The Golden Age: 1948–59

One of the issues of the 1952 election was the fear of the spread of communism. Maoists had taken over mainland China in 1949, the same year the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb, and in 1950 former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury for having denied being a Russian agent when questioned by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. This committee, first established in 1938, was resurrected during this period to investigate people suspected of posing a threat to national security, and spectacular public hearings were held that added to the general state of paranoia. The entertainment industry was especially vulnerable to investigative efforts because the exposure of well-known persons was of great interest to the press and because many feared that the large audiences commanded by entertainers might make the consequences of their political intentions all the more insidious.

The paranoia fostered by the anticommunist movement became known as the “red scare.” It affected television differently from the way it had affected the movie industry. Because TV was financed by advertising dollars, anticommunist groups could get quick results by threatening to organize boycotts of the goods produced by the sponsor of a show that employed a “blacklisted” individual, whether a performer or a member of the production staff. Afraid of having their products associated with anything “un-American,” sponsors would often respond by either firing the suspect from the show they were producing or, if they were sponsoring a show produced by the network, asking the network to do so.

As early as 1947, three ex-FBI agents began publishing Counterattack: The Newsletter of Facts on Communism, which gathered the names of employees in the broadcasting industry who had appeared in publications, at rallies, or on petitions of a “leftist” nature. The publishers sent Counterattack to television executives and sponsors and called for those listed to be fired immediately and treated as traitors. By the 1949–50 season, Ed Sullivan, host of the very popular Toast of the Town, was using Counterattack to determine whether he would clear a guest for an appearance on his show. In June 1950 the publishers of Counterattack issued a compact user-friendly guide that listed 151 entertainment industry employees whom they suspected of communist activities. The pamphlet, Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, included many well-known writers (Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Parker, Arthur Miller), directors (Elia Kazan, Edward Dmytryk, Orson Welles), actors (Edward G. Robinson, Burgess Meredith, Ruth Gordon), composers (Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland), and singers (Lena Horne, Pete Seeger). Decision makers at advertising agencies and networks read the report, which caused the casts and staff of several shows to be changed and which destroyed several careers.

One owner of a chain of supermarkets threatened to condemn—by placing a sign on product displays—any companies that supported programs with employees whose names had appeared in the Counterattack publications. Networks, advertising agencies, and sponsors all became concerned about the negative effect these and other tactics might have on their businesses. The networks began to make efforts to stop the problem at its source, hiring special employees to investigate and approve each potential writer, director, actor, or anyone else who was an applicant for a position.

Responding to McCarthy

Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, made anticommunism his issue and became the “star” of the anticommunist frenzy. He made spectacular accusations in public, claiming at one point that a spy ring of “card-carrying communists” was operating in the State Department with the full knowledge of the secretary of state. McCarthyism became a watchword of the times, referring to the blacklisting, guilt-by-inference, and harassment tactics that the senator used. Although McCarthy used the media to disseminate his beliefs, it was also the media that accelerated his downfall.

Edward R. Murrow had established his reputation broadcasting radio news reports from besieged London during World War II. In 1951 he and his partner, Fred W. Friendly, began coproducing a television news series, See It Now (CBS, 1951–58). Murrow also hosted the show, presenting in-depth reports of current news, and in 1953 he and Friendly turned their attentions to anticommunism. On Oct. 20, 1953, they broadcast a story on Lieut. Milo Radulovich, who had been dismissed from the U.S. Air Force because his father and sister had been accused of being communist sympathizers. CBS refused to advertise the upcoming episode, which Murrow and Friendly promoted by purchasing their own ad in The New York Times. Later in the same season, the pair took on McCarthy himself in one of the most notorious news broadcasts in television history. The entire March 9, 1954, episode of the program addressed McCarthy’s recent activities, mostly as seen and heard through film and audio clips of his speeches. Stringing together McCarthy’s own words, the show exposed him as a liar, a hypocrite, and a bully.

Although public opinion about McCarthy did not completely change overnight, the broadcast was the beginning of the end for the senator. The following month, on April 22, hearings began regarding McCarthy’s accusations of subversive activity in the army. McCarthy’s charges, which were mostly fabricated, did not hold up to close scrutiny, and the Senate voted to condemn his actions. The ABC network, still without a daytime schedule of programming, was the only network to carry the “Army-McCarthy” hearings in full. The ratings were surprisingly high, and McCarthy’s appearance and mannerisms—seen in the intimate closeups made possible by television—turned most viewers against the senator.