Who were the Hollywood Ten?

• The Hollywood Ten were a group of ten men accused of communism in the film industry
• They were thrown into prison and banned from creating movies. Their names were...
• Alvah Bessie
• Herbert Biberman
• Lester Cole
• Edward Dmytryk
• Ring Lardner
• John Howard Lawson
• Albert Maltz
• Samuel Ornitz
• Adrian Scott
• Dalton Trumbo
• Although some of these people were less notable, there were many well-known men in this group
• For example, Dalton Trumbo, who was both a screenwriter and a novelist
• He even won an Oscar under one of his screen names, which he used during the Hollywood Blacklist

What was the Hollywood Blacklist?

• The Hollywood Blacklist was a list of names of people who were banned from creating movies
• The list started with the Hollywood Ten, but it continued to grow afterwards
• One reason people were placed on the Blacklist was because of Communism
• If someone in the film industry was suspected of being a communist, their name was added to the Hollywood Blacklist
• This was because the American government didn't want Communist propaganda to be spread through movies
• The Cold War was happening at the time which meant that the USA was opposing the USSR
• The USSR was attempting to establish communism wherever they could, which the USA didn't like
• Instead, the USA supported Capitalism, and the two countries built up lots of tension because of this rivalry
• That's why the US was specifically banning Communists from Hollywood

How did Hollywood react?

• The Hollywood 10 were all very talented people
• While they were still working in the film industry, many people supported and admired them
• Sadly, when the 10 were accused of Communism and had to testify before HUAC, their names were put on the Hollywood Blacklist
• They also didn't get their pay upon being banned from the film industry

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

• This was a branch of the government trying to bust Communists
• They quickly targeted the film industry because they didn't want their media containing any sort of Communist propaganda
• The film industry also seemed to include a lot of Communists
• During hearings of people accused of Communism, HUAC would ask many questions about past associations with the Communist party
• This, of course, made many people angry
• Being sent to jail for being a member of the Communist party was unconstitutional
• The Hollywood Ten were the group of people that openly defied HUAC, refusing to list names of other Communists
• Unfortunately, all of them went to prison and had to pay a fine of $1,000
• This might have been what made one of them finally crack

Edward Dmytryk

• Edward Dmytryk, although part of the Hollywood Ten, gave in and listed over twenty names of other Communists
• The House Un-American Activities Committee allowed Edward to join the film industry again, removing his name from the Hollywood Blacklist
• However, the rest of the Ten were not allowed to rejoin
• A couple of them did, on the other hand, write under screen names.

Bertolt Brecht

• The Hollywood 10 originally included a man named Bertolt Brecht
• He was a German man who wrote plays and poetry
• However, he fled the country upon finding out that he could be sent to jail for being a Communist

Screen names

• Ring Lardner and Dalton Trumbo both went back to write under screen names
• Dalton Trumbo even won an Oscar under one!

Connections and Effects

• The Hollywood Ten are connected to propaganda because the government thought they were spreading Communist propaganda through their movies
• The effect that the Hollywood Ten had was the Hollywood Blacklist
• However, they also caused several people to realize how unjust HUAC was, and they began protesting against it (like in the picture attached below)
• The Blacklist was put to an end in the 1960s