Activity

She was getting into bed, and that woke me. All excited and very happy, she announced her engagement. “I’m going to get married,” she said. “I made up my mind tonight.” “A hell of a time to tell me,” I said. “It’s three-thirty in the morning.” “I wanted to tell you first,” she said, “because now I’…

At the same time, when I thought about it, I agreed with Molly. I believed it was the duty of the government to investigate the Communist movement in our country. I couldn’t behave as if my old “comrades” didn’t exist and didn’t have an active political program. There was no way I could go along wi…

I described what happened in Washington, told him that I was sure from a reaction on Kearney’s face that I’d soon be called back for a public session. What did I intend to do then? Bela asked. When I told him, he said, “Wouldn’t that make you unacceptable to the film industry?” “Probably,” I said. …

AT TEN-THIRTY on the morning of January 14, 1952, I arrived a half hour early in the chambers of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington. I’d made up my mind what I was going to say: that I’d been a member for a year and a half, that I’d quit in disgust, that the plan of the Par…

Months before, Julie Garfield had testified as I intended to, not offering names, defying the committee. Immediately well-wishers, whose number included his agents and others who had a financial stake in his well-being, were at his side to advise him that if he maintained the position he’d taken, h…