Inside Out: A Memoir Of The Blacklist [Paperback]

Walter Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2000

During World War II, Walter Bernstein was a correspondent for the U.S. Army magazine Yank; after the war, he joined the Communist Party. When Senator Joseph McCarthy began his notorious witch hunt for Communists in the late 1940s, Bernstein—a writer for film and television—found himself blacklisted. For a decade he would scrape a living together by selling scripts through front men. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post has called Inside Out "a lovely piece of work . . . a memoir of the blacklist that, without minimizing any of its offenses or forgiving any of its architects, finds humanity and humor in the period." The author vividly recalls an entertainment community torn between those who were willing and those who refused to denounce their friends, and he provides unforgettable glimpses of leading Hollywood figures such as Burt Lancaster, Elia Kazan, Bette Davis, and Zero Mostel. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has hailed this as, simply, "the best personal account of the era."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Walter Bernstein was a war correspondent for the U.S. army magazine Yank. During World War II, he joined the Communist Party in 1946 after he was inspired by the Communist partisans in France and Yugoslavia. (He had interviewed Marshall Tito for the magazine.) Shortly afterwards Joe McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities initiated its notorious witch-hunt for Reds in the government and, to garner publicity, in Hollywood, where Bernstein had become a writer for film and television. Though he successfully avoided appearing before the Committee, Bernstein was blacklisted, and forced to scrape a living together by selling his scripts through front men. In this memoir, he recalls the days of the blacklist, celebrates the movie business, and defends his political allegiances. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Those who saw the Soviet system as the hope of the future were embattled even before the Spanish Civil War became a focus for what was later called premature antifascism. For screenwriter Bernstein, the Communist Party of the 1930s opposed social and political injustice and had no Stalinist agenda. His wartime experience, including a period as a GI reporting about Tito for Yank, reinforced his ardor, and he obtained a Party card. Even earlier, however, Hoover's FBI was watching him, and when the postwar McCarthy witch-hunting began, he was a marked man. A blacklist based upon "terror, falsehood and profit" left him "isolated, marginalized, rejected and criminalized," able to write for film and TV only under pseudonyms. The furtive life working under fronts for a media world hostage to fear and hypocrisy has been exposed before, but Bernstein is the writer of the film about that contemptible era, The Front, and he vividly evokes the disgust only suggested on the screen. Yet the past, he confesses, has "a stubborn habit of conditioning the present." The memory of idealism, however subverted by Moscow, remains cherished by him despite the grossness of the gulags, the show trials, the crushed Prague Spring, the Red tanks in Budapest. There had been a cause, however vulnerable. Bitterness and nostalgia confront each other movingly in Bernstein's memoir, and the movie-addicted author's seemingly coincidental encounters, wartime and postwar, with the film musical You Were Never Lovelier have a symbolic resonance possibly even beyond his intent. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306809362
• ISBN-13: 978-0306809361
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,468,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Correction, June 25, 2003

By 

Dizzo Dave "Dave" (by the seat of my pants) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Out: A Memoir Of The Blacklist (Paperback)

Just a fact check here. The House Unamerican Activities Committee was NEVER run by Senator McCarthy. In fact, he was never on the Committee. He was a first year senator on the Senate Housing Committee at the time that HUAC became active in 1947. McCarthy didn't begin his anti-communist efforts until 1950. I would think the editor would do some research before referring to "McCarthy's House Committe on Un-American Activities." Plus, HOUSE means House of Representatives. McCarthy was a Senator. He was, however, a member of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Little different.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every American should read this book, November 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist (Hardcover)

Although Inside Out would make remarkable reading at any time, it's especially appropriate this year -- the 50th anniversary of the investigative hearings by the House Committee for Un-American Activities that resulted in hundreds of directors, actors, and screenwriters being blacklisted and forced to endure personal and professional hardship through the late forties, the 50s, and even into the 60s. A screenwriter with many wonderful films to his name, Bernstein has an unaffected writing style and dry wit, which make this book all the more appealing and powerful. Whether you are interested in memoir-writing, in the industry we call Hollywood, or in a shameful not-so-distant era in our country's history, Walter Bernstein's book is for you.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and timely..., July 26, 2005

By 

J.Z. (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Out: A Memoir Of The Blacklist (Paperback)

Having met Walter Bernstein prior to finishing the book probably helped me in understanding his point of view about the Blacklist. I believe that the pain and betrayal of colleagues such as Elia Kazan are downplayed in the book when Mr. Bernstein could have really exacerbated them. It is not an expose - but his personal memoirs about a time in his life when he struggled to earn a living due to government paranoia. I don't think that Mr. Bernstein's reason for becoming a member of the communist party has any relevance, which is his point. It is not unlike the experiences that certain Americans are experiencing today based on their beliefs and backgrounds. I think this is an interesting and thought provoking story which should be shared and revived to remind us of the dangers of censorship and government control.