| |
McCarthy’s witch-hunt
• THE headline “McCarthy’s bad guy role in a dark Hollywood drama”, and the sub-head “From Chaplin to Orson Welles, the anti-communist witch-hunt, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy took the tinsel off the town, as he went after A-List ‘Reds’, in the magical world of the movies” – are both totally incorrect, heading the review of Michael Freedland’s new book (Review, August 20).
Of course, the term “McCarthyism” is the most familiar way to describe the terrible witch-hunts of the late 1940s, and early 1950s in the US
When the reviewer goes on to refer to “McCarthy and his house of Un-American activities committee”, his confusion is apparent. Was there ever a “house” somewhere in Hollywood (or Washington) where “Un-American activities” took place? No. “House” is shorthand for the US House of Representatives, one of the two major branches of the US government’s legislature.
Here, and not in the Senate, is where the House Un-American Activities Committee was first set up, and began to go after the alleged “Reds” in Hollywood in 1947.
This was three years before McCarthy began his campaign in the senate in 1950, directed mainly at US government employees, especially in the State Department.
He himself never went to Hollywood.
Unfortunately, Michael Freedland’s book does lend itself to being misinterpreted in this way. Witch Hunt in Hollywood’s subtitle is McCarthyism’s war on Tinseltown, which could easily be misread as “McCarthy’s war...” need I say more?
Joel Finler
Haverstock Hill, NW3
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
