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Isobel Lennart and the Dynamics of Informing in Hollywood

2007; Routledge; Volume: 27; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439680701552596

1465-3451

Larry Ceplair,

American Political and Social Dynamics

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1 Hollywood Reporter, March 8, 1951, p. 3; Variety, March 14, 1951, p. 1. 2 The transcript of the executive session indicates that Parks named 12 people. But Betty Garrett, his wife, wrote that he was given a list of names, and that he read over the list with the Committee counsel. When he said the names of those who he knew to be members of the Communist Party, he was ‘not volunteering. He was reading.’ United States Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Investigation of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles Area—Part 6, 1953, 2303-06, reprinted in Eric Bentley (ed.) Thirty Years of Treason: excerpts from hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968 (New York, 1971), 337–345; Betty Garrett with Ron Rapoport, Betty Garrett and Other Songs (New York, 1998), 137. 3 Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1951, p. 1. 4 Howard Da Silva, interview in the radio documentary, Breaking the Blacklist, WBAI-FM, New York, 1976. For a thorough analysis of the informing sub-culture, see Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names (New York, 1980). 5 Hayden, the first informer to offer a form of public repentance, did not specifically say that he regretted his decision to inform, but he did describe his act in self-loathing terms. Sterling Hayden, Wanderer (Knopf, 1963), 390–392. Kazan, in his memoir, stated that what he had done was correct, but at first he was not sure that it was right. But, he added, ‘the truth is that within a year I stopped feeling guilty or even embarrassed about what I’d done.’ A Life (Garden City, NY, 1989), 465. Lennart made public her regret, in 1970, when Robert Vaughn interviewed her. But in his book, Only Victims (New York, 1972), Vaughn only mentioned Lennart's name as an informing witness; he did not include any portions of the interview. Large portions of the interview were reprinted in Navasky, Naming Names. Many of Lennart's scripts and some letters are housed at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. Her daughter, Sarah Harding, possesses some scripts, letters, and pages from journals. In addition, there are some letters from her in the Lucy Kroll Papers, Library of Congress, and in the Jerome Robbins Papers, New York Public Library. I am deeply grateful to Sarah Harding for her assistance. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Ned Comstock (Cinema and Television Library, University of Southern California), Barbara Hall (Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Carol Bowers (American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming), Kurt Jensen, and David F. Miller (Twentieth Century-Fox Legal Department). 6 Lennart's journals are in the possession of Sarah Harding. 7 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 255. 8 United States Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Communist Infiltration of the Hollywood Motion-Picture Industry—Part 8, testimony of Isobel Lennart, May 20, 1952, 3516. 9 This script is in the possession of Sarah Harding. 10 Communist Infiltration—Part 8, 3514–15. 11 This group was a Communist front focused on mobilizing movie audiences to pressure the studios to improve working conditions of movie workers and the content of movies. 12 Ibid., 3521. 13 SACLA to Director, November 9, 1944, file number 100-335744–1; SACLA to Director, January 9, 1945, file number 100-335774-2. (Freedom of Information files in possession of author). At the direction of Party head Earl Browder, the CP became the Communist Political Association in early 1944. This change was part of Browder's strategy to make communism more American. 14 Sylvia Jarrico, interview with author, September 2, 2006. 15 Communist Infiltration—Part 8, 3520; Hollywood Reporter, May 20, 1942, p. 3. Coincidentally, their script, now titled The Affairs of Martha, was directed by Jules Dassin (also a Communist). 16 Communist Infiltration—Part 8, 3513. 17 Hollywood Reporter, November 15, 1943, p. 3, and July 18, 1945, 3; Variety, July 18, 1945, p. 3. 18 Of her 28 screen credits, 20 were solo. Seven of the credits were for original stories, eight for adaptations, and 13 for rewrites of scripts written by other writers. 19 Philip K. Scheuer, ‘First Play a Smash for Screenwriter’, Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1964, p. D17. 20 Fay Kanin, speech at memorial for Isobel Lennart, WGAw News, March 1971, p. 4; Philip Dunne, Take Two: a life in movies and politics (McGraw-Hill, 1980), 98. 21 Lennart told an interviewer: ‘When we have a great year, we only lose $2,000.’ Charles Champlin, A Screenwriter Shares the Kudos, Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1967, p. C17. 22 Communist Infiltration—Part 8, 3522–23, 3528. She did not, however, cease all political activity. She signed the amicus curiae brief for the Hollywood Ten's appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a petition supporting the right of Albert Maltz, one of the Ten, to run for the board of directors of the Screen Writers Guild. 23 Isobel Lennart to Darryl F. Zanuck, February 4, 1952, Isobel Lennart File, Records of the Legal Department, Twentieth Century-Fox, Arts Special Collections Library, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. 24 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 254–255; Communist Infiltration, 3526–27; SACLA to Director, August 17, 1951, file number 100-335774-6. 25 SACLA to Director, December 20, 1951, file number 100-335774-7. 26 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 255; SACLA to Director, December 20, 1951, loc. cit. 27 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 254–255. 28 Ibid., 256. 29 Larry Ceplair and Steven England, The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the film community, 1930–1960 (Garden City, NY, 1980), 447 and Naming Names, 252 credit her with naming 21 people. Actually, she named 21 people from the movie industry and two Communist Party functionaries. 30 Communist Infiltration, 3527–28. 31 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 381–382. 32 Ibid., 257, 358. MGM executives had a similar relationship with Marguerite Roberts. When she invoked the Fifth Amendment in her testimony before the committee, the studio bought out her contract, which was something no other studio did for an unfriendly witness. 33 Fuchs, in his two-page recollection of his work on Love Me or Leave Me, does not mention Lennart. The Golden West: Hollywood stories (Black Sparrow Press, 2005), 248–249. 34 Maurice Zinn to Milton Beecher, June 26, 1954, Merry Andrew folders, MGM Collection, Cinema-Television Library, University of Southern California. 35 Scheuer, First Play; Theodore Taylor, Jule: the story of composer Jule Styne (Random House, 1979), 237; Lennart quoted in www.barbra-archives.com/magazinearchives/streisand_look_magazine1968.html. 36 Lucy Kroll to Isobel Lennart, May 21, 1964, Lucy Kroll Papers, Box 473, Library of Congress. I am grateful to Kurt Jensen who located this letter for me; Scheuer, First Play; Kanin, speech at memorial. 37 Isobel Lennart to Ray Stark, January 15, 1968, Isobel Lennart Papers, box 12, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. 38 Dunne, Take Two, 244. 39 Lennart interview with Vaughn, Navasky, Naming Names, 256–257. 40 Charles Champlin, Isobel Lennart—In Memoriam, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1971, p. C30.