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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3532 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Tavenner. When you speak of "the Butlers," to whom do you refer ? Mr. Roberts. Hugo Butler, who was a writer, and his wife Jean Butler, who was also a writer. Mr. Tavenner. Was Mr. Schoenfeld there? Mr. Roberts. Oh yes, indeed. Mr. Schoenfeld was there; yes. He escorted me proudly into the group. Mr. Tavenner. What was that ? Mr. Roberts. He escorted me proudly into the group. I was the' catch. Mr. Tavenner. How long did you remain out of active attendance in the Communist Party when you left in July or August of 1946? Mr. Roberts. I can't place—1945, Mr. Tavenner—in terms of dates, but it is very simple to pick up. Somewhere in the middle of 1946, when the CSU strike became very hot, the party sent somebody to see me, and I again think it was Ed Huebsch, and the basis of my coming back, and they wanted me to come back because the CSU fight they felt required everybody. They sold a bill of goods on the basis of this being the fight for the only honest unions in all of Hollywood. Mr. Tavenner. You referred to CSU ? Mr. Roberts. This is the Conference of Studio Unions which I believe was run by Mr. Herbert Sorrell, and it was a series of minor independent guilds. There was no party speech at all; it was merely if Hollywood was to survive we had to have honest unions and all that the party cared about was protecting these unions. So it is at this point that I returned, I would say, somewhere around the middle of 1946, and I was assigned to a group in the Bronson area. Everybody at whose houses we met seemed to live somewhere around Bronson, either up the hill or down the hill, but within an area of a couple of miles. It was actually out of the neighborhood in which I lived. Mr. Tavenner. Who were those who were members of that group ? Mr. Roberts. In the group that I belonged to were Herbert Bi- berman, who was a director; Michael Uris, who was a writer and a story editor; Mrs. Michael Uris, who was Dorothy Tree, the ac- tress; Mr. and Mrs. Edward Biberman. Mrs. Biberman was Sonja Dahl—I believe that is the name she used professionally—and Ed- ward Biberman was a painter. Hugo and Mrs. Butler, John Berry, the director; Mr. Schoenfeld; a writer named Irwin Lieberman; Carl Foreman, who was a screen writer and who dropped out a few weeks after I came back due to the pressure of work; and a man named Alex Greenberg. Now, I don't know what he did, or what his profession was, but he was the organizational secretary. He seemed to come in with the agendas and everything connected with procedures. The group then, I understand, was very much smaller than they were during the days of the CPA, and this would be probably the whole group. Mr. Tavenner. You mentioned Edward Huebsch as a member of the first group. Was he a member of the second group also ? Mr. Roberts. Yes; and I believe Mrs. Huebsch was too. Mr. Tavenner. What was her first name? Mr. Roberts. I don't know. Mr. Tavenner. Do you know whether Paul Trivers, who was a member of the first group, was likewise a member of the second group ?