{"id":1236394002,"date":"2025-10-06T12:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/?p=1236394002"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:03:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:03:37","slug":"hollywood-first-amendment-jane-fonda-committtee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/politics-news\/hollywood-first-amendment-jane-fonda-committtee-1236394002\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood’s First Amendment Crusaders Are Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cAny investigation into the political beliefs of the individual is contrary to the basic principles of our democracy,\u201d read the stern words from the star-studded Committee for the First Amendment (CFA) on Oct. 28, 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe CFA was founded that year in Hollywood by John Huston, William Wyler and Philip Dunne in response to the speech-chilling loyalty investigations foisted upon the industry by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)<\/a>. Today, the CFA has been resurrected by Jane Fonda, whose own father, Henry Fonda, was an early member of the original organization, and it has already locked horns with the Trump White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThis time around, the signatories feature a range of talent like Ben Stiller, Helen Mirren, Spike Lee, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry David, Natalie Portman, Nicolas Cage and Nikki Glaser. The motives of the new CFA are clear, as its website states<\/a>, \u201cThe federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe anti-communist witch hunts of the 1940s and 1950s across American industries were a precursor to the Trump White House’s own targeting of immigrants, professors, media personalities or anyone who dares push back against America\u2019s authoritarian lurch. The new CFA is billed as a McCarthy-era movement, but it\u2019s important to note that the\u00a0CFA predates McCarthy<\/a>\u00a0by several years, as does HUAC, which began in 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe CFA\u2019s origin story is an instructive legend worth revisiting during this increasingly heated moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIt was The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u2019s founder, Billy Wilkerson, who published an unhinged screed on July 8, 1947, about the industry supposedly kowtowing to Soviet sensibilities. A couple weeks later, on July 29, he unleashed one of the most infamous columns in Hollywood history. Titled \u201cA Vote for Joe Stalin,\u201d the column attacks the Screen Writers Guild as \u201cthought-police\u201d for endorsing the American Authors Authority (regarding copyright protection), before naming names of suspected communists in Hollywood: Dalton Trumbo, Maurice Rapf, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, Harold Buchman, John Wexley, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Myers, Theodore Strauss and John Howard Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe names and assertions were all the U.S. government needed as justification to set their sights on Hollywood. A perfect conduit to get national attention on their bullying campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tWilkerson\u2019s rhetoric <\/a>was Trumpian in tone, criticizing those he disagreed with as supporters of a communist agenda working to \u201csurrender freedom of speech or freedom of conscience.\u201d Wrapping himself in the American flag, Wilkerson\u2019s word salad grumbled through accusation after accusation, maintaining that the political left sought a \u201cmonopoly of opinion.\u201d By claiming to protect freedom of speech, Wilkerson helped launch a war against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tOn Sept. 23, 1947, 45 members of the American film industry were subpoenaed by HUAC to prove their loyalty to the United States. Signed by committee chairman J. Parnell Thomas (R-NJ), the subpoenas were \u201ca command to perform \u2014 perform before a legislative ringmaster, at a grand, three-ring investigation of Hollywood,\u201d wrote screenwriter Gordon Kahn in\u00a0Hollywood on Trial<\/em>\u00a0(1948). Kahn lost his job at the end of 1947, one of hundreds of artists blacklisted for supposed subversive activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cEverybody is afraid of being investigated,\u201d wrote Kahn, noting the mood around Tinseltown before he fled. \u201cThe prospects are that pictures like\u00a0Grapes of Wrath<\/em>,\u00a0Gentleman\u2019s Agreement<\/em>\u00a0and others with force and meaning \u2014 the kind in which writers, actors, and directors can take pride \u2014 will be strangers to the screen in America.\u201d While current power brokers haven\u2019t scrapped movies over their content, yet, Hollywood has a recent history of companies obeying in advance by shelving projects until the tensions cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe original Committee for the First Amendment signed a statement published in\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u00a0on Oct. 21, 1947, that denounced HUAC because \u201cany investigation into the political beliefs of the individual is contrary to the basic principles of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tA Committee for the First Amendment statement placed in the Oct. 21, 1947, issue of The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<\/figcaption>\n\n\t\t\t\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\tGoing further, the CFA wrote, \u201cany attempt to curb freedom of expression and to set arbitrary standards of Americanism is in itself disloyal to both the spirit and letter of our Constitution.\u201d The undersigned read with names like Henry Fonda, the Epstein brothers (of\u00a0Casablanca<\/em>\u00a0fame), Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Vincent Price, Billy Wilder, Milton Sperling (son-in-law of Harry Warner, who urged his own brother, Jack, to ignore HUAC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tWhile enjoying drinks at Lucy\u2019s across the street from Paramount Studios, William Wyler, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston and Lauren Bacall devised a hasty plan to show up in Washington to protest the hearings. Wyler\u2019s Oscar-winning film\u00a0The Best Years of Our Lives<\/em>\u00a0(1946) \u2014 a timely tale of the weight of coming home from World War II \u2014 was named as subversive by HUAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tA small group of Hollywood CFA representatives flew to Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, led by Bogart and Bacall. The group marched proudly to the courtroom and sat for the hearings on the following day. Filled with cameras and newsreel operators, the events were highly reported and recorded. Stars such as Bogart, Bacall, June Havoc, Evelyn Keyes, Richard Conte and Geraldine Brooks listened to the tumultuous tussle between Chairman Thomas and screenwriter John Howard Lawson, who penned such films as\u00a0Blockade<\/em>\u00a0(1938),\u00a0Action in the North Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0(1943) and\u00a0Sahara<\/em>\u00a0(1943), and was named as a subversive by Billy Wilkerson two months prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tAs HUAC\u2019s chief investigator Robert Stripling questioned Lawson\u2019s political connections, the screenwriter pushed back about the legality of such questions. Thomas pounded his gavel continuously in protest to Lawson\u2019s self-defense as an American citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of Americanism,\u201d\u00a0Lawson fired back<\/a>\u00a0after being asked if he was a member of the Communist Party. As the gavel continued to crack, Lawson kept speaking but was quickly surrounded by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMPAA president\u00a0Eric Johnston<\/a>\u00a0followed by denouncing screenwriter Lawson and claiming he would not allow communists to work in the film industry. Importantly, Johnston also argued that HUAC should give any suspected subversives a fair trial. Johnston smartly pointed to the\u00a01941 Senate investigations into anti-Nazi movies<\/a>\u00a0where Hollywood adequately defended their industry against claims of extremism and warmongering. Going further, Johnston articulated that any movement based on hate will ultimately fail \u2014 as was seen with fascism and communism \u2014 and maintained there is \u201cvery little if any communist propaganda in our pictures.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tDespite Johnston\u2019s testimony, the CFA would get associated not with the MPAA president but with the fireworks at Johnston\u2019s hearing. Chairman Thomas even snapped at the Hollywood attendees, calling them \u201cglamor girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tLeaving Washington, D.C., CFA members were sullen and worried. They arrived with confidence and left with trepidation from what they witnessed. Determined to push forward, the committee issued another ad in THR <\/em>and the trades on Oct. 28 titled \u201cHollywood Fights Back!\u201d Like today, the CFA mused whether people knew what the First Amendment even said. The Oct. 28\u00a0advertisement reminds readers of the seriousness of HUAC\u2019s free speech violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tA Committee for the First Amendment statement placed in the Oct. 28, 1947, issue of The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<\/figcaption>\n\n\t\t\t\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe original CFA landed 135 members, many recognizable names including Lucille Ball, Kirk Douglas, Benny Goodman, Rita Hayworth, Ben Hecht, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lorre, Groucho Marx, Vincent Price, Donna Reed, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Orson Welles. Many of Tinseltown\u2019s towering personalities appeared on a CFA radio show broadcast on Oct. 26\u00a0and Nov. 2. \u201cBefore every free conscience in America is subpoenaed,\u201d warned Judy Garland, \u201cTell them how much you resent the way Mr. Thomas is kicking the living daylights out of the Bill of Rights!\u201d Ball argued that \u201call civil liberties go hand in hand, and when one goes the others are weakened, just as the collapse of one pillar in a house would endanger the whole structure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tGordon Hughes, Lucille Ball and Richard Denning in 1948.<\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<\/figcaption>\n\n\t\t\t\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\tSurprisingly, Academy Award-winning director William Wyler was given space in\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u00a0on Nov. 6\u00a0to criticize the media coverage of CFA. Infamous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper had weaponized her column to attack the free speech warriors on the CFA and defend HUAC\u2019s crusade. \u201cNo member of our group is a Communist or is in anyway sympathetic to Communistic doctrine,\u201d wrote Wyler, \u201cwe have continuously emphasized that we did not, nor do we now, defend or attack any individual or group within the motion picture industry.\u201d \u00a0Wyler expressed that the CFA was \u201cnon-partisan\u201d and included both Democrats and Republicans and was ultimately \u201canti-totalitarian and pro-democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHowever, after a series of HUAC testimonies from friendly witnesses decrying subversion in Hollywood and a combative set of unfriendly witnesses \u2014 including Trumbo, who called the hearing \u201cthe beginning of an American concentration camp\u201d \u2014 who questioned HUAC\u2019s right to subpoena American citizens to question their loyalty, a blacklist began. On Nov. 25, 1947, a majority of Hollywood top brass met at the Waldorf Astoria in New York and drafted the notorious Waldorf Statement that promised no studio would employ anyone who was a communist or suspected subversive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tPolitical players had painted Hollywood red with communism and the studios threw up their hands. Anyone pushing back against HUAC was a traitor, a red, and should be exiled. Bogart, as the biggest star in the CFA, felt the most pressure. After appearing on the cover of the\u00a0Daily Worker<\/em>, Bogart fully repudiated his trip to Washington in defense of the First Amendment. As\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0reported on Dec. 3, Bogart claimed the Washington, D.C., trip was \u201cIll-advised and even foolish.\u201d The actor added, \u201cI am not a communist.\u201d The CFA was mortified and assumed that Warner Bros., the home studio for Bogart and Bacall, forced them to pull back their political advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tHumphrey Bogart, circa 1948. <\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<\/figcaption>\n\n\t\t\t\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\tHarrison\u2019s Reports<\/em>, founded by P.S. Harrison, a failed screenwriter and a prudish independent journalist, stood solidly with HUAC. \u201cGag the prima donnas\u201d read Harrison\u2019s front page editorial on Dec. 6, 1947, speaking of the CFA and anyone in Hollywood who wanted to use their First Amendment-protected right to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn 2025, the resurrected CFA already has well over 500 names. Late night television hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert are canaries in the coal mine, and they are still chirping for now despite the latter facing a cancellation announcement that is yet to take effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe White House responded to Jane Fonda<\/a> with the usual mixture of derision and deflection, \u201cHanoi Jane is free to share whatever bad opinions she wants. As someone who actually knows what it\u2019s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech and Democrat allegations to the contrary are so false, they\u2019re laughable.\u201d In short, Fonda can share what she wants, but Colbert and Kimmel will get government threats and intimidation if they do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tToday\u2019s CFA intends to educate about autocracy, the First Amendment, and the \u201cecology of what we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe original CFA\u2019s impact, despite its valiant cause, only went so far. The Blacklist happened, livelihoods were ruined and freedom of thought was squelched for years as Americans were pushed into a corner of fear and anger. This struggle, well on its warpath before Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) hit the national state, was described by Trumbo as having \u201conly victims.\u201d Today\u2019s playbook is similar to 1947 \u2014 label any dissent as unpatriotic, subversive, Marxist and so on. Anything to avoid engaging with differing views. The difference is today\u2019s Committee for the First Amendment has infinitely more avenues for communication in the digital age, in addition to an infinitely larger list of participants. Perhaps, if we\u2019re lucky, there won\u2019t be only victims this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Trumpian moment recalls the industry’s infamous blacklist era. Fittingly, Jane Fonda has resurrected the Committee for the First Amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369192,"featured_media":1236394190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"override_post_title":"","override_post_excerpt":"","authors":["chris-yogerst"],"contributors":[],"styled_by":[],"_image_credit":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","pmc_selected_wwd_video_media":"","pmc_top_video_source":"","pmc_top_video_duration":"","wwd_top_video_source":"","wwd_top_video_duration":"","pmc_selected_featured_media":"","pmc_selected_video_media":"","pmc_selected_variety_video_media":"","variety_top_video_source":"","variety_top_video_duration":"","pmc_featured_media_has_alt_text":true,"_pmc_featured_animated_media_id":0,"_pmc_featured_video_override_data":"","_pmc_featured_video_override_url":"","_pmc_featured_video_response_data":"","pmc-gallery-linked-gallery":{},"pmc_list_item_description":"","primary_category":"","primary_vertical":"","_mt_pmc_exclude_from_seo":"","_pmc_opengraph_title":"","_pmc_opengraph_description":"","categories":65841,"subcategories":65843,"thr-review-summary-credits":"","thr-full-credit":"","thr-review-mpaa-rating":"","thr-review-running-time":"","_synopsis":"","_air_date":"00-00-00","pmc-imdb-id":"","pmc-review-type":"","pmc-review-rating":"","pmc-review-rating-out-of":"","pmc-review-snippet":"","pmc-review-title":"","pmc-review-canonical-link":"","pmc-theatrical-release-date":0,"pmc-director":"","pmc-review-image_attachment_id":0,"thr_post_headlines":"This Trumpian moment recalls the industry's infamous blacklist era. 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