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62 COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY
Mr, John S. Wood. What percentage of the membership of those organizations would you say now follow the Communist line?
Mr. Wood. I think you misunderstood. I said that the Motion Picture Writers Guild was controlled by the Communists but they are a very small portion of them.
Mr. John S. Wood. How do they control it ?
Mr. Wood. Well, sir, how do they control labor? After all, there are a lot of ways they do it. They call a meeting, they start arguments, it gets to be around 12 o'clock and they are still going, the people go home, and then they pass what they want to pass. They have got that down pretty cleverly. Of course, they like to put up people who are not members of the Communist Party. It is much more favorable to them to have a man who is a good Catholic, for instance, stand up and say, "I am not a Communist," but he is talking for them.
Mr. John S. Wood. You say you have been in the producing. business how long ?
Mr. Wood. I have been in the motion-picture directing and producing end for over 30 years.
Mr. John S. Wood. During that time you directed pictures for various studios ?
Mr. Wood. Yes, sir; I started in with Paramount and then went to Metro. I think I was with those two for 20 years. Then I went on my own. I mean, I didn't go directly to that. I have made pictures— if I liked the story I have made a picture. For instance, I wanted to get Gary Cooper for For Whom the Bell Tolls and (xoldwyn would only let me have him if I made Lou Gehrig. But I have been producing my own pictures for the last o or 4 years.
Mr. John S. Wood. I would like to have your opinion as to the views on communism or other subversive influences embraced by any responsible studio head or producer for whom you have worked or by whom you have been employed.
JSIr. Wood. I have never come in contact with any heads of any studios that were Communist inclined or favored it or weren't willing to tight against it. For instance, in our own country we weren't very conscious of it until very recently. I think now you can depend on them. They will take as strong action as the Government or we will take with them. I am positive of that, of the men I know.
Mr. John S. Wood. I believe that is all.
The Chairman. Mr. Nixon.
Mr. Nixon. Mr. Wood, you have indicated that the organization which you have described believes that it is essential for Hollywood to direct its attack against both the Fascists on the one side and the Communists on the other?
Mr. Wood. Yes, sir.
Mr. Nixon. And you have indicated that when your organization was formed there were certain elements in Hollywood which leveled some pretty severe attacks upon your organization and that those attacks were limited to that part of your program that had to do with anti-Connnunist activities?
Mr. Wood. Yes, sir. None of them referred to us as Communists at all. It was sort of a mouth-to-mouth thing. They would call up. For instance, Jewish members, they oven called them anti-Semitic. Labor people were antilabor. It didn't make any difference. But they kept it up. You can't stop that.