Professional Studies- The Hollywood Blacklist

While researching historical events in screenwriting's history, I came across a hugely influential and important issue in the development of modern screenwriting as we know it. The Hollywood Blacklist is a term used describe the events that happened in the late 1940's - late 1950's where screenwriters, actors, directors and even musicians were denied employment because of their suspected political beliefs. A blacklist of names was created making employers aware of which individuals not to employ and this directly damaged the careers of many screenwriters and directors working in the film industry at the time. The main political belief the blacklist targeted was those in membership with the communist party. A group of ten screenwriters and directors were citied for contempt of congress and blacklisted after refusing to answer questions about their alleged involvement with the communist party. This group was known as The Hollywood Ten and consisted of:

• Alvah Bessie - Screenwriter 
• Herbert Biberman - Screenwriter and director
• Lester Cole - Screenwriter 
• Edward Dmytryk - Director
• Ring Lardner Jr. - Screenwriter
• John Howard Lawson - Screenwriter
• Albert Maltz - Screenwriter 
• Samuel Ornitz - Screenwriter
• Adrian Scott - Producer and screenwriter
• Dalton Trumbo - Screenwriter

These ten were the most famous out of the many hundreds and hundreds that were blacklisted.

This helps show that screenwriters have been struggling throughout time to sustain their career and events like this make it harder and harder for them to become successful, providing evidence for my report and backing up my assumptions about the screenwriting business.