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COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 2331 It is here, through Mr. Calverton, where I met such men, and this was part of his group, as John Chamberlin, you might remember, who was soon after, I think, literary editor of the New York Times; Henry Hazlitt. Mr. Tavenner. Spell the name. Mr. Blankfort. H-a-z-1-i-t-t. He was, I think, writing for the New York Sun then. Thomas Wolff, the great novelist. There was a Professor Dewey, a Professor Hook, Max Eastman, and others of that kind. There, to the best of my recollection, was the first time I met Mr. Budenz, because he was a contributor to the magazine, came to the house, which was open house. Of all the people of that group that I can recall now, he is the only one who became a member of the Communist Party. Mr. Tavenner. He was not a member of the Communist Party at that time? Mr. Blankfort. No, sir; he wasn't, because the distinguishing char- acteristic of this group was that it was anti-Communist, it was at- tacked frequently as a group and as individuals as anti-Communists during that period and, to the best of my recollection, I never saw Mr. Budenz after the time he left this group and became a member of the Communist Party. Mr. Walter. Before you proceed, you say this group was under attack. By whom ? Mr. Blankfort. By the New Masses and the Daily Worker. It was well known as an anti-Communist group. I don't mean to say that it was an organized group. This was a literary circle. Mr. Tavenner. You spoke of Dewey. Was that John Dewey ? Mr. Blankfort. Yes, sir. Mr. Tavenner. And Hook? Mr. Blankfort. Yes, sir, Mr. Tavenner. Was that Sidney Hook ? Mr. Blankfort. Yes, sir. Now, I want to add, if I might, because it is relevant and pertinent to this testimony, and I don't want to overexaggerate or overestimate, this committee has heard from countless witnesses in Hollywood, from the days in which I arrived in Hollywood, which was 1937, with posi- tions of authority in the Communist Party. I knew some of them as a writer in my trade. I knew some of the people who have testified before this committee. Not one of them has said that I was a member of the Communist Party. Now I think, if you will forgive this, I am a fairly competent person. If it had been my job to go to Hollywood to penetrate or even look into the problem of how to make Communists out of the Catholics, I couldn't have been so cleverly concealed, which is the implication of the testimony, that I could have gone into the Catholic circles, tried to convert them to communism, tried to take their God away, which is a very serious matter with me, and yet no one knows it. The fact is that there was nothing to know. The fact is that though I have been open in all my opinions, I speak about them, I have always maintained throughout my mature life an independent position, and I am sure we will go into that later.