Hate In The Time of Old Movies: Monsters Blacklist Classic Hollywood

The Red Scare didn't target subversives-it targeted the biggest prize of all: Hollywood. Between 1945 and 1955, post-war America was strangled by a manufactured Commie panic fueled by self-serving politicians, media, movie moguls, and clergy.

In Hate In The Time Of Old Movies*, acclaimed classic film analyst Bernie Dowling exposes the unjustified vengeance of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in its relentless crusade against the film industry.

Dowling uncovers the shadow history of this era, documenting:

• • The Hollywood Blacklist: The unlawful surveillance orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
  • Political Witch Hunts: The paranoid, fabricated crusades of Senator Joseph McCarthy, abetted by his brilliant, scruple-free legal hatchet man, Roy Cohn.
  • Wider Targets: Campaigns that extended to rainbow community members in the civil service, costing thousands their jobs-before McCarthy's overreach against the U.S. Army finally brought him down.

Stripping Away the Myths Featuring over 200 historical images and razor-sharp archival quotes-from blacklisted icons such as Albert Maltz and Lillian Hellman, to committee defenders such as Ayn Rand and Walt Disney-this book reveals a simple truth: they never proved a Communist conspiracy in Hollywood. They didn't have the time; they were too busy inventing one.

Bringing his signature gallows humor and a film-noir perspective to one of America's most shameful political chapters, Dowling exposes a panicked political class that resorted to totalitarian tactics. Ultimately, all they really needed to find subversives was a mirror.