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

COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 3509 represents an intervieAv by a reporter for the Daily Worker. In this article you are identified as Clifford Odets, well-known left-wing play- wright. According to the article, you were questioned as to whether you had made an effort to turn out scenarios with social content while in Hollywood. You will observe that you were quoted as saying: Well, I got away with some stuff in The General Dies at Dawn and in the other two scripts that I did, The River Is Blue and Gettysburg, but they have been careful with me. They go over my stuff with a fine-tooth comb. It is dilii- cult to do anything with social significance. Do you recall the interview that is related there, or did you have such an interview? Mr. Odets. I remember reading this from your hands a few weeks ago, and saying that I thought the whole matter was nonsense because The General Dies at Dawn is a picture that starred Gary Cooper and done by Paramount. There was nothing of any subversive or propa- ganda nature in it. Gettysburg is a picture in which Abraham Lincoln is the hero. And The River is Blue I did not write. Therefore, I couldn't have made this statement to speak specifically about what is in it. To speak generally, I go to Hollywood to make a living, not to write something, while I am making a living, not to demean or disgrace American people as I believe many people do. But to make an honest living after writing entertaining scripts. I have never gone to Holly- wood as a propagandist. I think nothing gets by anybody in Holly- wood. I don't think Hollywood has ever made a movie with left propaganda in it. And I think the whole matter of social messages from Hollywood has been talked about in relation to something that really cannot happen. All scripts are carefully written and rewritten and gone over with fine combs in Hollywood, and I never in my life bad any intention of going to Hollywood and making a two million dollar picture which was a propaganda picture. This is simply such a contradiction in terms that the idea is just a silly one. Mr. Wood. Then it is finally your conclusion that you were mis- quoted ? Mr. Odets. I am misquoted all the way through there. I suppose if the interview took place it could not have been a friendly interview, because when I look at the top of it, it very sneeringly refers to me as a man who gave up his career and went to Hollywood to make his gold. The opening of the interview is extremely unfriendly. So if it were, I could not have been very friendly with the interviewer. Mr. Wood. Did the contents of it come to your attention at that time ? Mr. Odets. No, sir, Mr. Tavenner brought that to my attention some 3 or 4 weeks ago when I was here. Mr. Wood. Was that the first knowledge you had that you were misquoted '. Mr. Odets. That was my first knowledge of it. Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall that an interview took place with the person whose name is mentioned as the interviewer? Mr. Odets. I think it says Burns. No, I don't know who that is. May I see that again, please. I have no idea who that is, and I have no memory of the interview— 1937, that is 14 years ago. I was quoted as saying, "Social drama isn't dying, it never really lived." That is what he quotes me as say-