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 1581 Mr. Tavenner. Very well, sir. Mr. Berkeley. There were approximately 50 people at Mr. Tuttle s home, party people and nonparty people, and at this gathering I met V. J. Jerome again, and he was delivering a lecture that night on Trotskyism. Mr. Tavenner. Do you know of your own knowledge the circum- stances under which V. J. Jerome was sent to Hollywood or came to Hollywood ? Mr. Berkeley. Jerome was sent to Hollywood to organize Holly- wood, to organize the talent groups, the actors, the directors, and so forth, writers, and to give what aid and assistance out of his long experience he could to the groups in the IATSE. Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee the functions that V. J. Jerome performed in carrying out that objective? Mr. Berkeley. Well, V. J. addressed many meetings of party and nonparty people. He spoke on such matters as Spain, on Hitlerism, on Mussolini, on the labor situation ; he spoke of the role of writers in the changing world; he made many such speeches and many such con- tacts with people. He was a rather diffident person when you met him and people liked Jerome. He was able to contact a number of people, recruit people to the party, gain financial support from people, I believe, who never became party members but were angels for many, many years, and I wish I knew who they were. He did a thoroughly good job. His job was so good that we are all here today because of it. Mr. Tavenner. Well, as a result of his work what occurred? Mr. Berkeley. As a result of the work that was done by Jerome, groups of actors were enlisted in the current squabble that was going on at the guild, inside the Screen Actors' Guild. Mr. Tavenner. Now, before we come to a discussion of that, can you give us the names of persons known to you at the time, persons who later were known to you, to be members of the Communist Party who attended this first meeting at the home of Frank Tuttle which was being addressed by V. J. Jerome ? Mr. Berkeley. There were approximately 50 people at the meeting. Looking back on the meeting I would say that approximately 20 of these people were later revealed to me in fractions or in party groups as members of the Communist Party. One of the most active there was John Bright, a screen writer whose wife, Josephine Bright, was an organizer in the Mexican section of this community. Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell his last name, please. Mr. Berkeley. B-r-i-g-h-t. John Bright. His wife's name was Josephine Bright. I also met for the first time Lionel Stander, who later became chairman of the actors' fraction. With him was his wife—his then wife, Alice Twitchell. It is interesting to know that sometime later during the strike at the Hollywood Citizen News, for which I gave a benefit at my home for the striking newspapermen, at which we raised approximately a thousand dollars, I believe, to help the newspaper Guild, and I am very proud that we did, Stander was at this meeting and called me over into a corner and introduced me to Comrade Harry Bridges. Mr. Tavenner. You refer to Stander as the chairman of the actors' fraction, if I understood you correctly. Mr. Berkeley. Yes, sir.