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

3514 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY by being a script clerk. I had just gotten out of college and the first job I could get was in the stenographic department at MGM, where I worked for about a year. I later became a script clerk and eventually sold my first story and I have been writing ever since. Mr. Tavenner. Now, will you tell the committee, after giving us that background, just how you became a member of the Communist Party and what your experience was within the party? Miss Lennart. Well, when I was first out in Hollywood, I must say I don't want to be making excuses for myself, but it was the first time I had ever been away from home, except for college. I knew nobody in the entire town. I had this tough job in New York and this one took no training at all. I think I was signing fan mail letters or something of the sort. I was feeling completely useless as a human being. I wasn't doing anything for anybody but myself. This was during the rise of nazism which terrified me as it did many other people, and I talked about it a great deal and I felt as if I wanted to do something about it, not just talk. I met a reader at the studios, whose name was Jessie Burns Mr. Tavenner. What was the name ? Miss Lennart. Jessie Burns, who was very kind and very friendly to me, and, as I say, I knew no one, and who, maybe, made me believe or convinced me that everybody was talking about nazism but only the Communist Party was trying in an organized way to do something about it. We talked about it a great deal and I was very interested because this fear was a very real one, as it should have been, I think. Jessie told me about a studio group that was being formed which would consist of people who were not members of the Communist Party, although it would be under the auspices of the party, and that its purpose was to discuss current events, economics and so on, in- cluding the whole question of Hitlerism and what could be done about it, and suggested that I join this class, which I did. It Avas a class of seven or eight people, and this was, I would say, I think in 1938. It was a long time ago. There were about six or seven or eight people. I would say I have never seen any one of these people again. I think they were mostly white-collar workers but none from my own studio. Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall the names of any of them ? Miss Lennart. No; we used first names in this group. I must give an explanation. I only went to three or four meetings of this class. I dropped out of it. I do remember the last name of the man who taught the class, whose name was Silver. I have never been able to remember the first name. Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall his first name? Miss Lennart. No, Mr. Tavenner, I don't. Mr. Tavenner. Can you give us an idea of the approximate age of the individual at that time? Miss Lennart. Anybody over 30 seemed ancient to me, I have changed about this since, but he was a comparatively young man. I would guess that he was in his thirties, possible middle or late. He was very, very thin, the thinnest man I have ever seen in this world, if it would help identify him, and very unhealthy looking. Mr. Tavenner. Where did these study groups meet? Miss Lennart. They met at people's apartments, and I am sorry to say that my reason for dropping out was exactly that. They had