Front row (from left): Herbert Biberman, attorneys Martin Popper and Robert W. Kenny, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole. Middle row: Dalton Trumbo, John Howard Lawson, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz. Back row: Ring Lardner Jr., Edward Dmytryk, Adrian Scott
On Nov. 25, 1947, the above artists, each found guilty of contempt during interrogation by the House on Un-American Activities Committee, were fired and/or suspended without pay, and told they would not work again until they signed a statement swearing they were not Communists.
Oh, and they also went to prison.
Thus began the Hollywood blacklist. It would be in operation for the next decade.
The result for Portland: In 1957, blacklisted filmmaker Andries Denium, unable to work in LA, moved here. His work as a film educator set in motion the chain of events which resulted in the magnificent Northwest Film Center.
The Hollywood blacklist ended, effectively, in 1960 when Dalton Trumbo (pictured above), who had been working under a pseudonym, was openly credited for his work on two hugely successful films: Exodus and Spartacus.
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