Editing Screen Actors Guild (section)

=== Blacklist years ===
In October 1947, the members of a list of suspected [[communist]]s working in the Hollywood film industry were summoned to appear before the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] (HUAC), which was investigating Communist influence in the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] [[trade union|labor unions]]. Ten of those summoned, dubbed the "[[Hollywood Ten]]", refused to cooperate, and were charged with [[contempt of Congress]] and sentenced to prison. Several liberal members of SAG, led by Humphrey Bogart, [[Lauren Bacall]], [[Danny Kaye]], and [[Gene Kelly]], formed the [[Committee for the First Amendment]] (CFA) and flew to Washington, DC, in late October 1947 to show support for the Hollywood Ten.

[[File:Hollywood Professional Building from northwest 2015-05-31.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Hollywood Professional Building]] housed SAG headquarters in the 1940s]]

The president of SAG – future [[United States President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] – also known to the FBI as Confidential Informant "T-10", testified before the committee but never publicly named names. Instead, according to an FBI memorandum in 1947: "T-10 advised Special Agent [name deleted] that he has been made a member of a committee headed by Mayer, the purpose of which is allegedly is to 'purge' the motion-picture industry of Communist party members, which committee was an outgrowth of the Thomas committee hearings in Washington and subsequent meetings ... He felt that lacking a definite stand on the part of the government, it would be very difficult for any committee of motion-picture people to conduct any type of cleansing of their household".<ref>HERBERT MITGANG. Dangerous Dossiers: exposing the secret war against America's greatest authors. New York City: Donald I. Fine, Inc, pp 31–33</ref> Subsequently, a climate of fear, enhanced by the threat of detention under the provisions of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], permeated the film industry. On November 17, 1947, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a "non-communist" pledge. On November 25 (the day after the full House approved the ten citations for contempt) in what has become known as the [[Waldorf Statement]], [[Eric Johnston]], president of the [[Motion Picture Association of America]] (MPAA), issued a [[press release]]: "We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods."

None of those blacklisted were proven to advocate overthrowing the government – most simply had [[Marxist]] or [[socialist]] views. The Waldorf Statement marked the beginning of the [[Hollywood blacklist]] that saw hundreds of people prevented from working in the film industry. During the height of what is now referred to as [[McCarthyism]], the [[Screen Writers Guild]] gave the studios the right to [[screen credit|omit from the screen]] the name of any individual who had failed to clear his name before Congress. At a 1997 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Blacklist, the Guild's president made this statement:

{{blockquote|Only our sister union, [[Actors' Equity Association|Actors Equity Association]], dared to stand behind its members and help them continue their creative lives in the theater. ... Unfortunately, there are no credits to restore, nor any other belated recognition that we can offer our members who were blacklisted. They could not work under assumed names or employ surrogates to front for them. An actor's work and his or her identity are inseparable. Screen Actors Guild's participation in tonight's event must stand as our testament to all those who suffered that, in the future, we will strongly support our members and work with them to assure their rights as defined and guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.|sign=[[Richard Masur]]|source=Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist<ref name="blacklist50th">Krizman, Greg. [http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/linkbackups/huac_blacklist.htm "Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203023448/http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/linkbackups/huac_blacklist.htm |date=2007-02-03 }}, ''Screen Actor'', January 1998 (special edition)</ref>}}