Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist

In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door--or had it shut in their faces.

In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. He details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.

Author: Thomas Doherty
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 04/10/2018
Pages: 424
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.40w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780231187787


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/12/2018
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2018
Choice 11/01/2018
Library Journal 04/01/2018 pg. 76
Shelf Awareness 05/01/2018

About the Author
Thomas Doherty is professor of American studies at Brandeis University. His previous Columbia University Press books include Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934 (1999); Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (2003); Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration (2007); and Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 (2013).