Trumped Up Charges & Lists: TV Women Blacklisted

The topic of Hollywood Blacklisting has recently added a chapter - the impact it had on the budding TV industry, and more specifically, women.

Researched and backed by FBI files of author/scholar Dr. Carol Stabile (University of Oregon), this 4 episode series mentions names of talented women whose careers were maliciously ruined with the publication of Red Channels. Trumped up accusations, which later the FBI admitted were unfounded, were accepted as proof enough to break contracts, withdraw offers and freeze out women who otherwise would have changed the look, sound and depth of TV's first decade.

Episode 3, featured a frank conversation with author and scholar, Dr. Charlene Regester (of the Univ. of NC Chapel Hill) about how racism further changed the course of early TV.

Lillian Hellman on Dick Cavett 1973

Lillian Hellman's letter, read by Liza Minnelli (rare video of the 1974 telecast of the 1972 Off Broadway stage production in which actors portrayed blacklisted people from the entertainment world during the House Un-American Activities Committee proceedings).