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One of these witnesses, screenwriter Martin Berkeley, named 162 persons he swore he knew as members of the Communist Party. His list included Dorothy Parker, who had spent some time in Hollywood as a screenwriter, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dashiell Ham- mett, Lillian Hellman, Edward Chodorov, writer-producer, and Michael Gordon, now a Broadway producer. Berkeley had originally been named before the Committee by Richard Collins. Berkeley later testified that after he learned Collins mentioned him, he sent a "very silly" telegram to the Committee. "I charged Mr. Collins with perjury and said I'd never been a member of the Communist Party, which was not true. I was not at that time a member and have not been for many years. [Berkeley left the Party in 1943.] Why I sent the telegram — I did it in a moment of panic and was a damn fool." But before Berkeley realized his "foolishness" and admitted there was truth to Collins' charge, sev- eral friends had begun to organize a defense fund for him. This campaign was under way when Berkeley sheepishly admitted that Collins had told the truth.* Berkeley joined the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals after his sensational testimony and became a leading figure in the organization. An MPA spokesman said not long ago that the group relied more on Martin Berkeley than on any of its other members to identify Communists and "Communist sympathizers" in the movie industry. During the hearings that followed the 1951 sessions, other co- operative witnesses who provided names for the House Committee included actor Lee J. Cobb, director Elia Kazan and playwright Clifford Odets. * In later years Berkeley was cited by columnist George Sokolsky as a prime exam- ple of an anti-Communist who suffered unemployment for cooperating with the Committee. Many in Hollywood, however, believe that by his erratic behavior Berkeley had made himself unpopular and it was this rather than his anti-commu- nism per se which caused his difficulties. 96