The first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on November 25, 1947, the day after ten writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). These personalities were subpoenaed to appear before HUAC in October. The contempt citation included a criminal charge, which led to a highly publicized trial and an eventual conviction with a maximum of one year in jail in addition to a $1,000 fine. The Congressional action prompted a group of studio executives, acting under the aegis of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, to fire the artists – the so-called Hollywood Ten – and made what has become known as the Waldorf Statement. It was announced via a news release after the major producers met at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and it included a condemnation of the personalities involved, effectively ostracizing those named from the industry. These producers instituted compulsory oaths of loyalty from their employees with the threat of a blacklist.

  • Alvah Bessie, a writer who had worked for Eugene O'Neill, fought in the Spanish Civil War, and translated avant-garde French literature

  • Herbert Biberman, writer-director who had opposed war with Hitler during the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

  • Lester Cole

  • Edward Dmytryk, Oscar-nominated director known for Raymond Chandler adaptations

  • Ring Lardner Jr.

  • John Howard Lawson, head of the Hollywood branch of the Communist Party USA

  • Albert Maltz, writer of left-wing sympathies whose books included the popular novel The Cross and the Arrow (1944) about the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany; his name was removed from widely-ridiculed Christian epic The Robe (1953)

  • Samuel Ornitz, writer, founder of the Screen Writers Guild, prominent supporter of the miners in the Harlan County WarWikipedia, and screenwriter of films including race drama Imitation of Life (1934) and anti-Nazi film They Live in Fear (1944)

  • Adrian Scott, film critic, screenwriter, producer, and Communist Party USA member

  • Dalton Trumbo


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