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3456 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Odets. I have written more movies. Not many of them saw production, and frequently I was employed as a play doctor in Holly- wood to improve other writers' scripts. Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Odets, there has been testimony before the com- mittee that you were at one time a member of the Communist Party. Was that testimony correct ? Mr. Odets. Yes, sir; it was. Mr. Tavenner. When were you a member of the Communist Party ? Mr. Odets. My best guess on that would be from toward the end of 1934 to the middle of 1935, covering maybe anywhere from 6 to 8 months. Mr. Tavenner. Will you relate to the committee the circumstances under which you joined the Communist Party ? Let me put it this way: How were you recruited into the Commu- nist Party and by whom ? Mr. Odets. As has been testified here before, there were a number a small group, of Communist Party members in this Group Theater, of a total Group Theater membership of perhaps 35 there were four or five people who were connected with the Communist Party. Liter- ature was passed around, and in a time of great social unrest many people found themselves reaching out for new ideas, new ways of solving depressions or making a better living, fighting for one's rights, whatever those were. Mr. Kearney. What were those rights? Mr. Odets. Those rights would be to have steady employment. Mr. Kearney. Beg your pardon ? Mr. Odets. The rights to be steadily employed, for instance. I believe at that time there were perhaps 15 or 16 million unemployed people in the United States, and I myself was living on 10 cents a day. Therefore, I was interested in any idea which might suggest how as an actor I could function as a working actor who could make a living at a craft he had chosen for his life's work. These were the early days of the New Deal, and I don't think that one has to describe them. They were horrendous days that none of us would like to go through again. On this basis there was a great deal of talk about amelioration of conditions, about how should one live, by what values should one work for, and in line with this there was a great deal of talk about Marxist values. One read literature; there were a lot of penny and 2-cent and 5-cent pamphlets. I read them along with a lot of other people, and finally joined the Communist Party, in the belief, in the honest and real belief, that this was some way out of the dilemma in which we found ourselves. Does that answer your question? Mr. Tavenner. I think it does, except that you have not told us the exact circumstances under which you were recruited into the party. What was the process of recruitment used in your case? Mr. Odets. Well, it went that you read some pamphlets; you listened to some one talk, and finally a person would ask you if you didn't want to join the Communist Party. In my case it happened "No; I don't. When I am ready, I will." I was not ready that month, I was ready a month or two later. Mi-. Tavenner. Who was the individual who made that suggestion to you ?