ABC NEWS concluded the workweek on a happy note citing the Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas for contributing to Helping to Break Blacklist in 1960, by starring as Spartacus. A role all these years later, he’s now most proud of. Douglas, 95, though shaky from surviving a stroke, was more than eager to reveal a story he waited decades to tell when news anchor David Muir visited his home to film the interview. Mr. Muir’s narration described 1950s Hollywood as consumed by the communist blacklist. Writers, producers and actors were called before Congress amid rational and irrational fear of Communists. Mentioning names was enough to end a career and in some cases it can be construed that the commie label was manipulated to stifle competition from noncommunists who were union members.
Douglas told ABC News, “It was the worst time in Hollywood. Everybody told me I was crazy.” Because as a producer of “Spartacus” Douglas put his own career on the line hiring a writer on the blacklist. Dalton Trumbo, author of the novel, Johnny Got His Gun.
Trumbo had been hiding in Hollywood under an assumed name and ABC’s report showed Trumbo’s wife, Cleo, remembering the warnings. Saying people told Douglas, “If you do it you’ll never work in this town again. You will be declared a Communist.” But Douglas hired Dalton Trumbo anyway, and “Spartacus” became the top movie even President Kennedy went to see. The movie was box-office and so instrumental in breaking the blacklist.
And today ABC made their own small contribution.
6/29/2012
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6/29/2012 concluded: Trumbo had been hiding in Hollywood under an assumed name and ABC’s report showed Trumbo’s wife, Cleo, remembering the warnings. Saying people told Douglas, “If you do it you’ll never work in this town again. You will be declared a Communist.” But Douglas hired Dalton Trumbo anyway, and “Spartacus” became the top movie even President Kennedy went to see. The movie was box-office and so instrumental in breaking the blacklist.
And today ABC made their own small contribution.
February 10 - March 21, 2017
Wow. Let Dalton Trumbo and Roy Cohn rest can be said. The twists and turns of their eras vs. now, don't curve how they did for them and, only seem just as twisted?
This book, pictured left, Dalton Trumbo's 1939 parody of war's results is what he should be more known for than is. ...
War's tragic reality laid bare. The purposeful mayhem shattered by its' logic's futility. No matter how heroic our patriotisms are, when life's sacrificed, some unfairly
corrupt things are, at the core, involved after all. That should be dealt with, rather than sacrificing futures for ruthless wisdom's glory.
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The articles, linked under this paragraph, describe the contention Kirk Douglas assumed a, not completely accurate, mantle of glorification for standing up to the 1950's Communist Blacklist. But bottom line. It was in popular commercial culture that Mr. Douglas stood up to the ostracization. Of course Otto Preminger's Exodus, released the same year, included Mr. Trumbo's name. But Kirk Douglas was a star and the business is stars. Imagine how so much life's shaped by shading truth. Darn right, Kirk Douglas should have been the star of breaking that corrupt blacklist.
But, I suggest seeing the following articles for fuller explanations. The tag Paul Harvey coined "The Rest Of The Story."
How Kirk Douglas Overstated His Role in Breaking the Hollywood Blacklist
by John Meroney and Sean Coons
Deadline Hollywood - November 19, 2015
Kirk Douglas On ‘Trumbo’: “I Was Threatened That Using A Blacklisted Writer Would End My Career”
by Pete Hammond
Los Angeles Times - November 5, 2015
Trumbo sisters took part in telling the story
of their Communist Party member father
of their Communist Party member father
John Wayne Speaks For Himself
Amazon sold novel out?
capitalist socialist? "distract people all the time"
Los Angeles Times July 1, 1989
Death of I.F. Stone, 'Conscience of Investigative Journalism'
Death of I.F. Stone, 'Conscience of Investigative Journalism'
Izzy's credit for launching successful campaign to abolish the old House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Based on a little noticed U.S. Supreme Court decision (Watkins vs. U.S.) at that time, where Chief Justice Earl Warren pointedly asked, "Who can define the meaning of Un-American activities?", the Weekly devoted an issue on the HUAC question and Izzy was on the phone to friends all over the nation, including the writer, insisting that not another day be lost. -
Everyone pays a price for naiveté and some more than others.
To heroically walk on others is grandstanding. Therefore not the best legacy despite engaging mandates support. Pragmatic calls for distasteful compromise. While pragmatism yearns distaste's end. ...
Finished 2nd reading of The Autobiography of Roy Cohn.
A likable pugnacious portrait written by Sidney Zion.
A likable pugnacious portrait written by Sidney Zion.
And multilayered American Pie -
the novel's time @ 39 East 68
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2016
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Sense life's dancing on graves. The compelling narrative. This led to that. Then. Esoteric?
Even nuance misses. Though the clarity of assessment's disputable in this video, left. (And this essay, I presume.) Some fairly reasonable perspective is explained. The You Tube page's comments cover reactions to this Patrick Wanis 2016 film, George Orwell's 1984 Predicted Donald Trump & Alternative Facts.
Speculation's everyone's wrong more than anyone's right. Theories soar toward evaporation. Whipping past at phenomenal speed. If head over heels concern for "enemies of the people" is recited by a claimant not to read? Who could hardly be expected to have, at least, listened, really, when a teacher happened to review Ibsen within earshot. Signaling nothing more than the exploitation of the nation's, and world's, sycophantic drift. Meaning demolishing intellectuals is no intellectual affair. Power and leverage can't stop to think. Just expound, pound and compound.
When jargon's the complete sentences. Dialogue's gagged as if hammered. Theoretically, then, it's contend-able, the present Stalinesque-ian environment's so caked in celebrity, charade's the crux of not facing shame.
So, in our presently embellished politically cultural context, why not address the projected increase, in military spending, as reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's patriotically enshrined standing down of an already disabled, crumbling Soviet Empire? As an ideal? State capitalism wasn't a real political threat anymore. And both's bloated exploitations of patriotism were so much smoke, mirrored sycophantism became marks of sophistication. Trending:
Now, entering Spring 2017, as announced earlier, our president, who's spoken against telegraphing intentions to enemies, exhibited no problem alerting the Military Industrial Complex to increased spending's "come again." ... "Great again."
Which brings to mind my poor student's belief, at the time, that President Reagan could have lied and spent the money elsewhere. Guaranteed the Soviet's Military Industrial Complex couldn't stop any more than ours. ... But there's more to patriotism than exploiting loyalty's central theme. Except awareness trends, and momentum's carried away. Just as cents on the dollar grinds wealth, wilting fortune away. We're our own worst ruthless enemies holds true every which-a-way.
Smug's the word of disgust for today.
Calling the same, change, is the kicker. So, by all means, resume. Re-invigorate the cultural war. The custom whereby everyone's nearly enough enemies to be under suspicion. After all, short term? Presidents are excused. But all ruthlessness, as pragmatic as it might be, is just the same shallow jargon. Man. Independence. Kafka just glimpsed the tip of the corporation/government, conspiracy of individuals, bureaucratic nightmare.
Yes things are portrayed as being handled in a somewhat open manner. Holding forth in constant, entertainment, promotion mode that deflects any skeptical response to the vast injustices of the ruthless Criminal Enterprise System. Better system? Sir, your serotonin's out of your mind.
Painful, what's panned out. An authoritarian outlook on eliminating chemical use. Using misshapenly defined cultural war as substitute for dialogue in political exchange. For good or bad a reality. The grand diatribe of jargon people are trapped by. Strapped into intolerant political views and told its moral. Balderdash. Fostering festering crime's the business. Eliminating an aspect of life you disrespect is not jurisprudence but the law for the state at the detriment to the population. End the Criminal Enterprise System.
The Soapbox View was started with the hope that any political persuasion could read and think for themselves. Satire sliced Slant. However, on the big screen, arrogant vitriol's trending.
So noticing what the polishers of public imagery suggest, the State of the Union address talked about issues. What's obvious is everything's, as usual, just mentioned. Just more polish. The peanut gallery chose the response - "Ooo-ooo."
When the true face of ruthlessness rules with impunity.
This is a timely, relevant overview of Russian/American cultural history in -
The New York Times
Angels and Demons in the Cold War and Today
Stephen Boykewich
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