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

3480 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY has great value," another fellow would say, "No, he is not very good.'.' They would keep contradicting each other, and 1 suppose somewhere they made a rule and said "Now, look, let's don't drive these people away. Now let's send a more important man to review the play." So frequently you have a play reviewed two or three times. The same play would be reviewed two or three times, and I am guessing on the basis of trying to tie the writer closer. "Don't chase him away, don't say harsh things. Ameliorate these statements by a second review." This is what would happen. Mr. Tavenner. Now, I think I should read the criticism or part of the review made by Michael Blankfort, which appeared in New Masses on March 5, 1935, when he reviewed Awake and Sing. Now, he took the position that Awake and Sing was not as great a work as Waiting for Lefty. But he said this: Awake and Sing was worth seeing because Odets is one of the new revolution- ary voices, because he has something invigorating to say, because he says it in a fresh way. He also criticizes one of the play's characters for realizing his mis- sion out of mysticism, rather than out of an understanding of social forces as it should be in a revolutionary play. Blankfort concedes that Mr. Odets was growing into a revolution- ary understanding of those matters. Now, what was your interpre- tation of that criticism? Mr. Odets. Well, sir, you are doing what I have done. If I may say so, you are taking out of his review of March 5, 1935, certain praise. Well, what I have taken out is certain dispraise, and what I had him saying here is— The types, delete, are no more than characters in a play, well documented puppets, delete, nothing advances through them and they do not grow. Reminds me of etchings you can catch with the first superficial glance. If the characters in Awake and Sing aren't burlesqued, the credit must go to the director. Too often for the help of a play, a situation is created out of nothing just to get across a wisecrack or a lift. This was the most serious play I had written. This had been re- ceived by the leading newspapers of New York as a minor master- piece. Here were my friends on the left publishing these sort of things. Mr. Tavenner. And he followed it by stating that if the audience was staying for a laugh it would miss the real revolutionary message in the play; didn't he? Mr. Odets. Something like that. Mr. Tavenner. So your position is that these various items of criticism and praise were designed to pressure you as a member of the party into writing more in line with the party dictates and the party policy, is that what I am to understand? Mr. Odets. Yes, I would say that they would want me to write more from their world point of view. Mr. Tavenner. Well, didn't you write later on Communist themes? Mr. Odets. On Communist themes? Mr. Tavenner. Or Communist experiences? Mr. Odets. I have said before, Mr. Tavenner, and would like to say again, that I have always tried to write not out of any themes to one side of myself, but to themes that were central and germane to my own life. I do remember stating at our last meeting as an ex-