Word: huac
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Studio. In addition, he earned the strident scorn of the Stalinist left and the enduring suspicion of simple-hearted followers of the party line because he was one of the most + prominent and least apologetic figures to name former Communist colleagues before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) when it was investigating the party's activities in show business. In the '60s he would absorb much of the blame for the failed first attempt to establish a repertory theater at New York City's Lincoln Center and amaze himself, among others, by becoming a best-selling novelist...
...friendship, and the protection of the authority figures in my life." He admits that it was this adaptability that led him to join a Communist cell, which contained some of the theater's more influential members, and it may not be unfair to speculate that his behavior before HUAC derived from the same source...
...course, is a quality too often underestimated by intellectuals. Combined with his survivor's shrewdness in observing the behavior that betrays motives, it is what gave his productions both realism and driving power. Above all, it is what enabled him to survive the contempt heaped on him after his HUAC testimony. This is how he remembers his interior monologue at the time, addressed to his critics: "You can't hurt me; you haven't penetrated my guard; I can beat you at any game you choose to play, because I may not be smarter than you or more talented...
...days later, HUAC members, spurred on by first-term California Congressman Richard Nixon, called Eastman Kodak to check on the film's emulsion numbers. They got bad news: the film could not have been manufactured before 1945, which meant that Chambers must be lying. Furious, Nixon phoned Chambers to demand an explanation. But minutes later, Kodak called back to apologize for its mistake: the film could indeed have been made in 1938. "Poor Chambers," said a relieved Nixon. "Nobody ever believes him at first...
...docudrama in PBS'S American Playhouse series, clears away much of that baggage and concentrates instead on one of the most fascinating political mystery stories of the century. The drama, with script by British Playwright Hugh Whitemore, begins on Aug. 3, 1948, the day that Chambers electrified a HUAC hearing by naming Hiss as a Communist. Chambers by then had been out of the Communist Party for ten years, and was working as a senior editor for TIME. The climax is set in a courtroom almost 18 months later, when Hiss-who denied all charges and has continued...