Thomas Hamer
2nd Period
“How were the lives of the “Hollywood Ten” affected after they were blacklisted during the McCarthyism trials?”

	McCarthyism is the practice of accusing someone of being disloyal or committing treason with no proper evidence. This term originated in 1950s America, during a time known as “The Second Red Scare,” where men and women were being accused of being communists and influencing American organizations in communist viewpoints. During the McCarthyism trials, those accused became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. Some of the main targets for these accusations were government officials, entertainers, educators, and union activists. Many people went through the loss of employment, and some the destruction of their careers as a whole.
On November 25, 1947, Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, issued a press release that came to be referred to as the Waldorf Statement. This statement announced the firing of the “Hollywood Ten” (Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo) and stated: "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" This open capitulation to the attitudes of McCarthyism marked the beginning of the Hollywood blacklist. In spite of the fact that hundreds would be denied employment, the studios, producers and other employers did not publicly admit that a blacklist existed.