How Did The Hollywood Blacklist

The Hollywood Blacklist came to be during the start of the “second red scare” which occurred after World War II. With fear that communism was being broadcasted to the American public, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) started to send summonses to various members of Hollywood on the suspicion that their work was inspiring communism sympathy. There were members that refused to testify before the committee and so where blacklisted after servicing prison time and paying fines. They believed the committee inquiries took away their rights given under the Constitution. Because of their unwillingness to cooperate with the questions asked by committee members they were given contempt citations during a vote in the House of Representatives,
Paramount Pictures, was the landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that sided with the government in ending the grip movie studios had on Hollywood productions by owning their own movie theatres. The antitrust decision led to the studios not being able to dictate or have any exclusive rights on which theaters can show their films. With studios being able to mass produce movies, they kept the cost of productions down, but once the courts force the studios to sell their theaters, production cost skyrocketed. This led to fewer films to be made as the cost was too high; the cost of showing a film had gone from being low, because they were studio owned, to extremely high because studios were trying to re coop some of their production costs. Some of the positive consequences that arise from the decision was that more independent producers and studios were able to produce films without any interference from the major studios, this also led to the demise of the Hays Production Code which could not force their jurisdiction on independent theaters that chose to show foreign and independent films. Hollywood’s Golden Age and the studio system had come to a close; they were no longer the standard in entertainment. Producers and directors where able to film with their chosen actors, since the demise of the studio system, they were free of contracts and were able to move from studio to studio. They were even able to work with independent film houses and not have to worry about their contract which controlled every aspect of their