Screen Actors Guild: Difference between revisions

In October 1947, a list of suspected [[communist]]s working in the Hollywood film industry, dubbed the "[[Hollywood Ten]]" were summoned to appear before the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] (HUAC), which was investigating Communist influence in the [[Hollywood]] [[trade union|labor union]]s. Ten of those summoned, dubbed the "[[Hollywood Ten]]", refused to cooperate and were charged with [[contempt of Congress]] and sentenced to prison. Several liberal members of SAG, led by Humphrey Bogart, [[Lauren Bacall]], [[Danny Kaye]], and [[Gene Kelly]] formed the [[Committee for the First Amendment]] (CFA) and flew to Washington, DC, in late October 1947 to show support for the Hollywood Ten. (Several of the CFA's members, including Bogart, [[Edward G. Robinson]], and [[John Garfield]] later recanted, saying they had been "duped", not realizing that some of the Ten were really communists.)

The Presidentpresident of SAG – future [[United States President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] – testified before the committee but never publicly named names. A climate of fear, enhanced by the threat of detention under the provisions of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], permeated the film industry. On November 17, 1947, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers take a "non-communist" pledge. On November 25th (the day after the full House approved the ten citations for contempt) in what has become known as the [[Waldorf Statement]], [[Eric Johnston]], President of the Motion Picture Producers Association, issued a [[press release]]: "We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods."