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Author : Fagan Myron Coureval
Title : Moscow over Hollywood
Year : 1948

Link download : Fagan_Myron_Coureval_-_Moscow_over_Hollywood.zip

Moscow over Hollywood. From time to time, during the past several years, the National Republic has published elements of a vast accumulation of evidence to show a cunning Communist conspiracy seeking to convert the motion picture industry of America into an agency of Soviet propaganda. Some five years ago, this writer produced a book entitled Hell Over Hollywood, in which it was demonstrated that Hollywood pinks and Reds were contributing heavily to the advancement in America of the Bolshevik forces of atheism, free love, and collectivism. It is a hopeful and significant sign that there is a growing consciousness of the fact that "Moscow Over Hollywood" is not merely a sensational accusation, but an accurate description of a state of affairs, whereby an insidious process is under way to Sovietize the film industry, and through it, the thought and life of an estimated ninety million "moviegoing Americans." "Communists definitely plan to dominate and control the motion picture industry," declared Representative John S. Wood of Georgia, Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, after a flying trip to Hollywood to assume personal leadership of a probe of "Reds in movieland." In a signed editorial in the American Photo-Engraver, official trade union publication, the famous American labor leader, Matthew Woll, a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, has demanded that Eric Johnson, head of the Motion Picture Association, take immediate steps to root out "fifth columnists and fellow travelers." Mr. Woll advanced the suggestion that movie houses showing film productions of "treasonable stars and writers should be picketed by a League for Political Decency to be "composed of loyal and irate American citizens." Charging that many "Communist front" organizations are "made-in-Hollywood," Mr. Woll said that movie stars, who "flout American patriotism," had sponsored such Red-front organizations as the American Slav Congress (a Communist-front group for Marshal Tito), the Conference on China and the Far East (which supports the Chinese Red Army), and the American Youth for Democracy (formerly the Young Communist League). Mr. Woll arraigned those whom he termed Hollywood's "treasonable stars and writers" in language as colorful and scorching as Winston Churchill used to employ in his picturesque indictments of the Nazis and Fascists; "Ashamed of the meaningles roles in which they are cast, oppressed by a sense of guilt because of their swollen incomes, smarting under the taunts of superior but non-Hollywood intellectuals, these world-savers in grease-paint find refuge in the Communist Party or its peripheral organizations. Somehow playing at revolution seems to justify the possession of a swimming pool and improves the taste of Astrakhan caviar and the feel of Russian sables." Mr. Woll is not one to be overawed by the synthetic glamor of the Hollywood protagonists of the Communist Party line; for he continued, "Ill-equipped either by experience or learning, these lightminded mimics imagine they are doing something for the oppressed of the world. Actually they are permitting themselves to be used as window-dressers for the most tyrannical political system in the world today, a system which crushes all human liberty and all human dignity. It is a system which even at this moment is preparing for war against American democracy." Mr. Woll listed the names of a dozen or so of the Hollywood "big names" whom he asserted were crusading as "world-savers in grease-paint" in conformity with the Communist Party line. Two of them promptly announced the intention of suing him for libel. This, of course, does not mean they are necessarily innocent; if the suits are carried through, it merely means that Mr. Woll will be called upon to offer proof of his charges—and it remains to be seen what the verdict of the judge or jury may be, once all the evidence is presented. (Libel suits are sometimes "grandstand gestures" indulged in by radicals, once their camouflages are torn away. A striking example of this was recently witnessed in Great Britain, where the notorious radical professor, Harold J. Laski, sued an editor for branding him an advocate of revolution. The court ruled that Laski was an advocate of revolution, and ordered him to pay the costs of the judicial action, which ran into many thousands of dollars!) But what of the dozen or so of other Hollywood "big shots" named by Mr. Woll? Why have they not announced intention to file libel action, along with these two? Why do they not at least deny Mr. Woll's charges? Is their inaction to be regarded as an admission of guilt? Against each of them, Mr. Woll made the identical accusation of "fellow-traveling" with Reds; yet only two of them have threatened to go into court to contest his allegation. The remainder have not even denied the charges. Mr. Woll declared that "Hollywood today is the third largest Communist center in the United States." This may be an understatement, according to a prominent left-wing publicist of Hollywood who openly boasts that the Reds have already moved their supreme headquarters from New York City to the film capital. In an address at the Screen Cartoonists guild hall meeting in Hollywood, June 8, 1945, Ruth McKenney, Communist and author of the popular screen play, "My Sister Eileen," declared, "It might just as NA reit be stated now that communism has outgrown New York as its headquarters. Henceforth our activities will evolve in Hollywood, where the prestige, influence, and support of our comrades in the film industry will strengthen our ranks and carry our light to the people from every walk of life." A special investigation of Hollywood was recently completed by Mr. Frank Hughes of the Chicago Tribune Press Service. Statements made by him, on the basis of supporting evidence, are so shocking as to seem almost incredible. Yet, we have heard of no denials and of no legal action being taken against the wealthy Tribune organization, as assuredly it would have been had the high-priced Hollywood lawyers been able to find any misstatements in Mr. Hughes' array of facts. ...