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

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412 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Dmytryk. No. I wasn't making much at that time. I also had a business manager. A Hollywood business manager is a very unique institution. In order to try to save your money, he gives you a very, very small allowance. I had an allowance of $25 a week. I sometimes gave $5 or $10, but I couldn't give a tithing because I would have had to go to my business agent. Business agents are capitalists, and I couldn't ask for money for the Communist Party. Then, too, I was never indoctrinated enough to know if I would become a serious member of the Communist Party. As it turned out, I didn't. Mr. Tavenner. You referred to another purpose of the Communist Party in its work in Hollywood as being the purpose of obtaining prestige. What did you mean by that? Mr. Dmytryk. Well, it did that by getting important names. This, too, is not so much for the party itself. I don't know that the party itself ever recruited any large number of prestige people. However, through what are now called Communist-front organizations, they were able to approach a large percentage, I would say majority, of the name people in Hollywood and get their names on resolutions or as members of boards of the Communist fronts. This is a complicated thing. When you say Communist front, you get the impression it is run by Communists. This isn't always true. I have seen Communist fronts where there are as few as one or two Communists. Also, there are two kinds of fronts. One kind is or- ganized by the Communist Party itself, or by certain Communists; and another is an organization that starts out as an ordinary liberal organization and is infiltrated by Communists. The Communists are tireless workers, as I think this committee realizes. Also as I think this committee realizes, one tireless worker in an organization can usually take over that organization in time. A Communist doesn't want to be president. He wants to be secretary. As secretary, he very soon takes control and will run the organization as a Communist organization. Another important point is that the Communist-f ront organizations, as such, were never engaged, at least overtly, in any activities that seemed undemocratic or unpatriotic, and that is why they were able to attract so many people. Actually, the work they did during the war was really good work. That is the way they were able to trap so many people. Mr. Tavenner. Not so rapid, please. Mr. Dmytryk. I will write a note to myself. I would say that for every Communist in a Communist-front organization in Hollywood, there were 100 non-Communists, and very few of them had any idea they were dominated by a Communist group. This was not because they were fools, but the Communists are clever enough to cover up that fact, and the work they do overtly appeals to many public-minded citizens. Mr. Tavenner. You spoke of a third and most important aim and object of the Communist Party as being the purpose of eventually obtaining control of the guilds and unions, as I understood you to say ? Mr. Dmytryk. Yes. Mr. Tavenner. What guilds were they that you referred to?