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COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 2337 pose and intent to look into certain phases of the Communist Party- activity in California. I want to question you a little more fully regarding your activity in California. But before doing so, perhaps I should ask you addi- tional questions about your activities before going to California. You were interviewed, I believe, by a member of the committee staff in April of 1951, were you not? Mr. Blankfcrt. Yes, sir. Mr. Tavenner. You denied at that time having ever been a mem- ber of the Communist Party ? Mr. Blankfort. Yes, sir. Mr. Tavenner. You were asked if you had at any time come under the influence of the Communist Party and replied, as I am informed, "Yes, I think that while critical of much of it or part of it, in the early 1930's I was influenced by what I felt was not so much the Communist Party as the Communist view of Marxism." Mr. Blankfort. Yes, sir. Mr. Tavenner. Will you explain further what you meant by that 1 Mr. Blankfort. Please stop me if you think I am going on too long. Marxism, as I understand, and I have read a lot, I don't think that I have ever been thoroughly conversant with Marxism, but I have tried—in the early thirties I tried to understand what Marxism was. I never did finish Das Capital, the book Marx wrote, but I read a lot of popularizations. Marxism had, for example, the Socialist Party which considered themselves Marxists. The Communists or the Stalinist group of Communists considered themselves Marxists. The Trotskyite group considered themselves Marxists. In those days there was the Lovestone group and there, probably if I recall, perhaps six or seven groups, and each one considered itself the pure followers of Karl Marx. Now when I speak of the Communist angle or Communist view of Marxism, I am talking specifically about the Stalinist view. During those years what brought me first to interest was I looked for opportunities to fulfill what I considered to be the imperative for me, and that is to partake in the alleviation of human distress. Put it in its context it was the 1930,'s, there was a depression, this was shocking. Now of all these groups, only the Communist Party group seemed to be active. They were the ones who, at least to my knowledge, the ones who were big, important, and did things like fight for unemploy- ment insurance, for example. Now, unemployment insurance was a very serious thing in those days. I don't think there had ever been unemployment insurance in this country that I knew of. I am not giving the Communist Party credit for getting unemployment insurance; I want that to be clear. But they were active. They did call for unemployment insurance. So that when I say that I came under the influence of the Communist view of Marxism, I meant that I joined organizations which subse- quently I have now become convinced were Communist, pure Com- munist-front organizations, to put it that way. I would be honest to say that if you, Mr. Tavenner, had told me in 1935 or 1934, around that time, that the Committee to Get Un-