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Paul Robeson was a remarkable singer, a brilliant actor, and an engaged political activist. In his college years he was a football star. Throughout his life he campaigned for the rights the poor, the disadvantaged, and the oppressed. His most famous theatrical role was Othello; when he played the part in London and in New York he was one of the first black actors to do so. The New York production ran on Broadway longer than any other William Shakespeare play had done. But Robeson's life, which included political and racial attacks, the loss of his US passport, and claims that he was "un-American" (he visited the Soviet Union and compared its treatment of minorities favorably to that of the United States) led to a series of encounters in which Othello , both the role and the play, was in effect reenacted in public, culminating in Robeson's eloquent testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. This essay traces the connections, and the sometimes-uncanny crossovers, between Robeson's life and Shakespeare's play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the three major feature films that have retold the story of the entertainment industry blacklist—The Front (1976),Guilty by Suspicion (1991), and The Majestic (2001)—to make an argument about the way that “consensus” ideology has circumscribed the memory of the blacklist. In gradually increasing degrees, the three films are representative of, and complicit in, the erasure of the radical, antifascist, multiracial causes of the blacklistees from their stories. Such recognition suggests the need to rethink contemporary understandings of how collective memory is produced in popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the book "I am not a hero, I am a composer. Hanns Eisler in Hollywood," by Horst Weber. Information is provided on the activities of Austrian film music composer Hanns Eisler in Hollywood, California as well as on his experiences being blacklisted due to his alleged Communist sympathies.

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The article presents an examination of the film career of American director Cy Endfield. It examines the political aspects and impact of his first film, the 1943 short titled "Inflation," and discusses how the film resulted in Endfield being blacklisted in the motion picture industry in the United States. It traces his early career and examines how economic and social conditions in the United States in the early 1940s influenced Endfield. It discusses the allegations of communism that resulted from the film's initial release and examines Endfield's place in the history of American film.

We suggest that moral panics exert spillover effects through stigma by mere association. Individuals are harmed even if their ties to stigmatized affiliates are heterophilous, and high-status individuals can also suffer. This creates a broadcast effect that increases the scale of the moral panic. Analyzing the U.S. film industry from 1945 to 1960, we examine how artists’ employment in feature films was influenced by their associations with co-workers who were blacklisted as communists after working with the focal artist. Mere association reduces an artist’s chances of working again, and one exposure is enough to impair work prospects. Furthermore, actors’ careers are impaired when writers with whom they worked are blacklisted. Moreover, the negative effects of stigma by mere association hold even when the focal artist has received public acclaim. These findings have broad implications. When a few individuals or organizations are engaged in wrongdoing and publicly targeted, stigma by association can lead to false positives and harm many innocents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article recognizes the work of Philip Loeb (1891-1955), one of the leaders of the Actors' Equity Association, the union for stage actors, and a founder of the Television Authority (TvA), the first national trade union to represent performers in the emerging medium of television. Using his authority and experience as a member of the Equity Council, Equity's governing body, Loeb was among the first to argue for a merger of all national performers' unions involved in the field of television; to that end, he successfully campaigned for a merger plan that brought shape and form to the TvA. This research examines Loeb's sixteen-year career as a union organizer in the entertainment industry, specifically his efforts in helping bring the TvA to life. Much the result of his union work, Loeb was named in the publication, Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, for alleged Communist activities. Accordingly, this article also reviews the details of Loeb's blacklisting, and discusses his accomplishments as a union organizer against the backdrop of political catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different methods acting unions chose to face and fight the onslaught brought on by the blacklisting of their members in the 1950s are the focus of this article. The author explains that like other unions, the three American actor's unions, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and Actors' Equity Association (AEA) are expected to fight for the rights of their members, whether for better benefits, wages, or working conditions. Several examples of correspondence between SAG and the un-American Activities Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the post-war period a group of American filmmakers moved to Europe to resume careers cut short by the Hollywood blacklist. Although welcomed by the European film community, which was both sympathetic to their plight and eager to capitalize on their talents, job opportunities were scarce. The essay concentrates on the experiences of directors Joseph Losey and Jules Dassin in Italy, France and Britain. It discusses Losey's "Stranger on the Prowl" (1952), produced in Italy by Riviera Films, a company organized by blacklistees, the difficulties encountered by Dassin in Paris, France and the fate of various blacklisted filmmakers in London, England many of whom worked without credit with American producer Hannah Weinstein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-radicalism in the United States has a long history. During World War I, it was transformed into anti-communism and became embedded in the political culture of the United States for the next seventy-plus years. The author states that there were many varieties of anti-communism, but it can be divided into two main categories: official or governmental, and unofficial or nongovernmental. This article traces the development of those varieties that most impacted the motion picture industry, led to the blacklisting of hundreds of employees, and cast a pall of censorship over movie making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the literary genre known as the "flower registers," that recorded the charms and talents of the cross-dressing boy actors of the Qing dynasty. It discusses that Haapu writes genuinely appreciated the players of the metropolitan demimonde. It infers that the creation of the Haapu could well distinguish themselves as true connoisseurs and could reinvent a status different from the socioeconomic sphere. The discussion on the actors and their fans in Qing dynasty texts is also presented.

The article reports on the literary genre known as the "flower registers," that recorded the charms and talents of the cross-dressing boy actors of the Qing dynasty. It discusses that Haapu writes genuinely appreciated the players of the metropolitan demimonde. It infers that the creation of the Haapu could well distinguish themselves as true connoisseurs and could reinvent a status different from the socioeconomic sphere. The discussion on the actors and their fans in Qing Dynasty texts is presented.

The article reports on the literary genre known as the "flower registers," that recorded the charms and talents of the cross-dressing boy actors of the Qing dynasty. It discusses that Haapu writes genuinely appreciated the players of the metropolitan demimonde.It infers that the creation of the Haapu could well distinguish themselves as true connoisseurs and could reinvent a status different from the socioeconomic sphere. The discussion on the actors and their fans in Qing Dynasty texts is presented.

This essay discusses his own relation to queer theory, which has, some feel, become defunct as a literary tool although the author feels that in writing this article he has rediscovered it. Using Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's book "Epistemology of the Closet," the author explores how resentment leads him to thinking about queer theory and Jews. The author lays out the design of a discipline that he calls "sycoanalysis" to stand for the "psychoanalysis of a social order." The author is interested in how the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) allegedly forced some Jewish people to expose their colleagues in order to avoid being blacklisted. The testimony of choreographer Jerome Robbins before the committee is examined.

Several studies have shown the influence of ownership on media content in routine contexts, but none has quantitatively tested it in the context of a crisis. Recently the country musicians the Dixie Chicks were blacklisted from the radio for criticizing the president in wartime. I use this event to test the role of media ownership in a crisis. Through analyzing airplay from a national sample of radio stations, this paper finds that contrary to prominent allegations grounded in the political economy tradition of media sociology, this backlash did not come from owners of large chains. Rather, I find that opposition to the Dixie Chicks represents grassroots conservative sentiment, which may be exacerbated by the ideological connotations of country music or tempered by tolerance for dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter from journalist Elizabeth Poe Kerby to magazine employee Hilde Adelsberger Levi regarding the blacklisting of suspected Communists in the motion picture industry is presented.