Dark Victory

by Moldea, Dan E. ; Miller, Mark Crispin;

  Among the friendly witnesses who testified were SAG president Reagan, former SAG presidents Montgomery and Murphy, SAG board member Robert Taylor, and Roy Brewer. Reagan told the committee, “There has been a small clique within the Screen Actors Guild which has consistently opposed the policies of the Guild Board and officers of the Guild, as evidenced by votes on various issues. That small clique referred to has been suspected of more or less following the tactics we associate with the Communist Party.” At the end of his testimony, however, Reagan upheld the rights of others to free speech and their participation in the electoral process. “I detest, I abhor their [the Communist Party’s] philosophy, but …,” Reagan said, “I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment [sic].”

  On November 24 and 25, 1947, motion picture executives met at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York to decide how the studios were going to deal with communists in the film industry and, in particular, those who defied HUAC. The executives decided to sacrifice ten Hollywood artists—eight writers and two directors who had been charged with contempt of Congress by the committee. The Hollywood blacklist had been born.

  “The producers, meeting en masse in New York, put out what was called the ‘Waldorf Declaration,’” Reagan said in his defense of the action. “They agreed none of them would knowingly employ communists or those who refused to answer questions about their affiliations. The communists were among those who reacted in Hollywood by distorting any facts they got, claiming they were victims of a ‘blacklist’—when they were actually working members of a conspiracy directed by Soviet Russia against the United States. In war, that is treason and the name for such is a traitor; in peace, it is apparently martyr. It is easy to call oneself a ‘political party’ and hide other motives behind it: the Mafia can do it, so can a Chicago mob of gangsters. My own test for the time when the communists may call themselves a legitimate political party is that time when, in the USSR, an effective anti-communist political party wins an election. At that time, I shall withdraw my objections to labeling communists ‘political.’”18

  Consequently, before the Kearns subcommittee—which had surprisingly criticized IATSE’s close association with the studios—and HUAC had adjourned their hearings, Herb Sorrell and the CSU were fired from their jobs. The CSU simply dematerialized. The Hollywood Ten were convicted of contempt of Congress and imprisoned, leaving Brewer, IATSE, and their allies with a closed shop, in firm control of Hollywood.*

  The battle to rid Hollywood of all suspected communists was the bond that continued to cement the alliance between the Reagan-led SAG and the Brewer-controlled IATSE, even after the CSU had been purged. During these postwar years, Reagan became a close friend and associate of Brewer—who became the keeper of the Hollywood blacklist and continued to turn his back on the Mafia’s involvement in the film industry.

  HUAC returned to Hollywood in March 1951. Forty-five “unfriendly witnesses” were immediately subpoenaed, as the committee sought to force those testifying to name names of those they knew or thought to be communists.

  During these hearings, thirty members of the Hollywood community—in desperate, and often unsuccessful, attempts to save their jobs—named nearly three hundred of their colleagues as members or former members of the Communist Party. With communism appearing to be rampant in the film industry, the studios panicked and began cranking out anti-communist movies—which mostly contained old gangster movie plots, except that the gangsters were now replaced by communists who machine-gunned patriotic Americans and then sped off in fast cars. Two movies, Richard Widmark’s Pickup on South Street and George Raft’s A Bullet for Joey, actually portrayed the Mafia teaming up with the police to fight zombie-like communists.

  Arthur Miller had earlier been approached by director Elia Kazan to write a movie about the Mafia on the waterfront and had already drafted a screenplay, entitled The Hook, that was to be produced by Columbia—which then withdrew from the project. “The reason, according to Miller, [was] that Harry Cohn, Roy Brewer, and the FBI all suggested that Miller should substitute reds for racketeers as the force terrorizing the waterfront workers. When Miller said no, Cohn fired off a telegram to him which said, ‘Strange how the minute we want to make a script pro-American, Miller pulls out.’”*19

  Cheering on HUAC once again was the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals—with John Wayne as president and IATSE’s Roy Brewer and the Teamsters’ Joe Tuohy on its executive committee. Credited with “cleansing” the communists from Hollywood’s labor unions, Brewer had remained the Alliance’s chief enforcer and the keeper of the growing Hollywood blacklist.

  In the end, HUAC blacklisted or “graylisted” nearly two thousand artists in the motion picture, radio, and television industries. Roy Brewer insisted, “The communists created the blacklist, themselves—or they brought it on themselves by making a record. And, first of all, they blacklisted the anti-communists to whatever extent that they could.… There never would’ve been a blacklist if the communists hadn’t come in here and seduced these people and got them to pay money to further the cause of the Soviet Union and to discriminate against the people who didn’t like it.”20

  Soon after the HUAC hearings, Brewer, who had been Hollywood’s most powerful union force, went to work for the studios of Allied Artists, employed as the “manager of branch operations.” Brewer’s responsibilities included the handling of labor relations, except that this time he sat on management’s side of the table.

  With his departure from the union, Brewer was honored by a story appearing in The Hollywood Reporter stating: “It was Brewer who was responsible for the restoration of labor peace in Hollywood; it was he who was responsible for the routing of communists in the motion picture industry.… It was he who was mainly responsible for the creation of a public relations program which did so much to make of Hollywood what Rep. Donald L. Jackson recently said was ‘without doubt the cleanest industry in the United States and in the world.…’”21

  Meantime, the Reagan-led Screen Actors Guild joined the “Crusade for Freedom,” a counterattack against “communist lies and treachery.” Reagan, saying that SAG would not defend those actors who defied HUAC, told his SAG colleagues, “It is every member’s duty to cooperate fully.” SAG, following the James Petrillo–controlled American Federation of Musicians, passed a resolution in March 1951 that it would not take any action against those studios which would deny jobs to any actor whose “actions outside of union activities have so offended American public opinion that he has made himself unsalable at the box office.” Two years later, SAG would force its membership—and those applying for membership—to sign loyalty oaths, saying, “I am not now and will not become a member of the Communist Party nor of any other organization that seeks to overthrow the government of the United States by force or violence.”

  MCA had remained passive while clients like Arthur Miller were red-baited and blacklisted in the entertainment industry. Talent agents, like just about everyone else in Hollywood, were busy finding cover. Instead of threatening to withhold all of their clients’ services if one of them was blacklisted, they sat back and played HUAC and the Alliance’s dangerous game. MCA was known to have asked for contract releases from their blacklisted clients, such as screenwriter Nedrick Young. Another screenwriter, Milton Gelman, who was also a former agent, said, “If MCA had gotten together with William Morris and said, ‘We’re going to pull all our shows off the air,’ they could have broken the whole goddamn operation to begin with. The sponsors would have had nothing to show. But everyone ran scared.”22

  Reagan’s experiences with HUAC, blacklists, and red-baiting, and his battles against the CSU, transformed his political outlook from that of a self-proclaimed liberal to a conservative anti-communist. From that point on, he began allying himself more and more with the interests of the bus
inessmen, the producers, and the studios, moving away from the working actors. He began to associate increasingly with the powerful studio executives, like Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer; with the stronger anti-communists within SAG, like Robert Montgomery and George Murphy; and with other politically conservative Hollywood businessmen, like MCA executives Jules Stein and Taft Schreiber.

  *At the time, the Los Angeles–based Korshak was heavily involved with labor unions, either defending them or buying them off, depending on who was paying his fee. In 1946, he was retained by Joel Goldblatt, president of a chain of department stores in Chicago, who had become the target of extortion demands in return for labor peace. “Mr. Korshak acted as an intermediary between Mr. Goldblatt and the union officials,” The New York Times reported, “resolving the company’s labor difficulties and relieving Mr. Goldblatt of the need to be personally involved in payoffs.”14

  By 1947, Korshak had started representing several other large Chicago companies and manufacturers, including Spiegel, Inc., the mail-order house. However, most of Korshak’s time was spent helping these companies avoid legitimate union organizing.

  Among Korshak’s clients was the vice-president of the First National Bank of Chicago, Walter Heymann—who was also Goldblatt’s banker. Korshak helped First National and other banks with their labor problems. Heymann later became a member of MCA’s board of directors.

  *Representative Kearns, a musician and a music teacher, had been an active member of the Petrillo-led American Federation of Musicians.

  *Ironically, HUAC chairman J. Parnell Thomas was later indicted and convicted for taking kickbacks, and sent to Danbury Penitentiary—while two members of the Hollywood Ten, Lester Cole and Ring Lardner, Jr., were imprisoned there.

  *Kazan later directed Budd Schulberg’s anti-Mafia, pro-informer screenplay On the Waterfront, and Miller later wrote the anti-Mafia but anti-informer A View from the Bridge.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As Ronald Reagan’s political career became increasingly involved with the Screen Actors Guild, Jane Wyman’s acting career took off in a big way. She received rave reviews for her performances in The Lost Weekend in 1945 with Ray Milland—who was the only non-MCA client among the top stars in the film—and The Yearling in 1947. Reagan spent more time at SAG meetings than he did with his family, which now included a daughter and an adopted son.

  In June 1947, while Reagan was in the hospital with a severe case of viral pneumonia, Wyman gave birth to their third child. The baby was four months premature and died soon after delivery. The Reagan-Wyman marriage was never quite the same. Reagan became more deeply entrenched in politics, while Wyman started work on Johnny Belinda, in which she played a deaf mute.

  The celebrated couple separated on December 14, 1947—a month after Reagan was elected to a full term as president of SAG. Charging Reagan with “extreme mental cruelty,” Wyman filed for divorce and later disclosed in court that her husband’s work with the Screen Actors Guild had led to the demise of the marriage. Even though Wyman had once been a member of the SAG board, she no longer shared her husband’s interest in the union. When she was occasionally asked her opinion about an issue, she felt that her ideas “were never considered important. Most of their discussions were far above me.… Finally, there was nothing in common between us, nothing to sustain our marriage.”1

  Reagan received most of the sympathy in the Hollywood trade press. He bemoaned his state, saying with chagrin, “Perhaps I should have let someone else save the world and have saved my own home.” Wyman needed little sympathy. While she and Reagan were separated, she won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda.

  Nine days before the separation, Reagan’s name appeared on an FBI report entitled “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry.” Reagan was identified as FBI confidential informant “T-10,” according to a story first reported in the San Jose Mercury News.2

  The first known reference to Reagan’s name in an FBI file had been made on September 17, 1941. An FBI agent wrote a memorandum to Hugh Clegg, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division. The G-man wrote that he had become “intimately acquainted with the following persons who might be of some assistance to the Bureau.” Among the names listed was “Ronald Reagan, Warner Brothers Studio, Hollywood, California.”

  Reagan was first contacted for information by the FBI on November 18, 1943, according to a Justice Department document. At the time, he was in the military, stationed at “Fort Roach.” During this first known FBI interview with Reagan, the actor told a special agent that he had nearly been in a fistfight with a German sympathizer who had made some anti-Semitic remarks during a party in Los Angeles.

  The FBI report stated, “Reagan and [name deleted] became involved in a conversation about the conduct of the war.… Specifically subject [name deleted] stated that the Jews involved in shipping were glad of the sinkings of Allied vessels by German submarines because they profited thereby through an insurance racket.… Due to the nature of the remarks made by subject, Reagan became highly incensed and withdrew from the conversation. He said that he almost came to blows with subject, although he emphasized that considerable drinking had been done by all persons involved.”3

  On April 10, 1947, Reagan and Wyman were visited by the FBI and interviewed about the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), which Reagan had quit in 1946 because of suspected communists among its leadership. Also, during this interview, Reagan gave the FBI an outline of his duties as SAG president, and both he and Wyman provided the government with “information regarding the activities of some members of the Guild who they suspected were carrying on Communist Party work.”

  The FBI report continued, “Reagan and Jane Wyman advised [that] for the past several months they have observed during Guild meetings there are two ‘cliques’ of members, one headed by [name deleted] and [name deleted] which on all questions of policy that confront the Guild follow the Communist Party line.4

  “T-10 advised Special Agent [name deleted] that he has been made a member of a committee headed by [Louis] B. Mayer [the head of MGM], the purpose of which allegedly is to ‘purge’ the motion picture industry of Communist Party members, which committee was an outgrowth of the Thomas Committee hearings in Washington and the subsequent meeting of motion picture producers in New York City.… T-10 stated it is his firm conviction that Congress should declare, first of all, by statute, that the Communist Party is not a legal party, but is a foreign-inspired conspiracy. Secondly, Congress should define what organizations are communist-controlled so that membership therein could be construed as an indication of disloyalty. He felt that lacking a definitive stand on the part of the government it would be very difficult for any committee of motion picture people to conduct any type of cleansing of their own household.”5

  The interlocutory judgment for the Reagans’ divorce decree was granted on June 29, 1948, after a property settlement the previous February. The divorce became final on July 18, 1949. According to civil records in the Los Angeles Hall of Records, Wyman kept custody of their two children and their principal residence on Cordell Drive in Los Angeles. Represented by SAG attorney Laurence Beilenson, Reagan agreed to pay five hundred dollars a month in child support. The couple had also purchased an eight-acre property—they named it “Yearling Row” after their best movies, The Yearling and King’s Row—in the San Fernando Valley. Reagan kept that, as well as his membership in the Friars Club, a Los Angeles men’s club whose members included Mickey Rooney, Johnny Roselli, Groucho Marx, and Sidney Korshak.

  In the meantime, Reagan’s acting career had taken a nosedive. After a string of losers, he was passed over by Warner Brothers for the lead in Ghost Mountain, which eventually starred Errol Flynn. Reagan was angered when Warners was publicly critical of his role in That Hagen Girl, a box-office disaster he never wanted to do, in which he starred with a grown-up Shirley Temple.
Consequently, Reagan threatened to sabotage his next film with Warners. Lew Wasserman and MCA came to the rescue.

  “Lew had foresight and a more practical approach,” Reagan said. “My contract [with Warner Brothers] had three years to go. Lew rewrote it to read one picture a year for three years, at a salary for that one picture equal to half my yearly income, and full rights to do outside pictures. In other words, I was at last a free lance. My face was saved and the studio wasn’t hurt because every studio in town was really trying to unload contracts.… One week later Lew added a five-year, five-picture deal at Universal, and I bellied up to the bar like a conquering hero ordering drinks for the house. You could hardly see my wounded ego under all those $75,000 plasters.”6

  Reagan’s escape from his contract with Warners was facilitated by the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in the Paramount antitrust case. The court held that the eight Hollywood studios had violated federal antitrust laws and thus, among other actions, were forced to “divorce” their companies from their theatre holdings. The decision immediately caused tremendous financial problems for the established film industry. Production lots were sold, and many actors’ contracts were dropped. However, top actors were then in a position to demand a cut of a picture’s gross—which guaranteed them money, even if a picture did poorly at the box office.

  The Paramount case also dramatically affected the actual financing of motion pictures. Prior to the decision, the studios were assured of the distribution of their films because of their ownership of local theatres. In fact, before World War II, the major motion picture production companies financed their own projects. Because the studios were forced to divest themselves of these theatres, banks were reluctant to loan money for film production without full security. Banks would even take a mortgage on the motion picture—after the production company approached the bank with a complete package, which included the script, director, and stars. With the financial crunch felt by the Hollywood establishment, independent movie producers began increasingly doing their own films, obtaining financing from their private sources.