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 1585 Mr. Tavenner. Was any office set up by the Communist Party from which to function in performing these various objectives? Mr. Berkeley. There was, sir. We had our offices in the Taft Build- ing. Incidentally, the owners of the Taft Building, whom I don't know, did not know that they had a Communist Party headquarters in the Taft Building. The office was rented by Mike Pell under an assumed name and the telephone was also in an assumed name, and all there was in the office was—a little 8 by 10 office with a couple of files. I never did know why they had files there because the files were empty. We kept a bottle of Scotch there once in a while, but that was about all there was. Mr. Tavenner. You have spoken of the aims and objectives of the Communist Party generally in this area. I would like you now to tell the committee when and where the Hollywood section of the Com- munist Party was organized. Mr. Berkeley. Well, sir, by a very strange coincidence the section was organized in my house. From the time I got out here in January the party grew pretty rapidly. Jerome was working hard, Mike Pell was working hard, Lou Harris was working hard, and all of us were working pretty hard to recruit members. And we felt—you see, at that time there was no real organization, you were a party member but you had no place to go and meet. There were no real groups. There were a few study groups but that's about all. It was felt that numerically we were strong enough to have our own organization, which was called the Hollywood section. In June of 1937, the middle of June, the meeting was held in my house. My house was picked because I had a large living room and ample parking facilities, it was out on Beverly Glen, which was out in the country, at least in those days, and my lease was up in two days. So we had the meeting at my house. And it was a pretty good meeting. We were honored by the pres- ence of many functionaries from downtown and the spirit was swell. Mr. Walter. Is that "swell" or "smell" ? Mr. Berkeley. "Smell," I would say now. Mr. Tavenner. Will you give us the names of those who were in attendance at that meeting, who were members of the Communist Party ? Mr. Berkeley. Well, in addition to Jerome and the others I have mentioned before, and there is no sense in me going over the list again and again. I would like to get to the newer people, if I may. Eva Shafran, who was then, I believe, the educational director of the county, downtown, and who is now dead. Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell the name, please ? Mr. Berkeley. I think it is spelled, the first name was Eva, I think it is spelled S-c-h-a-f-r-i-n. 1 I'm not sure, but I think that is how you spell her name. Also present was Harry Carlisle, who is now in the process of being deported, for which I am very grateful. He was an English subject. After Stanley Lawrence had stolen what funds there were from the party out here, and to make amends had gone to Spain and gotten himself killed, they sent Harry Carlisle here to conduct Marxist classes. He was at the meeting. 1 According to information in the files of the committee, spelling should be S-h-a-f-r-a-n.