4. Hearts and minds

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and allies like Ayn Rand were convinced that Hollywood was infested with communists. Now they started scouring the movies themselves for evidence of propaganda. Anti-communist figures in the movie business, including John Wayne and Gary Cooper, create the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals to counter groups like the Writers Guild. Even American classics like It’s a Wonderful Life came under FBI scrutiny. Studios began to feel the pressure – even changing seemingly innocuous scripts to avoid political heat.

Archive:

The Locket, directed by John Brahm for RKO Pictures, 1946

Robert F Wagner on National Labour Relations Act, Labor Comes of Age, ABC Television, 1965

Ayn Rand interviewed by Mike Wallace, ABC Television, 1959

Interviews with Dalton Trumbo, UCLA Department of Communication Archive, 1972

Woman of the Year, directed by George Stevens for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1942

Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood Show, 14 January 1951

It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra for RKO Pictures, 1946