Hollywood Ten Released from Prison but Remain Blacklisted, Industry Persecution Continues

In early 1951, the Hollywood Ten—screenwriters and directors cited for contempt of Congress in 1947 for refusing to answer HUAC’s questions about Communist Party membership—were released after serving prison terms ranging from six months to one year. Their freedom from incarceration, however, brought no freedom to work. The entertainment industry’s blacklist ensured they remained unemployable under their own names for years to come.

The ten were Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. All had been successful Hollywood professionals before their citations. Their crime was invoking the First Amendment rather than the Fifth when refusing to answer HUAC’s questions about their political beliefs and associations. The Supreme Court declined to review their convictions.

Upon release, the ten found themselves pariahs. Dalton Trumbo, who had been Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter, was reduced to writing pseudonymously for a fraction of his former salary. He continued producing quality work—winning Academy Awards for “Roman Holiday” (1953) and “The Brave One” (1956) under assumed names—but could not claim credit publicly. Ring Lardner Jr. moved to England, where he continued writing without the blacklist’s constraints.

Only Edward Dmytryk broke from the group. In 1951, he appeared before HUAC, recanted his earlier position, identified 26 alleged Communists, and was restored to the industry. His capitulation intensified divisions among blacklisted artists and demonstrated the “informer” path HUAC offered to those willing to name names.

The Hollywood Ten’s imprisonment was intended to intimidate others into cooperation, and it largely succeeded. Subsequent HUAC witnesses faced a stark choice: inform on colleagues, invoke the Fifth Amendment (which carried its own career-ending stigma), or go to prison. The ten’s experience demonstrated that the blacklist was not merely a private industry decision but a coordinated system of punishment for political beliefs, enforced through imprisonment for those who resisted.