Dupes

  5. John Howard Lawson, Film in the Battle of Ideas (New York: Masses & Mainstream, 1953).

  6. Ibid.

  7. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s (Rocklin, CA: Prima Forum, 1998), 258.

  8. Ibid., 205.

  9. In a “FAQ” section on its website, under the heading, “Who are some of the people who have been members of the CPUSA?” CPUSA lists Dashiell Hammett among a short list of fourteen members. See http://www.cpusa.org/article/static/511/#question12 (retrieved from website December 12, 2009). Hammett joined the party in the latter 1930s (most accounts claim 1937) and also supported the “antiwar” platform of the American Peace Mobilization, meaning he, too, flip-flopped on Hitler based on where Stalin stood.

  10. Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 179, 267.

  11. Ibid., 196.

  12. Robeson, too, is today proudly proclaimed by CPUSA (on its website) as one of its members.

  13. If true, this would have likely meant she did not join the party, meaning she was not technically or officially a “Communist.”

  14. The suit never went to trial because of Hellman's death. See Stephen Buckley, “Literary Critic and Novelist Mary McCarthy Dies at 77,” Washington Post, October 26, 1989, B11.

  15. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 288.

  16. Hellman was one of the infamous signers of an “Open Letter to American Liberals” that attacked the Dewey Commission. See Alan M. Wald, The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987), 132; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 80, 182, 188, 204–6.

  17. Alan M. Wald, Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 182, 210–35.

  18. Ibid., 297–98. Among others, Wald cites: Isidor Schneider, “All My Sons,” New Masses, February 18, 1947, 28–29; Isidor Schneider, “Death of a Salesman,” and Samuel Sillen, “Another Viewpoint,” Masses & Mainstream, April 1949, 88–96; Mike Phillips, “Letter on Arthur Miller,” Daily Worker, March 1, 1949, 12; Lee Newton, “Arthur Miller's Hit Play,” Daily Worker, February 14, 1949, 11.

  19. Wald says that “circumstantial evidence is overwhelming” that Miller wrote for New Masses under the name of Matt Wayne. Wald cites the testimony of two editors of New Masses. Wald, Trinity of Passion, 212, 294n.

  20. Arthur Miller, “Should Ezra Pound Be Shot?” New Masses, December 25, 1945, 4.

  21. The Daily Worker interview was done by Beth McHenry, who carried the byline for the article. Beth McHenry, “Focus Author Hopes to Make Anti-Semitism Understood,” Daily Worker, April 17, 1946, 13.

  22. Wald, Trinity of Passion, 228.

  23. McHenry, “Focus Author Hopes to Make Anti-Semitism Understood,” 13.

  24. This meeting took place on October 14, 1947. See Wald, Trinity of Passion, 227.

  25. Fast's nonfiction The Incredible Tito was published in 1944 by the New York–based Magazine House.

  26. Wald, Trinity of Passion, 228.

  27. Tony Kushner, “Kushner on Miller,” The Nation, June 13, 2005, 6.

  28. For instance, much later, in his memoir Timebends, Miller at long last acknowledged the failure to discern “the clear parallels between the social institutions of the fascist and Nazi regimes and those of the Soviet Union.” Arthur Miller, Timebends: A Life (New York: Grove Press, 1987), 86.

  29. Harry Raymond, “The Crucible: Arthur Miller's Best Play,” Daily Worker, January 28, 1953, 7.

  30. Allen Drury, “Arthur Miller Admits Helping Communist-Front Groups in ’40s,” New York Times, June 22, 1956.

  31. Ibid.; and “Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports—Part 4,” Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, June 21, 1956, 4655–89.

  32. This was done as an exhibit presented during the testimony of Sue Warren, who had been “educational director” for the Communist Party. See “Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports—Part 5,” Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, July 26, 1957, 1352–61.

  33. “Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports—Part 4,” Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, June 21, 1956, 4689.

  34. Miller's refusal to openly discuss his motivations has long caused much confusion. I personally know of two cases from completely different ideological perspectives, both within western Pennsylvania, where I reside. One is a liberal high-school history teacher who, for decades before Miller's admission in the Guardian in June 2000, taught his students that The Crucible was a parable of McCarthyism. The other, a conservative, is a stage director at a university who was asked to stage The Crucible; she did her research and could not find attestation from Miller admitting that the play was a lesson against McCarthyism.

  35. Arthur Miller, “Are You Now or Were You Ever …?” Guardian, June 17, 2000.

  36. Ibid.

  37. “Arthur Miller, Moral Voice of American Stage, Dies at 89,” New York Times, February 12, 2005. Also, on Miller's admission, see Roger Kimball, “Arthur Miller, Communist Stooge,” The New Criterion, February 12, 2005.

  38. Miller, “Are You Now or Were You Ever …?”

  39. See Miller, Timebends, 81, 116, 183–84, 192, 308–9, 516–18; Drury, “Arthur Miller Admits Helping Communist-Front Groups in ’40s”; Wald, Trinity of Passion, 216; Joanna E. Rapf, On the Waterfront (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 42; and Martin Gottfried, Arthur Miller: His Life and Work (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003), 157–58.

  40. Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 220.

  41. Ibid., 242.

  42. It has been widely reported that Geer was not only a communist but also a Communist Party member. Online encyclopedia sources (including Wikipedia, retrieved December 11, 2009) go so far as to claim that Geer joined CPUSA in 1934. I cannot verify that, but clearly he was quite far to the left, and very likely a communist (ideologically) at some point.

  43. See, among others, Ron and Allis Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 183–84.

  44. Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 222–24.

  45. Ibid., 55.

  46. Katharine Hepburn's mother, also named Katharine, was a suffragette, birth-control advocate, and friend of Margaret Sanger. In the 1920s Katharine's mother served on the board of directors of Sanger's American Birth Control League. Sanger preached “race improvement” and desired widespread use of birth control in part for that purpose. She hoped to rid the American population of what she termed “human weeds.” Among others, see Margaret Sanger, “The Pope's Position on Birth Control,” The Nation, January 27, 1932, 103; and Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization (New York: Brentano's, 1922), 80–104.

  47. See Ronald Reagan and Richard G. Hubler, Where's the Rest of Me? (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1965), 183; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 113.

  48. See Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 177–78.

  49. Even then, there are other claims, and rumors, swirling around this controversy. Readers can read these files online at the FBI's database http://foia.fbi.gov/alpha.htm.

  50. This, too, is a claim reported by sources in the FBI file; the bureau investigated the claim. It seemed to be the main source of evidence that Lucille Ball was possibly still involved in the party.

  51. Ronald Reagan talks warmly of Robinson and how he was a gentle soul frequently exploited. See Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 183; and Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 230.

  52. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 169–70.

  53. See, for instance Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 180.

  54. California Legislature, “Fourth Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948, Communist Front Organizations,” California Senate, Senate Committe
e on Un-American Activities, 236–40.

  55. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 166.

  56. For a fair discussion, see ibid., 33–35.

  57. Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle, eds., Tender Comrades: A History of the Hollywood Blacklist (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), 143. Also, on Bright, see Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 33–34.

  58. McGilligan and Buhle, Tender Comrades, 143.

  59. Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 86.

  60. Ibid., 86.

  61. Luce's instruction into the Catholic Church by Bishop Fulton Sheen, a staunch anti-Communist, played a major role in her informed anti-Communism.

  62. Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 190.

  63. David H. Culbert, Mission to Moscow (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980), 17.

  64. The movie is available for purchase. It is occasionally broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. One recent broadcast, which I watched, was on February 8, 2009.

  65. Examples of this are given by the Radoshes. See Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 98, 271.

  66. Koppes and Black, Hollywood Goes to War, 198.

  67. Historian Steven Casey writes that “Roosevelt was instrumental in getting this [Davies's] book turned into a full-length movie.” Steven Casey, Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War Against Nazi Germany (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 62.

  68. Todd Bennett, “Culture, Power, and Mission to Moscow,” Journal of American History, vol. 88, no. 2, September 2001, 495.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Ibid.

  71. Ibid.

  72. Culbert, Mission to Moscow, 253–55; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 97.

  73. Ibid.

  74. Ibid.

  75. Bosley Crowther, “Mission to Moscow, Based on Ex-Ambassador Davies’ Book,” New York Times, April 30, 1943.

  76. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 92–97.

  77. Letter to the editor, John Dewey and Suzanne La Follette, “Several Faults Are Found in ’Mission to Moscow’ Film,” New York Times, May 9, 1943.

  78. The Nazis were not appalled at all, and, either way, did not mind the Soviet greed because they planned to break their pact with Stalin.

  79. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 92–97.

  80. See Woolley, Adherents of Permanent Revolution, 22–27.

  81. Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 141. This may have been a historically unappreciated factor in Reagan's later writing his own speeches, including many while he was president.

  82. Ibid., 164–65; Anne Edwards, Early Reagan (New York: William Morrow, 1987), 246, 300; and Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 123.

  83. Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 141, 164–65; and Edwards, Early Reagan, 300.

  84. This has been described in many accounts, including Reagan's own autobiographies, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990) and Where's the Rest of Me? (pages 164–70). Among the better accounts are those by Anne Edwards in her Early Reagan and the excellent research of Stephen Vaughn in his Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 124–26. See also Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 123; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 115.

  85. Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me?, 164–70; Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 123; Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 115.

  86. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 114–15.

  87. Ibid.

  88. Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 123–24.

  89. On this, see Reagan, An American Life, 106–7.

  90. Quote taken from Reagan, An American Life, 106–7. There Reagan's version of Kleihauer's quote is slightly different from the version used in Where's the Rest of Me? (pages 141–42), where he records Kleihauer as saying: “I agree with most of what you said, but don't you think, while you're denouncing Fascism, it would be fair to speak out equally strongly against the tyranny of Communism?” I write about this episode in God and Ronald Reagan, 51–53.

  91. For just two examples of Reagan being called a “fascist,” by his own account, see Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 167, 175.

  92. I have noticed repeatedly in my research on Reagan how he went from being the darling of liberals and progressives—feted as brilliant, caring, sensitive—to being a loathsome, reactionary “moron” as he nudged more and more to the right, and especially as he became politically active on the right. Likewise, he quickly morphed (in the eyes of the Left) from being a respected actor who did good work to a “B-movie actor” who ranked only slightly more intelligent than a chimpanzee. He went from being a civil-rights champion—who indeed had always treated black Americans with great kindness and no prejudice whatsoever (since he was a boy in Dixon, Illinois)—to being a “racist.” This is what happened when Reagan went to the “other side”; the Left savaged him. Other Reagan researchers have told me or reported that they discerned a similar pattern, including (in their books and articles) Hollywood observers Anne Edwards and John Meroney. See Kengor, The Crusader, 11–12, 326–27.

  93. Hayden would ultimately cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, naming names and confessing his past Communist ties. But he later strongly regretted doing so.

  94. The exact period of Hayden's membership in the Communist Party is unclear, though he seems to have joined (for certain) by some point in 1946 and remained in the party for a fairly short time, leaving no later than 1947. See Hayden's memoirs, Sterling Hayden, Wanderer (New York: Knopf, 1963), 371; and also his bio at the website of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=83248.

  95. Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 173.

  96. Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 117–22.

  97. See Peggy Noonan, When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan (New York: Viking-Penguin, 2001), 56–57; and Peter Schweizer, Reagan's War (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 11–12.

  98. See “Threatened in ’46 Strike, Ronald Reagan Testifies,” Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1954, 3. Reagan subsequently wrote and talked about this a number of times. See also Billingsley, Hollywood Party, 153; and Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 148–58, 174.

  99. See Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 159–62, 171–75; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 120–22.

  100. The strike was jurisdictional, meaning that it centered over which union would represent the workforce.

  101. See Reagan, Where's the Rest of Me? 159–62, 172; and Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 120–22.

  102. Hayden talked about this in his April 10, 1951, testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

  103. See Radosh and Radosh, Red Star Over Hollywood, 121–22.

  104. Stalin's remarks were published in the March 13, 1946, edition of Pravda. For a number of analyses of Stalin's reaction, see Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (New York: Macmillan, 1991), 868–69; Michael H. Hunt, Crises in U.S. Foreign Policy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 123; and Alfred F. Havighurst, Britain in Transition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 392.

  105. One almost humorous but telling account is found in the March 26, 1946, nd April 2, 1946, issues of New Masses, which reported how the faithful gathered for lunch at a New York City restaurant to develop proposals for a strategy to pillory and counteract Churchill. This was reported in both issues in the “Between Ourselves” column, published on page 2.

  106. Author James Humes claims that Mrs. Roosevelt went so far as to denounce Churchill as a “warmonger.” See James Humes, Eisenhower and Churchill: The Partnership That Saved the World (New York: Prima, 2001), 216. I have not been able to confirm that Mrs. Roosevelt used that exact term.

  107. Mrs. Roosevelt was quoted by Drew Pearson in his “Washington Merry-Go-Round” c
olumn, syndicated in newspapers throughout the country, including the Post Standard (Syracuse, NY) and the Washington Post, March 23–24, 1946. Mrs. Roosevelt herself wrote: “After my husband's death, I was lunching one day with Mr. and Mrs. Churchill at their home in London and sitting by me he suddenly turned to me and said: ’You have never really approved of me, have you?’ I was a little taken aback because it would have never occurred to me to say I had not approved of Mr. Churchill.… I hesitated a moment and finally said: ’I don't think I ever disapproved, Sir.’ But I think he remained convinced that there were things he and I did not agree upon, and perhaps there were a number!” Of course, the Iron Curtain speech was one of those. See the “Eleanor Roosevelt Speech and Article File,” specifically, “Winston Churchill Articles, 1960,” held among the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers at the Roosevelt Library.