-Caveat Lector- Why Hollywood Hates Kazan by John F. McManus On March 21st, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present an honorary Academy Award to 89-year-old Elia Kazan, one of the most legendary film directors to ply his trade in Hollywood. Already the recipient of Oscars for directing Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront, Kazan certainly doesn't need any further recognition. Yet, certain that its decision would provoke opposition, the 39-member Academy board decided unanimously in January that Kazan should also be given a Lifetime Achievement award. Why controversy over an award for this immigrant Greek-American? Simply because on April 10, 1952, Kazan testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) about his knowledge of the Communist Party membership of eight former "comrades." In the 1930s, Kazan was a member of a Communist Party theatrical cell whose goals at the time ran from heaping praise on the Soviet Union to adoration for Stalin and the Soviet Union's "worker's paradise." His fellow Hollywood Reds also worked aggressively to stifle production of anti-Communist films and to harm the careers of the industry's opponents of Communism. In 1935, Kazan fully grasped the harm of all this activity and he left the Party. It was 17 years later when he was asked to identify those he knew from the past who had never severed their Communist affiliations. Kazan's testimony offered no new information, but merely confirmed what HCUA had already learned about his former colleagues. But immediately after cooperating with the House investigators, Kazan placed an advertisement in the New York Times to explain why he had done what the Communists and other leftists considered dark treachery. In the ad, Kazan pointed out that Communism was "a dangerous and alien conspiracy," and he urged liberals to "speak out" about it. Had he expressed disagreement with Communism and merely characterized it an unfortunate mistake, it is likely that little would have been made of his "naming names." Others had similarly defected and had never suffered the vilification Kazan received. But having labeled the Communist dominance over Hollywood the work of a "conspiracy," a word that emphatically connotes deliberate evildoing, he became the target of decades of hatred from the Marxist left. In 1988, Kazan's memoirs were published under the title A Life. Recalling his 1952 decision to cooperate with the HCUA, he wrote: "Wasn't what I'd been defending up until now by my silence a conspiracy working for another country?" He knew that Communists at every opportunity had defended Stalin's purges, ignored the forced famine in Ukraine, excused the USSR's pact with Nazi Germany, and acclaimed other inhuman aspects of the Soviet "experiment." Kazan refused to regard these Communists as mere civil libertarians who had a right to think what they wanted and say what they believed. In the end, he concluded: "I believed that this committee, which everyone scorned - I had plenty against them too - had a proper duty. I wanted to help break open the secrecy." Because he was a highly regarded film and theatrical producer, Kazan's cooperation gave the House investigators a degree of legitimacy during a period when they were being widely attacked. Not surprisingly, he continues even now to be identified as a participant in the work of Senator Joseph McCarthy, an impossibility inasmuch as he supplied information to a House committee and McCarthy, a senator, had absolutely no involvement with its work. Nor did Elia Kazan have anything to do with the "Hollywood Ten" blacklisting that occurred during the late 1940s. That effort also resulted from the work of HCUA, but the committee didn't blacklist anyone. In November 1947, a statement agreed to by 50 top officials of the Motion Picture Association of America announced that their industry would not "knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States...." The Hollywood Ten was a group of motion picture writers and directors who had defied the House committee and were summarily cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about their Communist connections. But those ten were far from the only Hollywood luminaries who had put their talents to work subverting America with pro-Communist films. There were hundreds more, some of whom fled to Europe to produce their propaganda, and many more who continued their work under assumed names. By 1960, so-called "blacklisting" was a thing of the past, and nearly everyone went happily back to work. Nearly all, that is, except Kazan and other opponents of Communism, who ended up victims of the never-broken leftist control over Hollywood. Kazan became a non-person to most of Hollywood's elite and his talent was never tapped to the extent that other less-gifted colleagues have enjoyed. The awarding of an honorary Oscar to Kazan by no means indicates that Hollywood is no longer gripped by enemies of America. Blacklisted screen writer Bernard Gordon will picket the event and has urged attendees to refuse to applaud when the award is presented. Many of Hollywood's unrepentant Leftists will heed his call because the industry remains largely in the hands of those who continue to attack liberty, corrupt our nation's culture, and steer us away from America's foundations. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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