Red Influence In Movie Industry

Northern Advocate, 25 October 1947, Page 7

Red Influence In Movie Industry

WASHINGTON, Fri. (11 a.m.).—The movie cartoonist Walt Disney told the Congressional Un-American Activities Committee today that Communists took over his studios during a 1937 jurisdictional strike and threatened to make a “dustbowl” out of it. Disney said he held out and finally cleared them out of his studio and it was now “100 per cent American.” Under questioning, Disney testified that his cartoon creations enjoyed worldwide popularity except in Russia because “I can’t do business with them.” The committee during the morningsession heard the testimony of Mrs Lela Rogers, mother of Ginger Rogers, who said that the Communists had penetrated every branch of the movie business, particularly writing. She recommended that they be outlawed. x NOT OVER-RUN The actors Robert Montgomery, Gary Cooper, George Murphy and Ronald Reagan were witnesses yesterday before the committee. Murphy, Montgomery and Reagan agreed that an erroneous impression had been created in the first three days of the inquiry that Hollywood was over-run with Communists. Murphy, who is a past president of the Screen Actors’ Guild, said that Communists made up less than 1 per cent of the guild’s membership.