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Library U - Un-American Activities: Hollywood and the Blacklist Era

Name: Library U – Un-American Activities: Hollywood and the Blacklist Era
Start: 2025-11-23T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-23T00:00:00+00:00
Location: Bainbridge Island Senior/Community Center

Presented by LibraryU and Bainbridge Island Senior/Community Center at Bainbridge Island Senior/Community Center, Bainbridge Island WA

Nov 23 2025

Library U - Un-American Activities: Hollywood and the Blacklist Era

A slide talk by film historian ROBERT HORTON on the McCarthy Era crackdown on Hollywood.

The Blacklist Era and Hollywood. A Humanities Washington presentation by film critic and historian Robert Horton.

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” The answer to this question—or the refusal to answer it—cast hundreds of lives into turmoil at the dawn of the Cold War. The Red Scare that erupted in the 1940s allowed the House Committee on Un-American Activities to grab headlines by parading prominent Hollywood figures before the cameras.This presentation, illustrated with film clips, tells the stories from this heartbreaking and scandalous era, and how notables such as Humphrey Bogart, Elia Kazan, and Charlie Chaplin were swept up in the frenzy. We’ll also ask a question: with today’s politics at a boiling point, are we living in such a period again?

The final program in Library U's Fall 2025 Humanities Speaker Series. Co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Public Library and Humanities Washington.