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 3539 Mr. Velde. Did the Communist Party or any member thereof assist you in any way in obtaining employment or aiding you in your work? Mr. Roberts. I don't think they were ever in a position to do that. I don't know of any such case, not only apart from myself. Mr. Tavenner. Did you have any personal opportunity to observe the use that the Communists made of front organizations, generally ? Mr. Roberts. Well, the procedure is very much the same, I would say. The idea is either to start on a neighborhood level or an artistic level. If you can find five writers who have a cause, to send in two or three Communists would be the first thing, rally them in terms of the cause. I will try and think of one. I am sure there are many. Let us say the question of credits throughout the guild, or a question of writers' working conditions, or anything of this kind. They will form writers who are interested in the question of writers' credits generally, no more; but this now constitutes a nucleus from which to draw membership to the Communist Party. It constitutes a chance to accumulate funds, because where this money goes nobody ever seems to know. And it also doesn't prevent them from changing, well, the American Peace Mobilization to the American People's Mobilization. They have changed the name many times on many organizations. The organization could be started with one reason and finish with an entirely different reason for being if it suited the Communist Party. Mr. Tavenner. I omitted to ask you about the payment of dues. Mr. Roberts. Since I wasn't working during the time I was a member, or a great deal of it, all I ever paid was 10 cents a week, no more, no less. Mr. Tavenner. Were you at any time a member of the League of American Writers? Mr. Roberts. Yes, I was, Mr. Tavenner. This is all the way back in 1938 or 1939. I am sorry I omitted this detail. I was asked to join the board of the League of American Writers to promote cultural relations between writers of all nations. Mr. Tavenner. Who invited you to join the organization? Mr. Roberts. Mr. and Mrs. D'Usseau. I served on the board and didn't understand what they were getting at. I attended possibly one or two meetings, including one at the Pig and Whistle Restaurant, which is an open restaurant, in the main room, and at the end of a few meetings I quit the league entirely. But it is on this basis that Mr. Rinaldo felt that I was right in terms of joining the party. Mr. Tavenner. Then that is a direct example, in your own case, of the use of Communist-front organizations to recruit members? Mr. Roberts. Yes. I am sorry I didn't see the first implications of what I said. Mr. Tavenner. Have you given the committee the benefit of all of the information you have relating to Communist Party membership of persons in the entertainment field? Mr. Roberts. To the best of my ability, to the best of my recollec- tion; yes sir. Mr. Tavenner. Have you any other information you would like to add or give to the committee? Mr. Roberts. Yes. I would like to suggest two things, if I may, and I may be very presumptuous to do this. I would like to see the Com- munist Party outlawed. I would like to see it made completely illegal