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 419 You hear in Hollywood more than anywhere else the word "break" used. If you ask a successful person in Hollywood how he got there, he will never say, "I got here by hard work and personality." He will say, "I got the breaks." Of course, hard work and personality count a great deal, but "breaks" count too. When I was a projectionist the head of the cutting department came to me and an older man who was also a projectionist and gave both of us an opportunity to become a cutter. The older man wouldn't take it. He wanted security, and preferred to remain as a projectionist. I took it. He is still a projectionist, and I am a high-salaried director. I took the chance. We think, "There but for the grace of God go I" when we see some- body not so successful. As a result, a person in Hollywood is really interested in bringing up the general level of people around him. He knows he can't do it individually. He knows it wouldn't do any good to give five bucks here or there. He looks around for some organization in which he can work that does these things. He finds Marxism because it is waiting for him. Of course, it is not that simple. He doesn't just open his eyes and see Marxism and say, "That is for me." The Communist Party has laid very clever fly traps for him. These organizations are all around him. And most of the work they do is very good. Their overt pur- pose is certainly good. They may eventually be used for other purposes. These organizations are not for the long-term work of the Com- munist Party. They are used to attract many people. They not only attract those who become Communists, but they attract many who never become Communists but who give the Communists the advan- tage of their time, their work, and their money. The average man who joins the party, I think Koestler said 7 out of every 10 who joined the party got out. The phrase has been used that the same ideals that took them in the party took them out again. The average person who goes in finds there is no freedom of thought; that the discipline is a very harsh one. If it had not been for my experience in connection with Cornered, I might have gone on for some time before I would have dropped out of the party. The party has a very good explanation for everything that troubles a man. If he says he doesn't have freedom, the great explainer, whoever he is in that locality, will point out that he has freedom to tell the truth; that the Communist Party has discovered the ultimate truth, and within that limit he can speak. Anything outside of the party line is a lie. Of course, anything capitalistic is basically a lie because it comes from a system they consider dishonest to begin with. So when a man accepts this thing he believes he is following the truth. When a man leaves, like Albert Maltz, he is brought back in line or thrown out. Many go out. Something else takes place. You are isolated. You are surrounded by people who believe as you do. The people talk a lot. but they all agree with each other. You go to a party or to a friend's house, and you simply make statements and agree with each other, and of course damn the capitalists. You become isolated so much that after a while