"The film industry occupied a heroic place in the US during World War II because of its enthusiasm for the war effort, but its left-leaning policies aroused suspicion during the Cold War. Tensions between Congress and Hollywood came to a high point in October of 1947 when the US House of Representatives House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) launched a probe of communist influence in the motion picture business. Eleven members of the Hollywood film industryAlvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, and Bertolt Brechtpublicly denounced the tactics of the committee as a Communist witch hunt by refusing to answer questions regarding their Communist affiliation. They accused the committee of violating the Bill of Rights with their inquiry." Read more here.
