISBN: 1641583533
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
Captain America assembles the Avengers. Iron Man battles Thanos. Luke Skywalker duels Darth Vader. Aragorn charges Mordor. Batman confronts the Joker. Superman destroys Doomsday. Wonder Woman defeats Ares. We are captivated. Why? We are entranced by stories that take us to a world where heroes fight evil and sacrifice themselves for a greater good because we long for our world to be free from pain, suffering, and struggle. That’s the real hope and promise of Jesus—when He returns to set things right. In Hollywood Heroes, you’ll see how: Your favorite movie heroes are patterned after the Ultimate Hero—Jesus of Nazareth Big screen stories parallel the real-world fight between good and evil Movies and characters can impart inspiring biblical life lessons on justice, purpose, courage, strength, sacrifice, faith, and love Hollywood Heroes begins with the true story of a US Navy SEAL who faced evil and sacrificed himself to save his teammates. Authors Frank and Zach Turek then use Spider-Man’s origin story to address the question: “Why would a good God allow evil?” You’ll then read how seven movie franchises—Captain America, Iron Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Batman, and Wonder Woman—portray the battle against evil, providing a set of modern-day parables that reveal truths about God and His mission for us.
The Final Victim of the Blacklist
Author: Gerald Horne
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 052093993X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Before he attained notoriety as Dean of the Hollywood Ten—the blacklisted screenwriters and directors persecuted because of their varying ties to the Communist Party—John Howard Lawson had become one of the most brilliant, successful, and intellectual screenwriters on the Hollywood scene in the 1930s and 1940s, with several hits to his credit including Blockade, Sahara, and Action in the North Atlantic. After his infamous, almost violent, 1947 hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Lawson spent time in prison and his lucrative career was effectively over. Studded with anecdotes and based on previously untapped archives, this first biography of Lawson brings alive his era and features many of his prominent friends and associates, including John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Chaplin, Gene Kelly, Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner, Jr., and many others. Lawson's life becomes a prism through which we gain a clearer perspective on the evolution and machinations of McCarthyism and anti-Semitism in the United States, on the influence of the left on Hollywood, and on a fascinating man whose radicalism served as a foil for launching the political careers of two Presidents: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In vivid, marvelously detailed prose, Final Victim of the Blacklist restores this major figure to his rightful place in history as it recounts one of the most captivating episodes in twentieth century cinema and politics.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 052093993X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Before he attained notoriety as Dean of the Hollywood Ten—the blacklisted screenwriters and directors persecuted because of their varying ties to the Communist Party—John Howard Lawson had become one of the most brilliant, successful, and intellectual screenwriters on the Hollywood scene in the 1930s and 1940s, with several hits to his credit including Blockade, Sahara, and Action in the North Atlantic. After his infamous, almost violent, 1947 hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Lawson spent time in prison and his lucrative career was effectively over. Studded with anecdotes and based on previously untapped archives, this first biography of Lawson brings alive his era and features many of his prominent friends and associates, including John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Chaplin, Gene Kelly, Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner, Jr., and many others. Lawson's life becomes a prism through which we gain a clearer perspective on the evolution and machinations of McCarthyism and anti-Semitism in the United States, on the influence of the left on Hollywood, and on a fascinating man whose radicalism served as a foil for launching the political careers of two Presidents: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In vivid, marvelously detailed prose, Final Victim of the Blacklist restores this major figure to his rightful place in history as it recounts one of the most captivating episodes in twentieth century cinema and politics.