The Hollywood Ten Case 1948
The Hollywood Ten Case 1948
Hollywood Divided Into Two Camps, The Right To Remain Silent, “I Would Hate Myself In The Morning”
Defendants: Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Sam Ornitz, Robert Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo
Crime Charged: Contempt of Congress
Chief Defense Lawyers: Bartley Crum, Charles J. Katz, Robert W. Kenny, and Martin Popper
Chief Prosecutor: William Hitz
Judges: Edward M. Curran, Richmond B. Keech, and David A. Pine
Place: Washington, D.C.
Dates of Trials: April 12-19, 1948 (Lawson); May 3-5, 1948 (Trumbo); June 22-29, 1950 (Biberman, Cole, Dmytryk, Lardner, and Scott); June 23-29, 1950 (Bessie, Maltz, and Ornitz)
Verdicts: Guilty
Sentences: 1 year imprisonment and $1,000 fine (Bessie, Cole, Lardner, Lawson, Maltz, Ornitz, Scott, and Trumbo); 6 months and $500 fine (Biberman, and Dmytryk)
Read more: Hollywood Ten Trials: 1948-50 – Hollywood Divided Into Two Camps, The Right To Remain Silent, “i Would Hate Myself In The Morning” – JRank Articles https://law.jrank.org/pages/3012/Hollywood-Ten-Trials-1948-50.html#ixzz7MJNpAaEj
SIGNIFICANCE: The Hollywood Ten case stands as a landmark withinside the records of the abuse of civil liberties. As reputable creator E.B. White commented, “Ten guys had been convicted, now no longer of incorrect-doing however of incorrect thinking; this is information on this united states of america and if I even have now no longer misinterpret my records, it’s miles awful information.”
By placing the level for the established order of the blacklist, the case created a precedent for making political perception a take a look at of employability. In refusing to just accept the claims of the Ten that the First Amendment entitled them to stay silent, the House Committee for the Investigation of Un-American Activities prompted destiny witnesses to plead the Fifth Amendment privilege in opposition to self-incrimination to keep away from answering in addition questioning.
In 1946 writers, producers, actors, and administrators withinside the movie enterprise in Hollywood who were drawn—as “correct liberals”—to the American Communist Party over the previous decade started out to feel that the celebration turned into now no longer the liberal corporation they were informed it turned into. The celebration`s coverage and direction—in impact at some stage in World War II, patriotic cooperation and the renunciation of innovative goals—had been changing.
Party head Earl Browder, the “correct liberal” leader, turned into deposed and changed through hard-liner William Z. Foster. The new coverage, as defined through screenwriter Albert Maltz in an essay in New Masses, turned into that “until artwork is a weapon like a leaflet, serving instantaneously political ends, requirements and programs, it’s miles nugatory or escapist or vicious.”
SEE ALSO:
The Alien Registration Act (1940);
Rejection of the Alien Registration Act (1951);
The Rosenberg Trial (1951);
The Communist Control Act (1954).
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