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Join me, Maggie Mae Fish (she/her), as I explore the history of labor in Hollywood and the House Un-American Activities Committee that led to blacklists. It’s all sadly relevant! From “woke” panic to “cultural marxism,” it’s all the same as the far-right teams up with literal gangsters to crush the working class.

Chapters:
5:50 Hollywood vs The People
11:32 House Un-American Activities Committee
13:58 The Hollywood Blacklist
20:49 Those Dang “Woke” Communists
35:39 Lasting Effects on Hollywood

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Featured voices:
Todd in the Shadows
Sarah Z
Lady Emily
Dan Olson
Angelina Meehan
Princess Weekes

Sources:
Hollywood on Trial (1976) dir. David Helpern
Hollywood on Trial: The Story of the 10 Who Were Indicted by Gordon Kahn, 1948, Boni & Gaer, Inc
Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist (1987) dir. Judy Chaikin
The first televised Oscars, 1953, via Oscars on YouTube
The Hollywood Ten (1950) dir. John Berry
Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry, Eightieth Congress of the United States, October 20-30, 1947
“The Hollywood Reporter, After 65 Years, Addresses Role in Blacklist” by Gary Baum and Daniel Miller, The Hollywood Reporter, November 19, 2012
“The Crew Strike That Shut Down Hollywood In 1945” by Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, September 28, 2021
“How The Bloody Hollywood Strike Of 1945 Forever Changed The Film Business” by Hadley Meares, LAist, November 23, 2021
The Celluloid Closet (1995) dir. Rob Epstein
“All That Zaz: With Warner Bros. Discovery Merger, David Zaslav Is Angling to Become America’s King of Content” by Joe Pompeo, Vanity Fair, October 13, 2021
“Heroes and Misfits” by David A Gerber, American Quarterly, Vol 46, No 4, December 1994, Johns Hopkins University Press
Repression and Recovery by Cary Nelson, 1989, University of Wisconsin Press
“The 1950s Hollywood Blacklist Was an Assault on Free Expression” by Larry Ceplair, Jacobin, May 18, 2023
“The War for Warner Brothers” via IATSE728.org https://www.iatse728.org/about-us/history/the-war-for-warner-brothers
“Hollywood's Labor Force Has Always Had to Fight for Workers' Rights” by Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, April 23, 2019
To the Best of My Ability Podcast Series, Season 2, Episode 5 (section featuring Dr Kirsten Burton), The National WWII Museum, New Orleans
Wanderer by Sterling Hayden, 1963, Knopf
Sterling Hayden on Tomorrow Coast to Coast, series of interviews by Tom Snyder, (c. 1977-1981), NBC
Red Channels, 1950, American Business Consultants
Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America’s Greatest Authors by Herbert Mitgang, 1988, Donald I. Fine, Inc
Variety issues from 1948 via archive.org
DeSantis footage via Forbes Breaking News
Tim Pool via Tim Pool on YouTube
“All the world’s a stage” quote from As You Like It by Shakespeare

Additional Films Referenced:
They Won’t Forget (1937) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Wild Boys of the Road (1933) dir. William A Wellman
Casablanca (1943) dir. Michael Curtiz
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) dir. William A Wellman
Going My Way (1944) dir. Leo McCarey
Moonlight (2016) dir. Barry Jenkins
Greenbook (2018) dir. Peter Farrelly
Captain Marvel (2019)
A Night at the Garden (2017)
Robot Chicken (S02E15)
The New Spirit (1942) dir. Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen
The Irishman (2019)
Modern Times (1936)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Hotel Terminus (1988)
Bambi (1942)
The Song of the South (1946)
Cinderella (1950)
Crossfire (1947) dir. Edward Dmytryk
Of Mice and Men (1939) dir. Lewis Milestone
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) dir. Lewis Milestone
Virginia (1941) dir. Edward H Griffith
The Killing (1956) dir. Stanley Kubrick
Dr Strangelove (1964) dir. Stanley Kubrick
The Long Goodbye (1973) dir. Robert Altman
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) dir. William Wyler
Clue (1985)
The Donna Reed Show (1958-66)
Advise & Consent (1962)
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Various photographs via UCLA Charles E Young Research Library Department of Special Collections and Regents of the University of California
Select footage and photos courtesy Getty
Select footage and photos courtesy AP Newsroom
Additional music and sound effects by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic

This video is part of the series Maggie Talks About Movies