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Danny Kaye, June Havoc, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947
HUAC was seeking headlines for its work, and the quickest way to get attention was to zero in on Hollywood, since movies were by then central to American culture.
“The soundstage ambiance in the normally sedate chamber coexisted with the kinetic frisson of a high-stakes criminal trial. Yet the caucus room was no courtroom. While the hearings had the trappings of a legal proceeding – subpoenas, swearing in, testimony from witnesses, the presence of lawyers, and prosecutorial interrogations – they had none of the strict rules of evidence, attention to due process, and protection of civil rights that marked a proper American trial.”
-Show Trial by Thomas Doherty
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Miss Holliday: You mean I should say “yes” or “no?”
Mr. Arens: Yes, if you have a recollection.
Miss Holliday: If I can’t–you know, I can’t place it.
Mr. Arens: We just want the truth.
Miss Holliday: If it doesn’t sound familiar?
Mr. Arens: Then you just state the facts.
Miss Holliday: I don’t know.
Mr. Arens: You have no recollection?
Miss Holliday: Yes.
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‘A rather large number of the employees on the Federal Theatre Project are either members of the Communist party or a sympathetic with the Communist Party’.
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FTP and Politics in Theatre
Hallie Flanagan’s perspectives on the Federal Theatre and her work in the US was something I had never read about, and peaked my interest. I especially was interested in the story of It Can’t Happen Here, and its “wide release” in many different theaters throughout the country. The idea of the same play being performed at the same time, with different casts, theatres, directors and creative teams is so fascinating to me. Every team has the opportunity to do something completely different with the text and the interpretation of the show.
Something else that particularly interested me was the intersection of government and legislative process and the arts. These are two opposing forces, that of power and control and of meditation and exploration. How the government found a middle ground where they were able to federally fund theatre projects is a process I would like to know more about. The key to this lies in the Federal Theater’s status as a relief effort. In addition to employing artists, it also allowed many Americans to see theatre for the first time in their lives. This could have served as a form of escapism from what was happening in the country at the time.
I think that the perfect example in modern times of a theatre company that works with the government, community, and provides free theatre for those who wouldn’t be able to see it otherwise is The Public Theatre in New York City. The Public Theatre was founded in 1954 by Joe Papp as the Shakespeare Workshop. Since its founding, the theatre has had many clashes with the government. When in its founding days, the theatre went head to head with real estate tycoon and powerful figure in government, Robert Moses. The theatre group was able to navigate government red tape and resistance to the “free theatre for all '' idea that the theatre was founded on. The conflicts faced by the organization are illustrated in a play called Illyria by Richard Nelson which I think is a great depiction of the tensions between the politics of theatre and the politics of government, as well as the incredible story of Joe Papp and the Public. Today, the Public not only provides yearly free theatre for all at the Delacorte theater in Central Park, but also has numerous community engagement project such as the Mobile Unit, which puts on portable productions of Shakespeare Plays and Performs them in prisons, community centers, rehabilitation centers and homeless shelters throughout the 5 boroughs. They also have the Public Works project, which engages first time performers from community centers throughout the city and gives them the opportunity to perform on the Delacorte Stage. These community building events and their placement of one of their theatres in the center of a public city park creates many interesting intersections between NYC politics and the arts.
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Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950).
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Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1951).
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As promised yesterday, here you can find the speech that Katharine Hepburn gave in 1947 for the Progressive Party.
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In 1947, Katharine Hepburn got involved in politics when she gave a speech on May 19 during the Henry A. Wallace tour, the Progressive Party’s presidential candidate. Afterwards, she was labeled a communist by certain newpapers and accused of attending communist meetings and raising money for them. This newspaper article from the Film Daily, dated 8 December 1947, looks at what Russian publications had to say about her.
The other pictures are part of a leaflet that was distributed containing the full speech she gave that night.
If anyone’s interested, I’ll try to upload her speech tomorrow.
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1940s actress Evelyn Keyes spoke out against HUAC in 1947. She condemned it for being staffed with the most extreme reactionaries and proto-fascist bigots in America. On a 1947 radio broadcast she said, “This is Evelyn Keyes. James Colescott said, quote, ‘The Un-American Committee program so closely parallels the program of the Klan that there is no distinguishable difference between them.’ Unquote. And who is James Colescott? The Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.”
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Bertolt Brecht before the HUAC
(Martha Holmes. 1947)
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Watching the televised McCarthy hearings on a window display television
(Francis Miller. 1954)
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Lauren Bacall during a hearing charging the HUAC with violating civil rights, October 1947
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Gypsy Rose vs Martin Dies_ January 30, 1939
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