BBC ON THIS DAY | 7 | 1958: Arthur Miller cleared of contempt.
Arthur Miller wouldn’t name names for HUAC and he was slapped with contempt – here his wife, Marilyn Monroe, reacts to the news in 1958 that Miller was cleared of charges. Now poppets, you will find I rarely stray into the political, but I’ll tell you something my dad told me (a guy who voted for Reagan and whose own father had spearheaded Republicans for Roosevelt), if you were young in the 1930’s the theory of Communism was very appealing, it was only as you matured that you figured the practice was far (oh so far) from the theory. Joe McCarthy and his witch hunting fellows terrorized Holllywood. Even Lucille Ball was forced to recant in a closed, sealed, session with the infamous committee, and my darlings – she was hardly a radical.
Rep. Donald Jackson, “We have no evidence Miss Ball is or was a member of the Communist Party.” 9/12/1953:
Lucille Ball’s voter registration, 1936 – it is said J. Edgar Hoover’s devoted following of the I LOVE LUCY show was her salvation:
