In 1946 the GOP won the Congressional election after being out of power for fourteen years.

The House Un-American Activities Committee known as HUAC had a new chairman Parnell Thomas. One of possible Communist Party activities was the unions in Hollywood especially the Screen Writers Guild and the Conference of Studio Unions(CSU). The CSU was trying to take over from the AFL unions which had already organized the studios.

HUAC did not have the greatest reputation among members of Congress and I do not think HUAC enhanced with their hearings about Hollywood. There were two groups of witnesses before the HUAC. Pro Committee witnesses were called the "friendlies" and anti Committee witnesses were referred as unfriendly. The friendly witness included many of the studio heads including Louie B Mayer of MGM, Jack Warner, Walt Disney, actors like Robert Taylor, Gary Copper, Ronald Reagan, and a writer named Ayn Rand. The unfriendly witnesses were mostly a group of writers who later were called the Hollywood Ten.

At least part of hearing were so the members of the Committee could be photographed with movie stars.

I will continue this tomorrow with a discussion of the hearings. A look at Ayn Rand's testimony and a look at myths about the hearings.