Category: History

U.S. Treasury Secretary, William McAdoo, asked what was considered to be the three biggest Hollywood A-listers to pitch World War I Liberty Bonds. The answer was actor, director, writer, producer, composer, Charlie Chaplin; Mary Pickford ("America's Sweetheart"), and swashbuckling actor, Douglas Fairbanks. On March 28, 1920, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who had been secret lovers due to their earlier marriages, were married after their divorces from previous spouses.

The war in Europe had been raging for almost three years when America entered in April of 1917. Neutrality had been stressed for so long, but President Woodrow Wilson's reelection the previous November had hinged on the fact that he had kept the country out of war. Yet when increased German submarine warfare against American ships made the flow of trade questionable, and the boost the war had brought to the American economy was endangered, the Wilson decided they could no longer afford to stay out.
However, it proved to be a challenge to shift popular sentiment and simply declaring war did not bring support from the population at large. It was estimated that one million men were needed to fight and yet in the first six weeks, only 73,000 enlisted. The draft was instituted, and the government created an unprecedented propaganda campaign.

When the results of the first two bond drives proved disappointing, Treasury Secretary William McAdoo reached out to Hollywood for help. Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks all agreed to jump on the band wagon. Adolph Zukor was named to head the committee on Bond Subscriptions and immediately pledged that Famous Players Lasky would buy $100,000 worth of bonds. No one was going to be more patriotic than the Hollywood film industry which was led primarily by immigrants from Eastern Europe.

When The Great War ended, the total number of military and civilian casualties in World was around 40 million. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. But, was it worth it.

Dylan did, though, preform at the Isle of Wight concert in 1969 with John & Yoko, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the audience. It was Dylan's only full concert appearance in seven-and-a-half years.

"Give Peace a Chance" was written and recorded by John Lennon & Yoko Ono during their 'BED-IN' campaign for Peace, held in Montreal, Canada at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969. Singing along on the chorus was Tommy Smothers (also on guitar with Lennon), Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg and whoever happened to be present. But why a "bed-in" for peace? Well, as the most publicized couple on the planet, they decided they would use that publicity for something that was important to them: Peace. "We knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers. We decided to utilize the space we would occupy with a commercial for peace, " Lennon later commented. "We would sell our product, which we call 'peace.' And to sell a product you need a gimmick, and the gimmick we thought was 'bed,' because bed was the easiest way of doing it, because we're lazy."

After actor John Wayne spoke at the 1968 Republican Nation Convention many people assumed he would seek political office. But he only stood as a figurehead for overt nationalism, machismo and bravery.

Before he was John Wayne, his name was Marion Morrison; a USC football ball player, who, along with other players, would find work as extras in Hollywood films. He stood out due to his 6 feet 4+¹⁄₂ inches tall size, and the camera liked his facial features. A broken collarbone injury curtailed his athletic career; and he lost his athletic scholarship, and without funds, had to leave the university. Film director, John Ford,  hired Wayne as a prop boy and extra. He eventually played leading roles in numerous B movies during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns, without becoming a major name. John Ford’s  “Stagecoach” (1939) made Wayne a mainstream star, and he starred in 142 motion pictures altogether.

When John Ford arrived at his film set each morning, he would explain to the cast and crew what would be shot that day. When the crew had earlier explained that Wayne had been using his star power to bully young actors, in particular, vulnerable, female actors, Ford would inform the group that John Wayne was a coward, who ducked the WW 2 draft.

Years later, when Ford was made aware that John Wayne has spoken at the Republican Nation Convention, he purportedly said, “The last time I saw that big, dumb, son-of-a-bitch, he couldn’t even spell ‘politics.’”

John Ford is considered by many film scholars as the greatest American film director of all time. Traveling Boy.com selected Ford as the 14th best director, but the competition was stiff.

In a career of more than 50 years, Ford directed over 130 films between 1917 and 1970 (although most of his silent films are now lost), and received six Academy Awards including a record four wins for Best Director for "The Informer" (1935), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), and "The Quiet Man" (1952).

Orel Leonard Hershiser IV (born September 16, 1958) is a former baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He later became a pitching coach for the Texas Rangers from 2002 to 2005 and a broadcast color analyst for the Dodgers. He is also a professional poker player, but not a politician.

Bill Bradley starred for the NBA New York Knicks over 10 seasons from 1967-77. He made the 1973 All-Star team and helped the Knicks win the NBA championship in 1970 and 1973. Bradley served three terms as a Democratic senator from New Jersey.

Jack Kemp played for the Buffalo Bills from 1962-69. He led the Bills to two AFL championships in 1964 and 1965. Following his football career, Kemp served as a member of the New York House of Representatives from 1971-89.

Michelle Wingshan Kwan is a retired American competitive figure skater and diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Belize. In figure skating Kwan is a two-time Olympic medalist (silver in 1998, bronze in 2002), a five-time world champion (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003) and a nine-time U.S. champion (1996, 1998-2005).

Jesses Ventura became a professional wrestler after serving in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. After his retirement from wrestling, Ventura became the mayor of Brooklyn Park from 1991-1996 and then was governor of Minnesota from 1999-2003.

The film stars Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo,, Diane Lane on left, Helen Mirren on right, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and David James Elliott as John Wayne. The film follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Courtesy tvinsider.com.

James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 - September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including "Roman Holiday" (1953), "Exodus," "Spartacus" (both 1960), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten,[1] he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.

In late September, HUAC subpoenaed 79 individuals on a claim that they were subversive and had injected Communist propaganda into their films. Although never substantiating this claim, the investigators charged the individuals with contempt of Congress when they refused to answer questions about their membership in the Screen Writers Guild and Communist Party. The committee demanded they admit their political beliefs and name names of other Communists. Nineteen of those refused to co-operate, and due to illnesses, scheduling conflicts, and exhaustion from the chaotic hearings, only ten appeared before the committee. These men became known as the Hollywood Ten, which included Trumbo, Alvah Bessie, Herbert J. Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Edward Dmytryk, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, and Adrian Scott.

"The Hollywood Ten," a 1950 documentary, gives us a closer look at the ten blacklisted film writers and directors who defied the government and the sentiments of their day by refusing to testify during the HUAC anti-Communist hearings. John Berry, who directed the documentary, was blacklisted himself upon its release (Ironweed Films): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taancRcLQ8o

It was difficult and confusing time for many patriotic U.S citizens. From 1942 - 1945, the communist Soviet Union had been our most important ally during World War II, responsible for over 70% German Wehrmacht dead, but lost approximately 28 million Red Army soldiers and citizens. After the defeat of the Wehrmacht by the Red Army and Russian citizens at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942 - 1943), Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, privately said that Germany would ultimately lose the war. And then they did when the Red Army stormed into Berlin and the war in Western Europe ended on May 8, 1945,

But, in 1947, the Cold War, a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, began two years after the end of World War II. Many U.S citizens were not exactly sure what was happening inside the closed, police state of the Soviet Union, led by tyrant Joseph Stalin, from 1924 until his death in 1953. One minute they were our ally, and now they were our enemy.

Dalton Trumbo continued working clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms or other authors' names. After completing his sentence in the federal penitentiary, Trumbo sold his ranch and moved his family to Mexico City with Hugo Butler and his wife Jean Rouverol, who had also been blacklisted. In Mexico, Trumbo wrote 30 scripts (under pseudonyms) for B-movie studios. The classic 1950 film noir, Gun Crazy, directed by Joseph H. Lewis, was adapted from a short story by MacKinlay Kantor. Kantor agreed to be the front for Trumbo's screenplay. Trumbo's role in the screenplay was not revealed until 1992.

When Trumbo was given public screen credit for both "Exodus," by director and producer, Otto Preminger, and "Spartacus" (directed by Stanley Kubrick), due to the insistence of actor and producer, Kirk Douglas, in 1960, it marked the beginning of the end of the Hollywood Blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters. He finally was given full credit by the Writers' Guild for "Roman Holiday" in 2011, nearly 60 years after the fact, and 35 years after his death.