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| 57, CQMMONISM AND THE PUBLIC In the writing field, Communists appear in surprising places* Con- servative Boston would be astonished to know the connections of Angus Cameron, editor for Little, Brown* Leo Huberman left the National Maritime Union to direct the "Pamphlet Press,1* a new division of Reynal and Hitchcock. New York publishers privately claim that a majority of book reviewers in the city are under Communist control, but they offer no documentation to substantiate the statement* Communists are wen eoncerned with such details as clerks in book stores* As an experiment, some lay persons were sent to a store operated by a publisher, to ask for two books published by that firm. One was by a priest and one took a non-Communist view of foreign policy. The clerk in charge tried every variety of persuasion to dissuade the customers from buying these books, printed by her own firm* When they insisted, the books were produced from an obscure and remote corner of the store. Ifl this instance it was known in advance that the clerk was a Communist. The experi- ment was merely a study of technique. A similar condition has been observed at Brentano's and Macy's in New York. 3. Hollywood* Communists have a good foothold among radio and screen writers. The material on this subject is extremely rich. The two volumes of the Tenney Committee, of California, contain much carefully documented material. The wealth of .material received from a confidential informant in Los Angeles is impressive. . The writer only regrets that space is not avail- able for a full summary. The leading Communist among Hollywood writers is John Howard Lawson, alias Jacob Levy. He is on the editorial board of Hollywood \rriters Mobiliza- tion (organ: Communique) along with such Communists and fellow travelers as Robert Rossen (film writer and former head of H. YJ. -M.) Sidney Buchman (producer, vice-president Columbia Pictures), and Meta Reis. The Secretary, Howard Estabrook, is a Communist, and the Vice-chairman, Dr. Franklin Fearing (Professor of Psychology, U.C,L.A.) is at least a fellow traveler. The chair- man is the well-known Catholic writer, Emmet Lavery. At the writer's request, our confidential informant made a special study of the Lavery case* The reports received were conflicting* The prevailing view was that Lavery is liberal and particularly inclined to favor labor* As a result he rebelled against the anti-Communist Motion Picture Alliance, which at one time was suspected of being antilabor* Because of this, he distrusted their attacks on Communism and was easy prey for the opposition, namely, the Communists. This source holds that Lavery is gifted with a brilliant imagination and artistic perception, but that he is not a profound thinker* Hence he was an easy dupe for the Communists on the Screen TTriters* Guild and was used by them to front in the H* W« M. The sincerely Catholic tone of his writings would be hard to reconcile with any secret profession of Communism. (Communists, of course, do have undercover members, but such persons normally work actively for Party interests and do nothing incompatible with Party pro- grams. It is difficult to imagine an undercover Communist working vigorously for Catholicism.) As to the objection that he is too intelligent to be a dupe, it can be replied that many other liberals definitely known not to be Communists have been used by the Party just as freely. Among the Communists and fellow travelers in Hollywood writers and actors are: Alvah Bessie; Herbert Biberman; John Cohee (alias Bullion); Lester Cole; Marc Connelly; Albert Dekker, Bette Davis; Theodore Dreiser, Guy Endore; Lion Feuchtwanger; John Garfiela; Charles Chaplin; E. Y. "Yip" Harburg; |