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

3474 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY plays received. I recall that you stated that your play, Waiting for Lefty, was referred to as a Trotskyite production, and that that was one of the reasons that impelled you to fall out with the Communist Party. You have stated today in your testimony that the criticisms that your productions received from the Communist press were instru- mental in your taking the stand, and finally determining that you would break with the Communist Party. In our examination of the Communist press, we have been unable to find any statement that your play, Waiting for Lefty, was ever referred to by way of criticsm as a Trotskyite play. You stated that you thought you had a clipping that would so indicate. Mr. Odets. Yes, Mr. Tavenner. When I left Washington the last time I was here I went through my press clipping books and found a number—in fact, I found for every play that I produced very bad critical reception from the left. So, as of two or three nights ago, I copied some of these out in my own handwriting, on a pad, and brought them along. I found that the phrase "Trotskyite tendencies" had been marked down as left tendencies, that I had better be care- ful of left tendencies, which in those days meant that one had better be careful not to be a Trotskyite. Mr. Tavenner. In other words, it was your interpretation that the criticism meant Trotskyite although there was no actual reference to Trotskyite? Mr. Odets. There was a rather amusing detail. One of the papers was Yiddish, from a paper called the Daily Freiheit, which was or is, I don't know whether the paper is still in existence, which is the Yid- dish Daily Worker. My memory would be in that, in the translation of that, the actual phrase Trotskyite was used. Mr. Tavenner. You spoke of the severity of the criticisms. The criticisms that you referred to were criticisms of a technical character regarding your plays, were they not, as distinguished from the criticism of your ability and your skill in portraying the characters ? Mr. Odets. Well, I would like to ask this, if I may: I would like to read you a few of them, and put a few of them in the record by reading them, and then let you make your own judgment of those. I think that they are generally all around very bad notices. Mr. Tavenner. You say generally bad. Was there a period of time in which the Communist press seemed to change its attitude regard- ing your plays? Mr. Odets. Well, I can only say that from the very first play, from Waiting for Lefty, on until my plays of a vear ago, the criticisms were sometimes good and sometimes bad, shockingly bad. I mean, I dislike being called a hack writer, but my last play I was called a hack writer in the Daily Worker. I don't know how you would categorize this sort of criticism but I call it very severe and very shocking. Mr. Tavenner. What was the purpose of the criticism, do you know? Mr. Odets. The purpose, I would think, would be to say "This man has gone off the track and while he has talent and we mourn his loss," so to speak, "we wish we could get him back." Mr. Tavenner. Did it also take on the character of a challenge to you to produce more plays depicting the strike episode as in your play "Waiting for Lefty."