The Hollywood Blacklist Dalton Trumbo and Spartacus

Part 1: Introduction
By the 1950s, America had moved on from the turmoil of WW2 and was enjoying a bit of peace and prosperity. The Cold War was but a looming threat that would escalate fiercely in the 1960s—but in the 50s, Americans were generally content to enjoy themselves. Still, the specter of Communism loomed and had been perceived as an encroaching problem in Hollywood since the 1930s. Following WW2, Senator Joe McCarthy began his crusade to raise awareness about this specter by flaunting a list of Communists that he knew were secretly hiding in the American government. As fear grew that the Soviets had infiltrated American society, the list grew to include others in other spheres—including Hollywood, where writers suspected of propagating Communist ideology and subtly inserting it into American films came under scrutiny. The Hollywood Blacklist actually began in the latter half of the 1940s but it reached its height in the early 1950s. It represented a period of roughly a decade wherein writers accused of Communist sympathies were barred from working in Hollywood, though some still managed to write under pseudonyms. This essay will show the Blacklist formed, how it led to the stigmatization of Dalton Trumbo; how it inspired him to write the film Spartacus, which would go on to star Kirk Douglas and be directed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick; and how the film served as a contemporaneous critique of McCarthyism and the Blacklist, ultimately helping to weaken the crusade against Communism in Hollywood.
Part 2: The Communist Party and the Blacklist
The US had been allied with the Soviets in WW2—but now that the war was over, American politicians were rethinking that relationship. The Communist Party became a target though the perceived threat of the Party within the US did not necessarily reflect the reality. For the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover, who wanted total control over American intelligence, labeling people as Communist was a way to get control over them. Joseph McCarthy was useful to Hoover politically because he fueled the idea of a Red Menace.
In the first half of the 20th century in the US, Communists were essentially activists who supported labor unions and workforces.[footnoteRef:2] The idea that these same people were plotting the overthrow of the American government and the undermining of American ideals was greatly exaggerated.[footnoteRef:3] McCarthy and Hoover made it seem that everyone could be a Communist and films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) were a good example of how that fear played upon people. The fact was the Communist Party was not really that popular, had high turnover, and few people ever met a member.[footnoteRef:4] [2: Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 8-9.] [3: Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 120-121.] [4: Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 18.]
McCarthy helped to fuel the paranoia in America at this time, often appearing on television to frighten Americans. He needed something to generate interest in his own campaign for reelection and so he turned to the Red Menace.[footnoteRef:5] The Hollywood Hearings, in which Hollywood writers were charged with Communist subversion, were a way for McCarthy to drum up support for his crusade and thus for his political future.[footnoteRef:6] [5: Robert Griffith, McCarthyism: The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987), 28.] [6: Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 319.]
A witch hunt ensued in which people were brought in to testify before Congress and encouraged to name names. Hundreds lost jobs because they were “suspected” of being Communists or Communist sympathizers.[footnoteRef:7] The reality was that Communists and sympathizers were basically merely reacting to the ills of the Great Depression and the need for social improvements and supports for workers. Millions had suffered from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[footnoteRef:8] [7: Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle, Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), xiiv.] [8: Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle, Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), xv.]
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had been looking for Communists in Hollywood since the 1930s.[footnoteRef:9] The Anti-Communists believed Hollywood was putting Communist propaganda into films. Hoover believed Hollywood was being used by the Communists as “one of the greatest propaganda machines the world has ever seen.”[footnoteRef:10] So Hollywood became a natural target during McCarthyism—and the Blacklist was a way to inhibit the spread of communist propaganda in film. Dalton Trumbo was part of that Blacklist—and being on that list impacted his life in a huge way. [9: Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 318.] [10: Frank Krutnik, “Un-American” Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era (New Brunswick N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 4.]
Part 3: Financial Impact of the Blacklist on Trumbo
The HUAC created the Blacklist and brought infamy to the Hollywood Ten, one of whom was Trumbo. In 1947, his job as a screenwriter with MGM was threatened over the fact that he refused to testify before Congress that he was not a Communist—even though he stated privately he was not one.[footnoteRef:11] Trumbo owned a ranch but to pay the bills on it—totaling $27,000—he needed to continue his screenwriting career.[footnoteRef:12] That was now in jeopardy as he refused to cooperate with HUAC in the way HUAC wanted because he viewed HUAC, ironically, as un-American in its witch hunt style approach. Eric Johnston, the president of Motion Picture Association of America, asserted that Trumbo would not be employed as long as he held beliefs that aligned with the Communists’ agenda.[footnoteRef:13] Thus, Trumbo was suspended from MGM for being a Communist—but his financial hardship worsened because he was stigmatized in the eyes of the American public: he could not get a legitimate writing job anywhere from that point on as his name was like mud and his reputation had been tarnished.[footnoteRef:14] [11: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 212.] [12: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 211.] [13: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 215-6.] [14: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 219.]
Trumbo was sent to prison in 1950 for refusing to name names before the HUAC. He was greatly sorrowed by this outcome and felt a deep melancholy about the way he had been made into a pariah for taking a principled stance.[footnoteRef:15] Following his stint in prison, he still had to work, but to do so he had to use pseudonyms so that his real name would not be attached to any of his writing as “the necessity of secrecy had increased as a result of the hearings.”[footnoteRef:16] Faced with the prospect of financial ruin, Trumbo considered moving to Mexico. However, even when he did leave the country it did not help his financial situation: it just got worse because in Mexico he only earned $15,000 a year but was spending more than $20,000 in back taxes, medical, educational expenses, and support for friends and family.[footnoteRef:17] And so, at that point, Trumbo moved to selling his scripts on the black market.[footnoteRef:18] [15: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 259.] [16: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 264.] [17: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 270-4.] [18: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 282.]
Part 4: Trumbo Using Writing as a Weapon, Spartacus, and End Credits
Trumbo may have been down—but he was not out. In order to gain some control over his fate, he used his writing to critique and weaken the Blacklist. Eventually, he also managed to begin receiving credit for his screenplay work, which also helped to weaken the Blacklist. Initially, however, it was a life of dreary anonymity for Trumbo in the wake of his suffering at the hands of HUAC. He spent many years churning out screenplays never fully stepping out into the light. But he was doing what he knew how to do best—and he was determined to succeed.
After returning to Los Angeles following his exile in Mexico, Trumbo wrote on the black market and produced numerous scripts under pseudonyms. He hid his tracks by opening different bank accounts under false names in order to assuage suspicion. His goal was simple: earn a living for himself by doing what he knew he could do—and break the Blacklist.[footnoteRef:19] To be financially back on his feet again required a massive outpouring of work since he was basically writing as an unknown and could not rely upon name recognition or renown to command big dollar payments the way more “established” writers could. Thus, from 1954 to 1960, he wrote over 60 scripts—one of which was Spartacus.[footnoteRef:20] [19: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 302.] [20: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 303.]
Spartacus was an important work not only for its content but also for its context. Based upon a book by the same name, the script told the story of a rebel—the titular character—who defied an Empire, led a revolt, and established a legacy. The author of the source material was Howard Fast—and he, too, had refused to cooperate with HUAC. Something in the source material simply cried out against an unjust and oppressive regime and those familiar with the story could not help but take up the cause of Spartacus as though it were their own—a reflection of the issues they themselves were facing in the present day mid-century America. Thus, as both an allegory and as a relevant contemporary issue regarding political persecution, Spartacus had crucial cultural, social and political value. When Kirk Douglas approached Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay, they both knew why this material was important.
Allegorically, Spartacus is more than the story of a rebellious slave who fights back against his oppressors only to inspire a riot and then a following the size of an army. The story serves as an extended metaphor for what Trumbo personally felt he was going through during the years of the Hollywood Blacklist.[footnoteRef:21] He saw himself like Spartacus—a man forced to defend himself against his oppressors. Neither set out to lead a revolt against a powerful group of Senators and Statesmen—but both inspired others to join them in the fight against the Establishment. Spartacus thus allegorically critiqued the Hollywood Blacklist—and there are numerous examples of this, including the scene in which a list is made by Crassus that has all the names of Rome’s disloyal subjects. This list represented the Hollywood Blacklist. Kirk Douglas himself later commented that Trumbo was fully aware of how he was merging past and present in the film—and that the scene of Crassus with his list was clearly an inside joke. Ancient Rome was modern day USA. The slaves were the accused Communists. Crassus represented J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of HUAC and later convicted of fraud. HUAC itself was represented in the film as the Roman Senate. The lists of the disloyal were essentially a symbol of the Waldorf Statement of denunciations (in which names were named). The crucifixions at the end of the film were a symbol of the effect of being Blacklisted.[footnoteRef:22] [21: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 185.] [22: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 186.]
One of the main themes of the film is the idea of freedom—and Spartacus serves as the unlikely hero, whose spirit and honor draw the ire of the evil Romans but the following of those who are inspired by him. Trumbo was making a clear connection between himself in the face of HUAC persecutions and resistance, and the slave hero in the face of Roman persecution and resistance.[footnoteRef:23] Trumbo’s Spartacus highlights the ongoing class struggle for economic and political equality, and so for that reason Spartacus could be said to align with the ideology of the Left—the ideology of the Communists.[footnoteRef:24] [23: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 187.] [24: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 188.]
What is perhaps of most importance is the distinction between the “large Spartacus,” and the “small Spartacus,” as Jeff Smith describes them: Trumbo depicted the “large Spartacus”—the hero who defied the Roman Empire, served a vitally important role in history, was a brilliant strategist, and a slave who shook the Empire to its very foundations. This contrasts with the “small Spartacus” in which the figure is a rather marginal historical person of no real worth—one who merely conducted a “jail break” of sorts. Trumbo dismissed the “small” version and went with the “large” version, seeing himself as a “large” Spartacus figure.[footnoteRef:25] Trumbo was fighting back against an unjust Empire and had been doing so for years writing under the pseudonym Robert Rich. Instead of adopting an approach of making outraged speeches against the Blacklist, Trumbo sought to make his work invaluable to independent producers. He determined that the Blacklist would only end when the interests of producers and the Blacklisted writers were in alignment. In other words, the way to end the Blacklist was to show Hollywood that he was a great writer and they needed him.[footnoteRef:26] Trumbo stated, “The blacklist will not be broken by the triumph of morality over immorality. It will be broken by the triumph of one organization over another organization. It will be broken by the sheer excellence of the work of two or three blacklisted writers.”[footnoteRef:27] Still, there a “small” Spartacus approach—which was the small guerilla style attacks on the Establishment. Trumbo writing as Rich managed to win an Academy Award for The Brave One (1956). Journalists soon wanted to know who writer behind the pseudonym was and suddenly Trumbo was front and center in the news. This lent credence to the argument that he had been unjustly persecuted since clearly he made fine scripts that people and the Academy admired—when his name was not attached to them.[footnoteRef:28] Trumbo even used the Robert Rich story in Spartacus to show that every blacklisted writer was essentially Robert Rich. In the film, the Romans demand to know which of the captured is the rebel leader Spartacus. In response, all the rebels stand up and proclaim, “I’m Spartacus,” and as a result they are all crucified.[footnoteRef:29] Trumbo depicted the sense of solidarity among the blacklisted, among those who refuse to testify before HUAC. Trumbo wanted to show that they were the noble ones, as depicted in the film. [25: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 189.] [26: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 190.] [27: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 190.] [28: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 191-2.] [29: Jeff Smith, Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 193.]
To put the nail in the coffin of the Blacklist, it would not do to keep penning scripts for successful films under a pseudonym. People had to see that these scripts were being written by one of the Blacklisted. Thus, the inclusion of Trumbo’s name at the end of the film Spartacus helped to end the Blacklist. He was finally being given credit for writing a Hollywood film once more. The stigma was being lifted and the weight and shame of being Blacklisted was being erased publicly.
Kirk Douglas had hired Trumbo to write the script for Spartacus under the name Sam Jackson. Douglas knew of Trumbo’s circumstances and of his ability to write fine scripts, as the situation with The Brave One showed. Douglas wanted the blacklisted writer to be given a big project like Spartacus and so they agreed to terms. However, as the project wore on, Trumbo began to identify with the titular hero to the point where he himself wanted to stand up and announce his own name and take credit for writing the work. He no longer was content to work in the shadows. Now was the time to announce that he was the writer Hollywood wanted and needed. The Brave One had already sent a jolt through the American public: had a blacklisted writer really received an Academy Award? Trumbo refused to say one way or another whether he was Rich—but it was clear to anyone who cared to think about it for two seconds that he was writing under the pseudonym.
Trumbo now wanted to be credited with the work he was proud of instead of using a pseudonym in the credits of the movie.[footnoteRef:30] This was one of the main reasons why he “weakened the blacklist”—he wanted credit for his work and he wanted the public recognition for his contribution to the arts, to cinema, to the American experience overall. His works were moving people and changing their lives. Yet he was still living in the shadows, unfairly persecuted he believed, by a cruel group of Congressmen. This is an important point to consider because it shows clearly that Trumbo was tired of being a blacklisted writer, living under a rock, not having a name, not being able to enjoy the recognition that was rightfully his. He believed that if audiences loved a movie written by a Communist then the stigma of blacklisted writers could be decreased.[footnoteRef:31] Trumbo demanded this right as the Spartacus project wore on. It was not the case, as Kirk Douglas would later remember it in his book I Am Spartacus, that he asked Trumbo for permission to give him the writing credit at the end of the film. Trumbo demanded it: in his eyes, it was time to take back the limelight and this was the vehicle to do it with because of its perfect allegorical symmetry.[footnoteRef:32] The tactic worked, too: as reviews began to pour in, it was clear that audiences loved the film in spite of Trumbo’s past “sins”—his name attached in the credits at the end of the film did not sour anyone’s opinion of the film.[footnoteRef:33] Though being a credited writer for the film did not end the Blacklist, it did weaken it. It helped to remove the stigma of being a Blacklisted writer. If Trumbo could step out into the public, out into the light, then so too could others. Hollywood no longer needed to fear the wrath of HUAC. Trumbo had won through excellence—just as he predicted.[footnoteRef:34] [30: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 381.] [31: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 381.] [32: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 381.] [33: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 391-4.] [34: Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 411.]
Part 5: Conclusion
The era of McCarthyism was a time when scorn for Communism was at its height and political and Establishment leaders like Hoover and Thomas were attempting to gain or increase power for themselves by attacking a weaker organization. The Communist Party in America was deemed a target, and the HUAC identified Communist writers in Hollywood as enemies of the people. The HUAC hauled people in to testify and to name names. Dalton Trumbo was one who refused to name names or testify about being a Communist. He felt his principles were on the line and that if he budged, the HUAC would gain control of America and rout the ideal of freedom. Trumbo faced the wrath of HUAC for not testifying and as a result was blacklisted in Hollywood. The Hollywood Blacklist was a list of names of writers suspected of being Communists and therefore of being un-American. They were unemployable once they were on that list. Trumbo was hit hard—financially and professionally. After prison and a stint in Mexico, however, he returned to Los Angeles to defeat the Blacklist. By writing excellent scripts and selling them on the black market he respect from many. With Spartacus he finally announced his return in big bold letters—literally—his name credited at the end of a film that Americans loved.
Bibliography
Ceplair, Larry and Christopher Trumbo. Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015.
Griffith, Robert. McCarthyism: The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987.
Krutnik, Frank. “Un-American” Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era. New Brunswick N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
McGilligan, Patrick and Paul Buhle. Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Schrecker, Ellen. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Schrecker, Ellen. Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Smith, Jeff. Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.