English article writing

McCarthy era is known as an era where many American citizens were accused of being communists. As a result, investigations were done on then by the government and the private investigative panels. Those who were primarily targeted were the members of the entertainment industry among government employees, activists of the union and educators. Joseph McCarthy involvement in the McCarthy era happened when he made a speech during the Lincoln day in1950. In his speech, he established that he had a list of 205 members of the communists who worked for the state. This speech led to a lot of attention being focused on the agenda. This discovery made Joseph one of the most recognized USA politicians. This happened shortly after the end of World War II.

The attention of the issue leads to a “Red Scare”. An investigation was carried out by the members of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). During the inquiry, Senator Joseph McCarthy was not involved in the committee. A political cartoon by cartoonist Herbert was published in 1950. The cartoon illustrated four republicans pushing an elephant that was written McCarthyism. The elephant was a traditional representation symbol of the Republican party. This publication led to the investigation in the Hollywood entertainment industry.

The organisation then set for 40 actors in the industry whom they asked to name other actors in Hollywood who were communists. In the process of this investigation, most of the actors, around 80 of them, signed a petition to denounce the committee since it was involved with the propaganda of the ordinary citizens. Some of these actors included: Lauren Bacall, John Huston and Gene Kelly among others.

Some of the actors who presented themselves to be in support of the red scare were cooperative, and they confirmed that indeed communists were at work in Hollywood. According to Ronald Reagan, a communist who agreed to testify in 1947, there was a clique that had been formed by the communists. This clique was to be destructive in the Hollywood screen of Walt Disney and Actors Guild. It is even reported that they were behind a strike that took place in Disney studios. Walt Disney was explicitly hot because of the red scare. It was more vulnerable and suffered a great deal. According to testimony by Disney, one of their organizers, Herbert Sorrel, threatened to influence the industry if he wanted to negatively. Herbert was a member of the communist movement.

However, there were those who did not cooperate. They based their actions on the US First amendment of the constitution: it states that anyone has the free will to take part in any political organization they prefer. These individuals included ten screenwriters and directors of the Hollywood industry. The committee of the Un-American activities did not appreciate this. Later after they refused to testify, they were sentenced for contempt and put in jail for a year each. They were famously known as the "Hollywood Ten".

Prison enabled one of the ‘Hollywood Ten' to crack. Edward Dmytryk agreed to testify in 1951. Unlike the testimonies by Disney and Herbert, he gave a clear testimony that no one ever gave. He admitted to his participation in the communist group, gave out a list of other 26members who were unknown, and he gave out a summary of the communist’s operations in Hollywood. Dmytryk believed that the communist organisation was committing treason against the country and so he decided to give the list of the members and help his country. The list of the members was put on the ‘Hollywood Blacklist', and a lot of careers were destroyed as a result. It is approximated that up to 300 people in the film industry lost their jobs and careers. This blacklist was used widely in the country, schools and any field possible.

Work Cited

Jennifer, Latson. The Fear of Hollywood Communism: Politics. 2014. Retrieved from time.com/3513597/huac-Hollywood-hearings/