Waldorf Statement Launches Hollywood Blacklist, Studio Executives Pledge to Fire Hollywood Ten

Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, issues the two-page Waldorf Statement on November 25, 1947, following a closed-door meeting by forty-eight motion picture company executives at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on November 24, 1947. The statement is prompted by the stormy HUAC hearings into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood, particularly the confrontation with the Hollywood Ten who refused to cooperate with the committee. Forty-eight of the most powerful men in America meet in secrecy at 11 AM on Monday, November 24, 1947, in a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria. These studio executives include Louis B. Mayer and Eddie Mannix from MGM, Harry Cohn from Columbia Pictures, Y. Frank Freeman and Barney Balaban from Paramount, Spyros Skouras from 20th Century Fox, Nicholas Schenck from Loews Theatres, William Goetz from Universal-International, Dore Schary from RKO, Albert Warner from Warner Bros., Samuel Goldwyn, and former Academy president Walter Wanger. Also present are MPAA attorneys Paul McNutt and James Byrnes, former Secretary of State under President Truman.

The two-day meeting is heated, with no formal minutes kept because no paper trail is wanted. MPAA bouncers block the entryway to the conference room, keeping reporters at bay. Schary, Goldwyn, Wanger and Mannix dissent from the majority decision. Eddie Mannix unexpectedly argues that he opposes firing the ten men, stating there is a California state law prohibiting employers from firing anyone because of political ideas and that he will not break the law. Despite these objections, the executives issue their declaration stating: “We will forthwith discharge or suspend without compensation those in our employ, and we will not re-employ any of the 10 until such time as he is acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declares under oath that he is not a Communist.”

The Waldorf Statement officially launches the Hollywood Blacklist that will exist over the next decade, effectively establishing systematic political persecution in the entertainment industry. The declaration is never officially disavowed by the MPAA, with the organization later stating “Unfortunately, at this time the information you are seeking is not available to the public” when asked if it had ever voted to repudiate or apologize for the Waldorf Declaration. Many in Hollywood who belonged to communist organizations or held communist or socialist sympathies face a difficult choice: cooperate with HUAC and inform on colleagues, or refuse to testify and effectively end their careers. The blacklist has a chilling effect on social criticism, with Hollywood studio movies dealing with social issues declining from 28 percent in 1947 to 18 percent in 1949, and only about 9 percent by 1954. A stain on the history of U.S. democracy and the entertainment industry, the blacklist demonstrates how corporate executives willingly participated in suppressing dissent and establishing ideological conformity to protect their economic interests and avoid Congressional retaliation, establishing the template for corporate complicity in political repression that continues through the present day.