The Hollywood Blacklist's Influence On The Workforce

The Hollywood Blacklist came into being in 1947 when the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) began to summon certain Hollywood entertainment professionals on the suspicion that their work was communist-inspired. As the media began extensive coverage of the proceedings, some writers, producers, and directors became known as the "Hollywood Ten." They included; Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo, eight of those subpoenaed was never called to testify. The congressional commttee was interested in the answers to two questions: “Are you now. Or have you ever been, a member of the Screen Writers Guild?” and “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” The Ten
The blacklist eventually grew to 150 names and persisted up to the 1960s.
The blacklist which could make an otherwise successful and talented actor, writer, director, or producer unemployable industry-wide based on single accusation had an immediate, sobering effect on the workforce, an effect the studios could exploit if they wanted to. The blacklist provided the means by which the studios could deal with their problems with talent and, by extension, the guilds, agents, and lawyers who represented the talent.
In November 25, 1947 the MPAA issued the Waldorf statement, it revealed the economic portion of the blacklist, which stated; “we will forthwith discharge or suspend without compensation those in our employ and we will not re-employ any of the Hollywood Ten, until they were acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declares under oath that they are not a Communist. Over three hundred writers, directors, producers, and actors were blacklisted between 1947 and