A highlight of my life in Bologna over the last two months has been taking a course at l'Università Primo Levi with my dear friends Lucia & Cinzia. The course was called "Allarme Rosso" and it was about the post-WWII red scare in Hollywood that limited free speech and creative freedoms, and impacted the course of American Cinema. Read on to hear more.
When Lucia and Cinzia invited me to join them for a class I signed up right away. What could be more delightful than meeting up with friends every week for a 2-hour lecture in Italian on very specific moment in American history? It's a three-for-one! I'm here to make friends, improve my language skills, and see the world through another culture's lens.
L'Università Primo Levi is a collaboration between the Bologna Mayor's office and the local unions to support life-long learning. Our instructor, Enrico Bongiovanni, is on staff at the University of Bologna and does some impressive research- this class was full of deep dives into moments from post-war American history and I learned a ton. This is a photo of us on the last night of class, from left to right there's: me, Cinzia, our professor, another student, and Lucia.
For those who could use a refresher (I certainly needed one!), here's the basic story: In 1947, the House Committe on Un-American Activities held 9 days of hearings on alleged communist propaganda and the influence of Hollywood. 19 of the subpeonaed witnesses stated they would refuse to answer questions, citing their first amendment rights (sidenote: 13/19 were Jewish). As a result of the hearings, 10 Hollywood screen writers were convicted of contempt and were immediately blacklisted from writing for Hollywood films, forced to pay fines, and served prison sentences. Eventually hundreds of suspected Communists were added to the Hollywood Blacklist and barred from working in the industry even though it was (and is) not a crime to espouse communist beliefs and (aside from the Hollywood 10 convicted of contempt for insisting on their first amendment rights) none of them were tried for or convicted of crimes.
To give you an idea for the experience, I've selected three moments to share with you:
1. As a reaction to the House hearings, and in an attempt to keep communist propaganda out of Hollwood films, Ayn Rand wrote an essay entitled
Screen Guide for Americans, 1947, published by the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (members included Walt Disney, Clarke Gable, and Ronald Reagan). I excerpted one of the points here. Others include: "Don't Smear Industrialists, "Don't Smear the Free Enterprise System," "Don't Smear the Profit Motive," and "Don't Glorify the Collective." I invite you to follow the link above and look for yourself. It made me wonder where Democracy and Civil Rights enter into the discussion of "American Activities," as Rand and the alliance make many specifically economic arguments for what is 'American'.
2. Ronald Reagan was one of the cooperative witnesses called by the House. He gave a statement that I found inspiring (you can click below to hear it yourself, near the 1:30 min mark, ~30 sec) saying that no political party in the US should be outlawed for their beliefs and that our Democracy is strong enough to handle the diversity of ideas (if you watch, you'll notice the committee heartily agreed). As I was swept up in new admiration for Regan, Lucia, with an Italian's eye, pointed out immediately that there's no way he would have had the freedom to say such things to the House without something going on behind the scenes. Our instructor confirmed, that as Reagan was sharing his testimony publically, he was, in fact, handing names of fellow union members he suspected of being Communists with J Edgar Hoover's FBI. (I was able to cross reference this fact, the New York Times and Chicago Tribune agree). I'm left feeling sad and disappointed in some of our leaders. I would call this an un-American act.
3. On a much lighter note, we learned about some of the films that came out after 1947. Many had an explicitly anti-communist, anti-soviet messages, and were so un-comprehensible to foreign audiences that they were completely rewritten. This example, John Wayne's 1952 hit
Big Jim McClain, in which he goes after communists who have been painted as mafiosi caracatures, was retitled
Marihuana in Italian. It was meticulously re-scripted and dubbed to match the camera shots scene for scene and tell a completely different, and to an Italian audience, more interesting and appropriate story about drug trafficking.
After our time together, I'm left feeling worried about how easily we Americans have given away freedoms out of fear, how we've condemned people without due process, and how quick we have been to protect the rights of some to make profits at any human cost.
I'm also fired up to help us remember that the political spectrum does not move from Democracy to Socialism and Communism, but rather from Democracy (rule by the people) to Autocracy (the rule of one or few, including despotism, oligarchy, and fascism). And that there is a separate spectrum for economic models, ranging from different types of Capitalism, to Socialism and Communism, most countries are a mix. In a Democracy, we, the people, should be having discussions (as Reagan put it) free from fear or resentment to find creative ways forward together that allow us to fully live into our democratic principles of liberty and flourishing of all.
I'm curious to hear what you think.
