Martin Berkeley
Martin Berkeley (August 21, 1904 − May 6, 1979) was a Hollywood and television screenwriter who cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s by naming dozens of Hollywood artists as Communists or Communist sympathizers.
Life and career
Martin Berkeley was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 21, 1904.
In the 1920s he performed in several productions on
He worked for MGM from 1940 to 1945 and for 20th Century Fox from 1945 until 1950.
In 1949 he was nominated for the
.HUAC testimony
After being identified to the House Un-American Activities Committee by another screenwriter,
Berkeley testified publicly on September 19, 1951, and in closed meetings of the committee in 1953. He told the committee that people in his role could not work Communist propaganda into scripts without it being noticed by film producers and studio executives.[9] He painted a particularly negative portrait of writer John Howard Lawson as the "grand Poo-Bah of the Communist movement" who "speaks with the voice of Stalin and the bells of the Kremlin."[10]
Berkeley was represented by Edward Bennett Williams, who had close ties to many enthusiasts of the anti-Communist campaign of the McCarthy era.[4]
Following his testimony, Berkeley became a member of an organization formed to expose Communist influence in the entertainment industry, the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA).[5]
He had an extensive second career in television, including the series Shotgun Slade, Tales of Wells Fargo, and Tombstone Territory.
Berkeley died on May 6, 1979, in Brandon, Florida.
A collection of his scripts and screenplays is on deposit with the Performing Arts Special Collections at
References
- ^ "Martin Berkeley". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ "Seen But Not Heard". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ "Roosty". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ a b c d Thomas, Evan (1991). The Man to See. NY: Touchstone. pp. 71ff.
- ^ a b c d Balio, Tino, ed. (1985). The American Film Industry, rev. edition. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 491.
- ISBN 9781433106446.
- ISBN 9780807818152.
- ^ Vaughn, Robert (1972). Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. NY: Proscenium Publishers. pp. 287–8.
- ^ Gerald, Horne (2006). The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten. University of California Press. pp. 273n72.
- ^ Gerald, Horne (2006). The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten. University of California Press. p. 2.
- ^ "Finding Aid for the Martin Berkeley Collection of Television and Motion Picture Scripts, ca. 1940-ca. 1960". Online Archive of California. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
External links
- Martin Berkeley at IMDb