On this day: the Hollywood Ten are blacklisted - The Jewish Chronicle

It can be hard to believe that in a country where freedoms and rights are at the heart of politics, vast proportions of the population were for years persecuted for their political views.

For many involved in the United States entertainment industry, the late 1940s and early 1950s were a time when answering the question “Are you now, or have you ever been, a communist?” could destroy a career.

Orchestrated by the fervent anti-communism of Senator Joe McCarthy, the Red Scare saw men and women called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

On December 25, the witch-hunt began, as Hollywood’s studio executives agreed to blacklist the ten suspected communists, who had been cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with investigators.