Dalton Trumbo, the Oscar-winning screenwriter, arguably the most talented, most famous of the blacklisted film professionals known to history as the Hollywood 10, was born in Montrose, Colorado to Orus Trumbo and his wife, the former Maud Tillery. Dalton Trumbo was raised at 1124 Gunnison Ave.
Many are familiar with the Hollywood Ten, but how many have read Dalton Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun? While Trumbo has resurfaced in recent years, his fellow Communist writer Albert Maltz remains hidden.
Best Known For: Dalton Trumbo was an award-winning author and screenwriter who was blacklisted from the film industry from 1947 until the early 1960s due to his Communist ties. Dalton Trumbo posthumously received an Academy Award for the film Roman Holiday, written during his blacklisted period.
In Jay Roach's TRUMBO, Bryan Cranston embodies the spirit of Dalton Trumbo, the celebrated Hollywood screenwriter whose principled refusal to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) earned him 13 years in purgatory as a blacklisted writer.
The beginning of the end of the Hollywood blacklist took place in 1960 when actor and producer Kirk Douglas gave screenwriting credit to Dalton Trumbo for the movie “Spartacus.” Unfortunately, after the blacklist was lifted most of those on it were not able to resume their careers in the entertainment industry.
Trumbo died in 1976, in Los Angeles of a heart attack at the age of 70. He donated his body to scientific research. In 1993, Trumbo was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for writing Roman Holiday (1953).
In 1952, the Screen Writers Guild – which had been founded two decades before by three future members of the Hollywood Ten – authorized the movie studios to "omit from the screen" the names of any individuals who had failed to clear themselves before Congress.
They were all convicted of obstructing the investigation and served jail terms. Pressured by Congress, the Hollywood establishment started a blacklist policy, banning the work of about 325 screenwriters, actors and directors who had not been cleared by the committee.
Hollywood Ten, in U.S. history, 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947, refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly ...
The blacklist was implemented by the Hollywood studios to promote their patriotic credentials in the face of public attacks and served to shield the film industry from the economic harm that would result from an association of its product with subversives.
On June 22, 1950, renowned musicians/performers Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Artie Shaw were labeled as suspected Communist sympathizers in the infamous publication “Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television.” In the McCarthy witch-hunt era, being labeled a ...
It originated with President Truman's Executive Order 9835 of March 21, 1947, which required that all federal civil service employees be screened for "loyalty." The order specified that one criterion to be used in determining that "reasonable grounds exist for belief that the person involved is disloyal" would be a ...
Books such as Red Channels and newsletters such as Counterattack and Confidential Information were published to keep track of communist and leftist organizations and individuals. Insofar as the various blacklists of McCarthyism were actual physical lists, they were created and maintained by these private organizations.
Who were the Hollywood 10 and why were they blacklisted?
Who were the Hollywood Ten and what did they do? The Hollywood Ten were a group of 10 screenwriters, editors, directors, and authors in Hollywood that were part of the communist party. They did not cooperate with HUAC's hearings on anti-communist activity and were arrested, then blacklisted.
There is some dispute with whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being "205" or "57". In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the Congressional Record, he used the number 57.
One wrong move, step or action can ruin a career in the blink of an eye. While there is no official Hollywood “blacklist” per se, there are a number of people whose careers seemed to fall off a cliff, and not because of a lack of talent.
Similar to Hollywood's Mo'Nique, Adunni Ade's career took a nosedive after the AMVCAs nominated her for Best Supporting Actress in 2017. In a 2021 interview, the actress said she was blacklisted from the English-speaking faction of Nollywood right after the AMVCA nomination.
The blacklist enabled the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to establish in its place a system far better suited for business in postindustrial, postwar America and far more suitable ethnically and politically for doing business with the federal government in the 1940s and 1950s.
As such, in 1950, along with the other members of the Hollywood Ten, Bessie was found guilty of contempt of Congress, fined $1,000, and sentenced to one year at the federal prison at Texarkana, TX.
And 19 witnesses subpoenaed by HUAC — many of them important Hollywood writers and artists — said they would not provide testimony implicating colleagues in Hollywood. Farewell at the Los Angeles Airport on June 8, 1950 as many of the Hollywood 10 head to jail.
Dalton Trumbo liked to write while he was in the bathtub. I wouldn't say that he wrote while he was taking a bath because it was less about the bath and more about the idea that being there in the water was a comfortable place for him to sit and write all night.
The film depicts actor Edward G. Robinson betraying his friend Dalton Trumbo and others by naming them as communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robinson testified four times before the committee and eventually stated that he had been a dupe of communist front organizations.
As historians Radosh and Capshaw have set out, this portrayal of Trumbo and party activities in California could not be further from the truth. Trumbo was an apologist for the 1930s Stalinist purges, secret police and state control in the Soviet Union.
