Communist infiltration of Hollywood motion-picture industry : hearing before the Committee on Un-American activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-second Congress, first session (1951)

3466 COMMUNISM EST HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY lege students, that one should fight out on that line. If you believed that. It was not simply a tactic to get your name in the newspaper or a tactic to get some newspaper space, but you really should fight about that. When the arrest took place the whole matter seemed to be dropped. So I, simply on that matter, I went back to New York with a great deal of indignation, talked really to very few members of the delegation going back on the boat, and later, I can't remember whom, but spoke to someone in New York and was rather aroused by this idea that we had been manhandled, because we were, and I was indignant because no one seemed to make a fight about that. Dur- ing this time I also said it was very dangerous, which it was, because there were dozens of secret police there with machine guns, some of them dressed as dock workers in overalls. I said it was a very dan- gerous matter and they said, "Yes, it was so dangerous that we had originally intended to send Mother Bloor down as head of the delega- tion but it was so dangerous we didn't send her." She was an old lady. Mr. Kearney. They sent you down as chairman instead of Mother Bloor? Mr. Odets. So I said he might have at least told me this and given me the chance to decide whether I wanted to face machine guns. Mr. Tavenner. Who was it that told you that it had been the decision to send Mother Bloor? Mr. Odets. I don't know. Somebody that came to see me or I visited, I don't know. Mr. Tavenner. Was it the same person that designated you as chairman in the first instance? Mr. Odets. I don't remember who that was. Mr. Tavenner. Was it a Communist Party functionary who was giving this explanation? Mr. Odets. I will guess it had to be. But who that was, I honestly can't remember. Mr. Tavenner. Well, actually, this was nothing more than a Com- munist Party idea to send this commission to Cuba for its own propa- ganda purposes? Mr. Odets. Well, today, with a little more sophistication, I would say so. Mr. Tavenner. Well, Manning Johnson, to whom you referred as a person that you guessed was a member of the Communist Party, testified before this committee and admitted his former Communist Party membership, and in the course of his testimony he stated: I was secretary of the American Commission to Cuba and I was sent to Cuba to help the revolutionary forces there. I might say from the point of view of background that Cuba at that time was in a state of revolution. They had overthrown the government of Machado and the Mendieta-Batista revolutionary junta had come into power. We were as- signed to tour the islands and assist the Communist forces to overthrow this Mendieta-Batista junta and put in power Grau San Martin and his group. They considered the Grau San Martin government would be a government that would permit Communists to operate openly. That is all I can recall at the present time. But I do know we were thrown in jail down there and I never will forget the experience. Mr. Velde. Referring to your guess that Celeste Strack, I believe it was, was a member of the Communist Party. On what do you base it, on what facts do you base your guess ?