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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3470 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Frazier. Who gave you the letters ? Mr. Odets. I didn't have them, Komorowski had them. But I remember they were passed like a hot plate from one to the other. The police were in earnest boarding that ship with machine guns, and passed around and it got to be like a scene from a Charlie Chaplin movie. They were torn up and thrown overboard. I just remem- bered that for the first time. Mr. Frazier. So you didn't know who you were going down there to see ? Mr. Odets. No ; I didn't know. Mr. Frazier. Yet you were chairman of the committee. Mr. Odets. I was the nominal chairman. I wouldn't let that hap- pen today, let me say so. Mr. Tavenner. Did you write any articles for publication about the trip to Cuba? Mr. Odets. Yes; I wrote an article for the New York Evening Post. I was also an accredited correspondent for the New York Evening Post on that trip. And my memory is that I wrote some lengthy article for them. Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall any other articles written by you ? Mr. Odets. It is possible there was a pamphlet written by two or three persons, of which I was one. Mr. Tavenner. Who were the other persons who assisted in the writing? Mr. Odets. I am going to guess a very interesting man named Carleton Beals. Mr. Tavenner. Give us the name. Mr. Odets. Carleton Beals. Mr. Tavenner. Carleton Beals. Mr. Odets. He was not a Communist, but he was a fighting liberal and a very interesting man. Mr. Tavenner. I hand you a pamphlet entitled "Rifle Rule in Cuba," by Carleton Beals and Clifford Odets. Mr. Odets. Yes, sir; that is it. That is more than I had in my files. Mr. Tavenner. Did you write that part of the pamphlet that you see on page 11, beginning at page 11 ? Mr. Odets. I must tell you honestly that I don't know if I did. I know I wrote the New York Post article. I don't know. Mr. Kearney. When the witness has finished with that, will you let me see it, please? Mr. Tavenner. Yes, sir. At the conclusion, at the end of the pamphlet is a report entitled "Report of the American Commission to Investigate Labor and Social Conditions in Cuba." At the end of which appears the name "Ameri- can Commission to Investigate Labor and Social Conditions in Cuba, Clifford Odets, chairman, Manning Johnson, secretary," and giving the names of the other members of it. On page 31, which is the last page, is this statement: The provisional committee for Cuba was organized precisely for the task of unifying the efforts of the American people for assistance in the struggle of the Cuban people for freedom. It is especially vital that the American people help, for the way to freedom is barred primarily by American imperialist domination of Cuba. Did you write that?