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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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2322 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Levy. Mr. Huebsch. Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell the name, please ? Mr. Levy. You spelled it a minute ago. Mr. Tavenner. I know. Mr. Levy. H-u-e-b-s-c-h. Mr. Moulder. During all that time you referred to, as being asso- ciated with the Communist Party or the Political Association of the Communist Party, would you say it influenced your writings, books, or an}^ other publications or works that you have done? Mr. Levy. No, sir; it did not. Mr. Moulder. Then the association you had with the Communist Party organization, or with the Communist Party members, did not influence in any way your publications or the work that you were doing; that is, the philosophy or the belief of those people or the party organization ? Mr. Levy. No, sir. Mr. Moulder. Your answer is "No" ? Mr. Levy. My answer is "No." And I am smiling because one meeting that I remember clearly, the content of it was on literature. Mr. Tavenner. Speak a little louder. Mr. Levy. The one meeting I remember clearly, and I don't know why I remember it, was on the question of literature. It was on the question of realism and naturalism. The announced subject was Marxist Criticism. And I think of myself as knowing something about these subjects, and I was told by a girl whom T had neverseen before or since that I had no right to know about these subjects, because she, who represented the working class, understood them instinctively, and she disagreed with me, and therefore I must be in error. Mr. Moulder. Was there ever any attempt on the part of any of the members of the Communist Party or the organizations you men- tioned in your testimony to influence you or to persuade you to write in such manner as would include the Communist philosophy or belief? Mr. Levy. Nothing that is overt, excepting in a kind of an almost automatic sense, that you are influenced by the people that you are with. If I spent time with you, I would be influenced by you, and you would be influenced by me, I mean, that kind of thing.^ But there is only one time in my life that somebody has said, "This is what you have to write." Mr. Moulder. Then was it your purpose, in joining the party in 1933, as well as associating yourself with the meetings that you have mentioned in 1944, to inform yourself or to broaden your information concerning the workings and the functions of the Communist Party organizations in this country? Was it curiosity, or what? Mr. Levy. I am trying to find a way of saying this so that it doesn't sound kind of silly. But my purpose both times was in the hope that I would find a way of leaving my kids a better world than I lived in. And when I found that I was not doing that, then I didn't want to do it any more. I have lots of kids. Mr. Tavenner. Who was this person who stated to you that you should not think as you were thinking ? Mr. Levy. As I say, it was a girl I never saw before or since. Mr. Tavenner. Was this in one of the Communist Party meetings?