Word: rko
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...keeping suspects on the payroll means boycotts and box-office trouble: e.g., Industry Spokesman Eric Johnston this week is trying to placate the American Legion, which is objecting to pictures ranging from Detective Story to Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, because Communist suspects worked on them. But RKO Boss Hughes didn't seem to mind trouble...
...these are times of national emergency ... I do not think the public should be forced to guess or conjecture as to whether a man is a Communist. I think the public is entitled to know ..." When Jarrico remained adamant, Hughes publicly dared the guild to call a strike at RKO. The guild turned down the dare...
...last three months Hughes has torn up eleven new scripts and canceled four pictures ready for production because some of the people who worked on them were "too tall" (RKO studio code for Communist suspects). Last week he declared it was impossible to produce pictures under such conditions, sent 100 employees on "leave of absence," all but shut down the studio. There were mutters in Hollywood that Communism was not the only reason Hughes had acted. RKO production under Hughes has always been slow and costly; no pictures have been started in three months. The company now has a backlog...
Hughes flatly denied it, promised that RKO would get back to normal as soon as he sets up a system to weed out Reds. Says he: "I know I have made myself the No. 1 s.o.b. in the minds of a lot of people in Hollywood, but we will never get rid of Communist sympathizers in this business unless somebody admits their existence and faces the problem squarely...
...Best documentary feature: Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki (RKO Radio...