In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty explores the deep background to the hearings and details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics. He tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified; tracks the flight path of the Committee for the First Amendment, the delegation from Hollywood that descended on Washington to protest the hearings; and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist.
Doherty is one of the best, if not the best, writers in the American studies world today, and has produced an excellent book that will command a great deal of attention. Show Trial sheds new light on the story of the Hollywood 10 and HUAC and does it in fresh and exciting ways. One of the book's greatest strengths is that it stays away from familiar academic debates that focus heavily on politics and instead tells a character-driven story using quotes from a wide variety of contemporaneous participants. Doherty places the personalities of the era - left and right - on center stage. This is easily the most comprehensive and comprehensible study of HUAC and the Hollywood Ten to date, and I predict it will become the book to read on this topic. Steven Ross, University of Southern California, Dornsife
Thomas Doherty is professor of American studies at Brandeis University. His previous Columbia University Press books include Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934 (1999); Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (2003); Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration (2007); and Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 (2013).
Über den Autor
Thomas Doherty is professor of American studies at Brandeis University. His previous Columbia University Press books include Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930¿1934 (1999); Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (2003); Hollywood¿s Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration (2007); and Hollywood and Hitler, 1933¿1939 (2013).
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Program Notes
Thanks and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Part I. Backstories
1. How the Popular Front Became Unpopular
2. Hollywood's War Record
3. The Preservation of American Ideals
4. The Magic of a Hollywood Dateline
5. Smearing Hollywood with the Brush of Communism
Part II. On Location in Washington
6. Showtime
7. Lovefest
8. Friendlies, Cooperative and Uncooperative
9. Hollywood's Finest
10. Doldrums
11. Crashing Page 1
12. Contempt
13. $64 Questions and No Answers
14. Jewish Questions
15. The Curtain Drops
Part III. Backfire
16. The Waldorf and Other Declarations
17. Blacklists and Casualty Lists
18. Not Only Victims
A Bibliographical Note
Notes
Index
Klappentext
In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty explores the deep background to the hearings and details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics. He tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified; tracks the flight path of the Committee for the First Amendment, the delegation from Hollywood that descended on Washington to protest the hearings; and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist.
