The Red Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist
This week’s Hollywood Reporter carries the story, “The Most Sinful Period in Hollywood History,” about that publication’s role in the anti-Communist witch-hunt that led to the blacklisting of movie stars,…
By Gary Scott • • 1 min readOn tonight’s Which Way, LA?, we hear from Marsha Hunt about being blacklisted and the Hollywood Reporter apology.
This week’s Hollywood Reporter carries the story, “The Most Sinful Period in Hollywood History,” about that publication’s role in the anti-Communist witch-hunt that led to the blacklisting of movie stars, writers and others who refused to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Accompanying the story is an apology from Willie Wilkerson, whose father founded the Hollywood Reporter itself — and then used it to name alleged Communist sympathizers, ruining many careers.
On tonight’s “Which Way, LA?,” Warren Olney asked Marsha Hunt, 95, a former screen star and a surviving victim of the blacklist, what the apology meant to her. Here’s her response:
Joining Marsha Hunt on today’s show is historian Kevin Starr and Willie Wilkerson III, the son of the Hollywood Reporter’s founder and author of the apology. The full show is here: