1947 - Government, USA, HUAC Hearing: Mrs Lela Rogers. 24Oct47
Mrs Rogers: “the final decision about it. Our producing executives are good Americans and by utilizing the free-enterprise system of these United States they have built the motion-picture industry up to where it is now, the fourth largest industry in the world. They are businessmen; they are not politicians. Some of our executives have been deceived by the party liners they hired. Well as a free people we had no experience w/ such intrigue & conspiracy. Our executives were no more asleep than were our people or our Government or the whole world in fact. The Communist is a trained propagandist, a highly disciplined operator, as he has been revealed by the testimony of former Soviet officials & ex-members of the Communist Party. His ways are devious & not easy to follow. I think that once our executives see this, and know it for itself, they will be
most happy to clean it out of their pictures. In the first place, there have very, very few pictures ever made w/
Communist propaganda in them that were successes at the box office. I feel it has a great deal to do w/ the dearth of good pictures today.” (edit)
11:33:19 Mrs Rogers: “ Well, I would suggest that the Congress of the United States immediately enact such legislation as will preserve the Bill of Rights to the people for whom it was designed. That precious bill was never intended to protect enemy agents, saboteurs & spies - whether they are American or foreign born.”
11:33:56 Mr. Stripling: “Would vou favor the outlawing of the Communist Party”? Rogers: “I favor the outlawing of the Communist Party as an agency of a foreign government.” Stripling: “Do you consider them to be agents of a foreign government”? Mrs Rogers: “I do, sir; yes, sir”.
11:34:17 CU photographers. Mr. McDowell: “Mrs Rogers (missing) what would describe in this film as being Communist propaganda? Mrs Rogers: “In None But the Lonely Heart”? Mr. McDowell: “Yes”. Mrs Rogers: “I can’t quote the scenes exactly but I can give you the sense of them, there is one (edit).
11:34:45 Mrs. Rogers: “The mother in the story runs a second-hand store. The son (edit). McDowell: “I’m at a complete loss” (edit) “In the matter of the Hanns Eisler’s background music, I would judge after hearing
you, both here & in California, that you would conclude that would contribute nothing to the Communist text of the film”? Mrs. Rogers: “No; I do not (edit) and if he is an intelligent man he has looked out over the world & has seen the condition that the rest of the world is in, under their forms of government, I’ve often wondered what in the world he’s thinking about. What have the Communists got that he wants? The only thing I can think of is that he must want advantage of some sort, that he must believe that he is especially appointed, & that the world will make him a god — or a commissar, let us say, which is the same thing in their language. I can't understand that quirk of mind myself. I can only think that.”
Chairman: “You believe then that by exposing communism, by aiding to educate the American people as to the dangers of communism, that we will do more that way to” (abrupt end).
Anti-Communist; Friendly Witnesses; Hollywood Ten; Blacklists; 1940s; Motion Picture Industry; House Committee On UnAmerican Activities; Movies; Politics; Motion Picture Association Of America; Testimony; Screen Writer; Composers;
NOTE: Partial or entire sold at per reel rate.
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1947 - Government, USA, HUAC Hearing: Mrs Lela Rogers. 24Oct47 Mrs Rogers: “the final decision about it. Our producing executives are good Americans and by utilizing the free-enterprise system of these United States they have built the motion-picture industry up to where it is now, the fourth largest industry in the world. They are businessmen; they are not politicians. Some of our executives have been deceived by the party liners they hired. Well as a free people we had no experience w/ such intrigue & conspiracy. Our executives were no more asleep than were our people or our Government or the whole world in fact. The Communist is a trained propagandist, a highly disciplined operator, as he has been revealed by the testimony of former Soviet officials & ex-members of the Communist Party. His ways are devious & not easy to follow. I think that once our executives see this, and know it for itself, they will be most happy to clean it out of their pictures. In the first place, there have very, very few pictures ever made w/ Communist propaganda in them that were successes at the box office. I feel it has a great deal to do w/ the dearth of good pictures today.” (edit) 11:33:19 Mrs Rogers: “ Well, I would suggest that the Congress of the United States immediately enact such legislation as will preserve the Bill of Rights to the people for whom it was designed. That precious bill was never intended to protect enemy agents, saboteurs & spies - whether they are American or foreign born.” 11:33:56 Mr. Stripling: “Would vou favor the outlawing of the Communist Party”? Rogers: “I favor the outlawing of the Communist Party as an agency of a foreign government.” Stripling: “Do you consider them to be agents of a foreign government”? Mrs Rogers: “I do, sir; yes, sir”. 11:34:17 CU photographers. Mr. McDowell: “Mrs Rogers (missing) what would describe in this film as being Communist propaganda? Mrs Rogers: “In None But the Lonely Heart”? Mr. McDowell: “Yes”. Mrs Rogers: “I can’t quote the scenes exactly but I can give you the sense of them, there is one (edit). 11:34:45 Mrs. Rogers: “The mother in the story runs a second-hand store. The son (edit). McDowell: “I’m at a complete loss” (edit) “In the matter of the Hanns Eisler’s background music, I would judge after hearing you, both here & in California, that you would conclude that would contribute nothing to the Communist text of the film”? Mrs. Rogers: “No; I do not (edit) and if he is an intelligent man he has looked out over the world & has seen the condition that the rest of the world is in, under their forms of government, I’ve often wondered what in the world he’s thinking about. What have the Communists got that he wants? The only thing I can think of is that he must want advantage of some sort, that he must believe that he is especially appointed, & that the world will make him a god — or a commissar, let us say, which is the same thing in their language. I can't understand that quirk of mind myself. I can only think that.” Chairman: “You believe then that by exposing communism, by aiding to educate the American people as to the dangers of communism, that we will do more that way to” (abrupt end). Anti-Communist; Friendly Witnesses; Hollywood Ten; Blacklists; 1940s; Motion Picture Industry; House Committee On UnAmerican Activities; Movies; Politics; Motion Picture Association Of America; Testimony; Screen Writer; Composers; NOTE: Partial or entire sold at per reel rate.