Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies
In Policing Show Business, Francis MacDonnell explores the starring role played by J. Edgar Hoover in the development of the Hollywood blacklist in the 1940s and 1950s. As director of the FBI, Hoover poured resources into scrutinizing show business, a policy choice unjustified by any corresponding threat to public security. He detailed agents to write regular reports on actors, screenwriters, lyricists, singers, and studio executives. His frequent handwritten comments on papers inside the files of film industry personalities demonstrate a level of interest bordering on obsession.

Policing Show Business is not just another book about the Hollywood blacklist. MacDonnell approaches the Red Scare through biography using FBI records on such luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Lena Horne, Fredric March, Cecil B. DeMille, and Burl Ives to present in unexpected, surprising, and sometimes poignant ways the rich human dramas experienced by both targets of the bureau and its collaborators.

MacDonnell’s meticulously researched account, drawing on many newly available FBI files, evokes the passions and resentments; the courageous acts and calculated evasions; and the petty tyrannies and self—interested campaigns of an ignominious episode in the annals of American freedom.

1145234884
Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies
In Policing Show Business, Francis MacDonnell explores the starring role played by J. Edgar Hoover in the development of the Hollywood blacklist in the 1940s and 1950s. As director of the FBI, Hoover poured resources into scrutinizing show business, a policy choice unjustified by any corresponding threat to public security. He detailed agents to write regular reports on actors, screenwriters, lyricists, singers, and studio executives. His frequent handwritten comments on papers inside the files of film industry personalities demonstrate a level of interest bordering on obsession.

Policing Show Business is not just another book about the Hollywood blacklist. MacDonnell approaches the Red Scare through biography using FBI records on such luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Lena Horne, Fredric March, Cecil B. DeMille, and Burl Ives to present in unexpected, surprising, and sometimes poignant ways the rich human dramas experienced by both targets of the bureau and its collaborators.

MacDonnell’s meticulously researched account, drawing on many newly available FBI files, evokes the passions and resentments; the courageous acts and calculated evasions; and the petty tyrannies and self—interested campaigns of an ignominious episode in the annals of American freedom.

42.99 In Stock
Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies

Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies

by Francis MacDonnell
Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies

Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover, the Hollywood Blacklist, and Cold War Movies

by Francis MacDonnell

Overview

In Policing Show Business, Francis MacDonnell explores the starring role played by J. Edgar Hoover in the development of the Hollywood blacklist in the 1940s and 1950s. As director of the FBI, Hoover poured resources into scrutinizing show business, a policy choice unjustified by any corresponding threat to public security. He detailed agents to write regular reports on actors, screenwriters, lyricists, singers, and studio executives. His frequent handwritten comments on papers inside the files of film industry personalities demonstrate a level of interest bordering on obsession.

Policing Show Business is not just another book about the Hollywood blacklist. MacDonnell approaches the Red Scare through biography using FBI records on such luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Lena Horne, Fredric March, Cecil B. DeMille, and Burl Ives to present in unexpected, surprising, and sometimes poignant ways the rich human dramas experienced by both targets of the bureau and its collaborators.

MacDonnell’s meticulously researched account, drawing on many newly available FBI files, evokes the passions and resentments; the courageous acts and calculated evasions; and the petty tyrannies and self—interested campaigns of an ignominious episode in the annals of American freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780700637935
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication date: 11/12/2024
Pages: 328
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Francis MacDonnell is emeritus professor of history, Southern Virginia University, and the author of Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Policing Show Business: J. Edgar Hoover and the COMPIC Investigation

2. The Sunset Boulevard Irregulars: The Motion Picture Alliance and the FBI

3. Hollywood Liberalism on Trial: Dore Schary at Metro—Goldwyn—Mayer

4. Thrown to the Lions: E. Y. Harburg, Marguerite Roberts, and the Blacklist

5. Narrow Escapes: The Partial Surrender of Burl Ives and the Artful Defiance of Fredric March

Conclusion: COMPIC’s Legacy and the Blacklisting Persuasion

Afterword: In the Frame: Vantage Points on the Cold War and the Blacklist

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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