Communist infiltration of Hollywood motion-picture industry : hearing before the Committee on Un-American activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-second Congress, first session (1951)

COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 105 Mr. Tavenner. I am not questioning the skill of the group that were working there. Mr. Parks. Yes. Mr. Tavenner. I am talking about the influences Mr. Parks. That's right, Mr. Tavenner (continuing). Through Communist Party circles. Mr. Parks. The only way that you can influence through an organ- ization like the lab, in my opinion, is by the kind of material and the way it is done. Now, if you go down the list of the plays and the classics and the modern play's that the lab has done, everything from Shakespeare and before, playwrights of all countries, this is the only way I think that you can judge the worth of an organization like this. Mr. Tavenner. Well, do you agree that it was the object and pur- pose of the Communist Party to exert an influence through the profes- sionals in Hollywood in the advancement of the cause of communism? Mr. Parks. No ; I cannot agree with this at all. Mr. Tavenner. Are you acquainted with the report on the National Convention in Relation to Cultural Movement by V. J. Jerome, deliv- ered in 1938? Mr. Parks. No; I am not. Mr. Tavenner. Well, let me read this paragraph to you: And further we must more than ever impress the professions, our friends and sympathizers, that we have a positive approach also to their work. It isn't just a' question—they shouldn't imagine that they are just brought into the party as though to be turned into instruments apart from their work, but on the contrary that their coming into the party was their being friends of the party and sym- pathizers as in terms of their actual work. We do not always make this clear. The party increasingly cherishes and values specific qualities that the profes- sionals bring into our midst. Gone is the day when we just took a professional comrade and assigned him to do nondescript party work. We say, on the con- trary, "Comrades, you have something specific to give. You have the general con- tributions to make in your loyalty, in your dues payment, your attendance and your various duties and tasks to perform, but you have also a different contribu- tion to make, whether you are a writer, a film artist, a radio performer. We need this, no matter how valuable you are to the party on the picket line, and if in your turn you do not contribute you would not really be valuable to us." This is important to register. And we must also register the fact that the party is not satisfied with anything save the best in terms of quality and caliber and talent that the comrades can produce. Our motto is nothing is too good for the work- ing class, and not, as some say, and possibly by their inferior work, not because they are unable to do better but a sort of sloppy arrangement, that anything is good enough for the working class. We want quality. We want good leaflets, splendid posters such as the Communist Party of Germany used to put out when artists such as Kathe Kollwitz gave of their best to poster production, and, of course, murals and everything that is good. We want our basic agitational work to reflect that we have talented professionals in our midst, good sketches, good plays. In fact, unless the form is there the content is not there. Doesn't that indicate to you a very definite and determined plan and perfected plan on the part of the Communist Party to use its Com- munist Party cells in the advancement of its program in Hollywood as well as elsewhere ? Mr. Parks. That would be my impression from listening to you read that. Mr. Tavenner. In the entertainment field ? Mr. Parks. I can only give you what I personally know and what my particular knowledge is on this, what my opinion is about certain things.