ABSTRACT
On October 18, 1947, Jack Warner, vice president in charge of production for Warner Brothers Pictures Inc., stepped in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) armed with information that would decimate Hollywood’s “radical” community. Facing a conservative panel bent on rooting out “subversive” elements in American society, Warner was extended the dubious honor of being HUAC’s first high profile “friendly witness.” A man that had made millions off the scripts written by several soon to be blacklistees, Warner blissfully provided “names” of so-called Hollywood Communists to protect his financial interests. Warner’s testimony spawned the evolution of the infamous Hollywood “blacklist” and the subsequent purge of progressivism within the film industry.
