Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony s Long Romance with the Left

by Ronald Radosh, Allis Radosh

Until now, Hollywood's political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare. But Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors' most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Abandoned by their old CP allies, they faced the Blacklist alone.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Film

296 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2005

Reviews

[Markus Himmelstrand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red Star Over Hollywood is very much a book in the same style as Radosh's earlier works like 'Commies' and which I am tempted to characterize as 'history through character assassination'. While I admit it might be a bit unfair it nevertheless captures the fact that Radosh presents history not as a monolithic fact but instead as a composite of the many personal stories of its participants. While this makes the narrative slightly disjointed and a bit gossipy at times it's precisely what Radosh is good at and he paints a vivid and enjoyable picture of the many screenwriters and actors who got involved with the left in the beginning of the century and the power plays that ran behind the scenes. However besides an excellent account of war time film making and the short lived historical revisionism and borderline soviet propaganda that made it into many main stream films during the 40s few explicit traces of leftist influence on the industry's productions is ever uncovered convincingly. Nevertheless as so long as you enjoy (and don't put too much stock in) Radosh's particular ideological slant you'll enjoy this book for a more person focused perspective on the period.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author does a good job describing details of the activities of the CPUSA and individual communists in the early film industry. However more time should have been spent in summarizing the effects that these activities have had on the industry and how hollywood continues to be affected today. It would also have been interesting to read the authors opinions on why the hollywood culture continues to be far left and how this effects its products.

[Dean Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes Virginia, there were communists in Hollywood. Fun to read about how Reagan was shaped by his battles with them as union president.

[Terry R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Star Over Hollywood – by Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh – Completed 07/11/2024
To my wife, J.E.M.; children, B.J.M.; A.N.C.; T.L.L. and their spouses.
This morning coffee book reads like a research textbook on the history of communism in the United States. During the Great Depression, 1930s Americans were ripe to be taken advantage of. Many ideas came from communism or fascism where people could be misled into supporting one another—like a group of useful idiots. Unlike any place else, Hollywood screenwriters were the breeding ground. Many writers escaped Europe and Hitler ended up in New York, then to Hollywood. There were many organizations dedicated but the majority of people didn’t quite understand what was happening when they joined. The unions got involved, and thus people thought it was good for their jobs. Many pro-communist plays and movies were produced with the undertones that communism was a good thing, just the greatest medium of propaganda.
The pushback came when Hollywood started Blacklisting members of the Communist Party USA, Congress creates the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and starts investigations. Walt Disney and Ronald Regan both testified about the communists involved in the industry. Nobody wanted to testify before the HUAC, many were subpoenaed and took the fifth amendment, protection of self-incrimination, but were blacklisted by Hollywood anyway.
The book is a Who’s Who in the communist party in Hollywood with many finger-pointing and no substantial proof. The first few chapters show great research going back to the 1930’s but were a little boring with many people, but very good as the history goes. It is a push-through book, just to finish it. This one I’ll pass along rather than keep it in the house library.
Love Dad, T.R.M.

[Scott Milliken · Rating 4 out of 5]

The trouble with the popular narrative of the blacklist these days is that for every book like this, I would wager there are multiple dozens that present it as fascism run rampant, of harmless do-gooders ground to powder by the merciless McCarthyite machine. The truth, as we all know or damn well should know by now, is never that simple.

[Tim Wilder]

Very good documentation of the Hollywood reds; who they were and what they did. Film writing today still tries to cover up all this.

[DH · Rating 3 out of 5]

The scholarship is strong, but the Radosh's are still trapped in dialectical thinking, now from the right. There are no grays or fuzzy edges in their polemic, just the wrongheadedness of the reds. Talent and jealousy need also to be taken into account. That the embrace of a radical critique of US policy may well have been warranted is a position they can no longer abide. This book is one link in the historiography but likely not the last.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine book detailing the communist influence in Hollywood. The type of book that makes you realize that the situation in Hollywood is no different today as it was in the middle of the last century. Strongly recommended.

[Shane Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and informative yet depressing read on the Communist influence in Hollywood....particular in from the 30-50s but horribly the radical left hold on Hollywood is more pronounced then ever before....we need to have another investigation of these scoundrels!

[Jeff]

A ham-handed attempt at the links between the Communist movement and Hollywood, I didn't even really finish it because it annoyed me so much. Grr.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

ahahahaha, no. Not a book to be lightly tossed aside etc.