Customer Reviews

Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist

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I had the opportunity to work with Kim Ornitz, whose grandfather, Samuel Ornitz was part of the Hollywood ten, and he gave me this book to review.

While much of the stories and anecdotes encased in this work moves very slowly, the work itself projects some interesting ideologies. It is well written, and details the perspectives of many who fell victim to the red scare during the McCarthyism period.

A must read for any film buff out there.

I grew up midwestern 1950's, in a hotbed of Mc Carthyism. Needless to mention, my ingrained image of who and what was a communist was somewhat different from the thoroughly humanized portraits that emerge in the pages of the book. Not that the interviews with individual victims of the blacklist result in glamorized or enviable cameos. They don't. Instead, we get a glimpse of what life was like for people of strong conviction who defied the fashion of their day even when it cost them dearly. The fact that most were communists was enough to demonize them in the eyes of so many of us, who, when it comes right down to it, were victims ourselves.

To those who have been assailed by America's peculiarly virulent strain of anti-communism, please read the book. It won't make a communist of you, but it will give you second thoughts about a political culture that regularly demonizes its opposition, whoever that may be. The interviews reveal not only an America that was, but in many ways an America that still is. The individual stories themselves are fascinating. The names are ones you may have seen briefly on a late night movie credit crawl. Here they come alive in their own words, names and faces that were on the screen one day, then gone the next. Not celebrities, but the kind of people who made movies memorable because they brought more than varying degrees of talent to their work, they brought social commitment.

I hope the authors soon bring us a similar volume on non-Hollywood victims of the purges, of which, I gather, there were thousands. Folks without marquee names, but with their own stories to tell about how the world was made safe for democracy.

That was the question during the "red scare" in Hollywood. Ironically, the government knew all the names of everyone involved in the Communist Party. What they wanted from Hollywood directors, actors, and writers was humble submission...give us names, pledge allegiance to the flag, abandon your liberal stances. As explained in this book...the issue was never whether the individual was to the right or to the left. It was always an issue of morality and honor. Many very impressive actors and directors bowed to political pressure. This book is the oral history of those...who did not. For example, Allen Boretz was offered a half million dollars for a popular script that could be turned into a film...but the deal included one extra condition - he had to confess his associations with others in the communist party, an organization he left years before. He explained that even if he was offered 900 million dollars for the script, he would not betray confidences. How many of us possess that kind of courage?

It's a good idea to read this book in conjunction with "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood" by Neal Gabler.

Fundamentally, this is an essential story of the movie industry, and by extension, America. Interviews with very intelligent persons (mostly scriptwriters - some directors...some actors/actresses) cover several topics: The individual's life in Hollywood, what attracted them to film business, their contributions to the art of filmmaking, their private thoughts about other actors and films, the reason they were attracted to liberal and sometimes communist party positions, and their lives after the blacklist. Obviously, there is some very interesting Hollywood "gossip" that might fascinate film buffs. (For example, how scriptwriter John Bright helped James Cagney get his big break in the gangster role in "Public Enemy.") But the larger theme is the Hollywood Blacklist and the very harsh impact it had on the people who protested against it. Dalton Trumbo summarized the era best: "I look back on two decades through which good friends stood together, moved forward a little, dreamed that the world could be better and tried to make it so, tasted the joy of small victories, wounded each other, made mistakes, suffered much injury, and stood silent in the chamber of liars."

This is as great a collection of oral histories as I have ever read...and I have read too many mediocre ones....Paul Buhle in particular has some kind of knack for bringing out the most interesting aspects of incredibly intense and interesting people, who have a lot to hide, but haven't....No better way to understand this dark nasty piece of modern history....

I love this book. Its first person accounts by the courageous men and woman who fought valiantly for social justice and economic equality for all people, and stood strong against reactionary forces are so inspiring and moving that I was often in tears.

The book is also immensely informative and even quite funny at times. It vividly presents an amazing array of personalities and is arguably the most affecting, revealing and far-reaching volume about the most shameful chapter in Hollywood's history

Tender Comrades is required reading. We are all indebted to Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle for gathering these testimonials, which are true profiles in courage.

For anyone that's ready to move past the historical books about the Blacklist period and is ready to hear more about the people involved this is the book to read. It contains interviews with 35 blacklisted personalities (many of them screenwriters, two of them were even in the Hollywood Ten) and deals with more than just the blacklist. This is an intimate book that gives a voice to those that are not often heard or have been forgotten. Many of these people led fascinating lives outside of Hollywood (one of them having fought in the war in Spain against the fascists), and you will hear about their own childhood, how they came to Hollywood, and all the dreams and visions they had before the Red Scare destroyed them. It is also interesting to hear these people talk about this turbulent time in their lives since it is something that can only be explained by those who were wronged. Some have moved on and forgiven the friendly witnesses while others still recall those horrible moments and refuse to forget and forgive their transgessors (which they have a reason to). Among those included are Norma and Ben Barzman, Hugo Butler, Alvah Bessie, John Bright, Ring Lardner Jr., Frank Tarloff, and Bernard Vorhaus. All in all, this book is clearly one to read.

This book is a good resource for anyone who wishes to study the Hollywood Blacklist during the 1940s through 1960s. It has excellent interviews with two of the original Hollywood Ten and proves to be a very interesting read. For further reading on the subject I suggest Naming Names by Victor Navasky.

It has been nearly 50 years since the Hollywood blacklist and they just can't get over what happened. The blacklist victims were hardly "tender comrades", they were dangerous people who sought to destroy the American way of life. The real enemy is not anti-communism, but communism itself. The KGB and Venona files have confirmed that everything McCarthy said was right. Why can't they get over this? Why? They need to get over this and move on.