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132 COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY
Mr. Stripling. xVre yon faniiliiir with any anti-C'omnmnist films or scripts wliich liave been submitted or films which have been protlnced in Holl3'W()0(l ?
Mr. HuGHKs. I can tell yon of two experiences. One of them happened to me.
A man came to me and wanted to do an anti-Commnnist film bnt was afraid to do one directly attackin<): them, for fear they wonld wreck the theaters, so he asked me to do a picture ridicnling Communists and said AVarner Bros, would be interested in it if I could fui'uish a story.
I went over it at luncheon where Jack Warnei was present, Al Jolson, who was then a stockholder, and otliers. They were vei-y enthusiastic and paid me $15,000 to write about a r),000-word plot attackin<»; American Communists.
In the meantime Hal Wallace, who was their business manager, had been on a vacation and he returned. He said, "You are insane to attempt even a comic picture about American Communists because they will put stinkpots in every theater that tries to show it." ♦
They were scared off and never did the picture. I had my $15,000 and I still have my story.
This is hearsay but one writer, Galvin Wells, now an American citizen who was an Englishman, went to Russia, took motion pictures and came back and wrote a book called Caput, because everything in Russia was broken to pieces, all the taxicabs, all the automobiles, all the machines. Everything was caput.
He got his jiicture through with some difficulty and some cleverness. He told me — this is only hearsay — that he sold the picture to Sol Lesser. Sol Lesser was making a big motion picture of it when the wife of one of the leading Communist writers — herself being a very prominent Communist — went to Sol Lesser — this so I am told by Galvin Wells — and said, "If you show that picture we will cut up the upholstery and destroy every theater where it is shown." Sol Lesser dropped it.
I saw the picture about 4 weeks ago. That atmosphere Avas there, and any producer who had the faintest idea of attacking the Communists was scared out, frightened by a conspiracy to wreck the theaters, put stinkpots in the theaters, parade in front, picket them, and everything else.
There has been that tyrannical domination. Hollywood writers, producers, and directors who are anti-Connnunist have been scared into silence.
The Chairman. May I interrupt you there?
Mr. Hughes. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Mr. Hughes, you may have brought in a new point that we have not had given to us before, and that is the main reason why the producers do not show anti-Communist films, because of the fear they would have that the Communists would go in there and disrupt the audience in the theater and in that way they would not make any money as a result of showing these pictures. That is a new idea you have given to us.
Mr. HucJHES. I think you could find a thousand instances of it. You know what stiidcpots did at restaurants where they had labor trouble and picketed them.